10 Exact Moments That Changed The Horror Movie Genre Forever

9. Scream - The Rules

scream rules
Dimension Films

“There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie.”

That statement from Jamie Kennedy’s Randy in 1996’s Scream rang so true with so many horror hounds. Horror fans had become tired and fed up of seeing the same beats in the majority of films as studios and filmmakers jumped on any successful concept or twist and oversaturated the industry with formulaic, generic trash.

Randy’s rules on surviving a horror offering called for no sex, no drink, no drugs, and never, ever say that you’ll be right back. Of course, Scream followed this formula itself, yet in a meta way that poked fun at what horror had become.

By poking fun at the overplayed tropes and bad habits that the horror genre had so often continued to lazily fall back on, Wes Craven and Scream turned a mirror on the genre and forced it to re-evaluate itself.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.