Scream (1996)
Cost $15 Million, B.O. $173 Million.
By the late 90’s the horror genre seemed to be as dead as its subject matter. The barouque heights of the slasher boom of the 80’s had seen the genre go far beyond parody that it seemed as dated an artifact as hair metal. But Wes Craven found a clever, uniquely 90’s take on the genre with Kevin Williamson’s clever script. No longer would characters behave as if they had never seen a horror movie, the teens of the day were exceptionally pop culturally literate and could not be expected to “go check on that noise in the garage” without at least making a meta-joke about it. For better or worse, horror, with a 90’s does of irony, was back.
