8 Horror Movies That Broke All The Rules

Of course, no dissection of the horror film industry would be complete without a hearty nod to Wes Craven's Scream, since it's the film that tells you every trick in the book before ripping the pages out and starting a fire with the scraps.

Considering it's got its very own character built in to tell you exactly what should be going on at any given point - the inner horror nerd within all of us, Randy - it's pretty easy to see how the film autopsies itself on screen, proving to be one of the most effective movies that's literally a spoof.

Horror films are supposed to keep you guessing, and the character's aren't supposed to know they're in them - but does Scream give two sh*ts about that? No, it does not. And, of course, it's biggest rule that it manages to obliterate in the closing sequences is that there's always one iconic killer. Instead of a lone slasher taking out the residents of Springwood, we get both Stu and Billy, working together as the central villain Ghostface as revealed in a literal double whammy.

If there's a film that knows how to break the rules, it's going to be directed by Wes Craven - the man that wrote them all in the first place.