10 Best Horror Movies With No Supernatural Elements
4. Scream
Wes Craven’s 1996 postmodern masterpiece is best remembered for its comedic dismantling of the horror/slasher genre, and rightly so. The ingenious script shows fright fans how the sausage is made, laying out the rules for the format as the film unfolds.
Beyond that, though, it’s just a downright fantastic horror film. The plot, by design, is a familiar one. A year after a brutal murder, a small town is once again plagued by a killer, who picks off carefully chosen targets while demonstrating a deep knowledge of the horror canon.
Every aspect of the film is perfectly chosen, from the shocking death of lone megastar Drew Barrymore in the opening minutes to the script’s dedication to its own carefully laid out rules (we’re told that, if someone dies offscreen, they’re not dead - that bears fruit) to the casting. Neve Campbell is the finest Final Girl since Jamie Lee Curtis, and Matthew Lillard’s performance is genuinely exceptional.
The sequels focussed more heavily on the genre breakdown than actually functioning as a great slasher movie, and unsurprisingly the returns diminished. Scream is true lightning in a bottle stuff.