The horror genre was really struggling by the mid-90s: all the major franchises had pretty much run out of steam by this point, and a fresh, smart perspective was sorely needed. Enter Wes Craven, who following his successful A Nightmare On Elm Street meta-comedy New Nightmare, created a new comedy horror franchise that took to task the tired genre tropes everyone was thoroughly tired of watching. Best Moment: The opening death of Drew Barrymore, which at the time of release was a major twist, given that Drew was widely believed to be the protagonist of the piece. Instead, she's brutally murdered in the first 15 minutes, setting a tone of unpredictability throughout. Sequels: Three sequels have followed: Scream 2 is arguably even better than the first, Scream 3 disappointingly falls victim to the same cliches the series is supposed to be mocking, while the belated Scream 4 was surprisingly successful at making fun of more recent horror trends.