6) Scream
It’s the original meta horror film, often copied and never equalled.
Director Wes Craven kills off his characters with uninhibited glee here, referencing everything from his own films to those of his slasher-movie counterparts while building a truly scary, truly funny horror series all its own. Teenagers die, blood comes in buckets, a killer calls up and asks “what’s your favorite scary movie?” and you’d better not get the answer wrong.
But underneath the humor and horror, Craven manages to sneak in some serious (and unanswerable) questions about the place of horror in the cultural zeitgeist. Bending and even breaking the very rules that Craven and his fellow slasher directors established to begin with, Scream and its sequels offer trenchant commentary on horror, its contradictions, and where it could possibly go next.
This is the perfect time of year to watch Scream – or, indeed, the entire Scream series, which Netflix currently has on streaming (all but the underrated Scre4m). Since Craven passed away this year, it’s also a chance to experience one of the great works of a horror master.
Don’t worry if you don’t know the rules; you’ll learn them along the way.