12 Defining Moments From The Scream Franchise

3. The Movie Within The Movie Within The Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAAq7E573OI Scream 4 is a shockingly great return to form, possibly the best out of the three sequels, and its opening sequence is absolutely brilliant. 10 years after the last film, Wes Craven is aware that it€™s much harder to scare audiences these days, as they feel they€™ve seen everything before. €œA bunch of articulate teens sit around and deconstruct horror movies until Ghostface kills them one by one? It€™s been done to death." The film opens in the the typical way with two teenagers getting threatening phone calls from the killer, but it turns out this is actually just a scene from Stab 6, and the two actual main characters are watching that movie. Already your expectations are turned on their head. Then just as one of these girls complains about how predictable the Stab (re: Scream) movies are, out of nowhere her friend viscously murders her. €œDid that surprise you?€ It€™s clear that this is actually Wes Craven himself talking to the audience, shattering his own formula and offering something brand new this time. Then the movie pans out again, and this was all actually just another movie within the movie that the real main characters were watching. It€™s an incredible and surprising opening sequence that deconstructs the franchise itself and completely messes with expectations right off the bat.