10 Best Comfort Horror Movies

Scream (1996) is the movie that rejuvenated the slasher genre, defined horror for a generation of fans, and ushered in the kind of meta humour that has permeated popular cinema over the past 20-odd years.

In case you've forgotten, Neve Campbell plays Sidney Prescott, a high schooler with a dead mother and a deadbeat boyfriend, who is the target of the new killer on the block, Ghostface. Teaming up with David Arquette's police officer Dewey and Courtney Cox's hack journalist Gale Weathers, Sidney foils the killer's – or, as it turns out, killers' – plans and returns peace to the leafy suburb of Woodsboro.

While Scream has lost none of its appeal in the 26 years since its release – something evidenced by the numerous sequels and TV show – it is no longer the scariest thing since sliced brains. What once was edgy and extreme is now horror comfort food, taking us back time and again to Woodsboro High, where the fun is plentiful, the characters are familiar and pretty much everyone who matters is safe (especially Dewey).