3. Scream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTWf9QGdJCQ Number of films: 4 Wes Craven continues his relentless assault on innocent teenagers twelve years on with the film that managed to reincarnate a genre single handed. Scream was released in 1996, at a time where the slasher genre was dead - truly good films were far and few between and the newest releases were flooding bargain bins at Blockbuster. Along comes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson with their new masterpiece. Scream was a perfect mix of postmodernism and pastiche, blending a strict following of the cliches of slasher films with a rebellious satire of them. It was intelligent, well produced and a resounding success. Its immediate sequels followed the parody effect not quite as spectacularly, but still maintained a great story and all the red stuff you needed for great sequels. "The body count is always bigger, the death scenes are always much more elaborate." Yet all the meta jokes in the world couldn't save Scream from slowly decreasing in quality, so the films remained a trilogy, yet Craven and Williamson were not quite done. Eleven years later they released Scream 4, and returned to the classic borderline-parody of the original. The film received mixed reviews, as did the similarly satire-based Cabin in the Woods the following year, but the film was acclaimed by every fan who realised and understood the references and could go along for the ride. Scream was the franchise made by die hard slasher fans for the die hard slasher fans.