Scream (1996)
In 1996, Scream released to theatres. It was created by Nightmare on Elm Street creator Wes Craven. Scream was a huge change in slasher films. People thought slashers were becoming stupid and tropey. People were making fun of the way that people in horror movies would choose to make stupid decisions and get themselves killed off. Scream was the first slasher that put that kind of commentary into a movie itself. The characters in Scream were self-aware, and knew the tropes of typical slashers. That brought new archetypes too, such as Randy Meeks, the horror movie nerd, or Tatum Riley, the feministic witty girl. Ever since the release of Scream, slasher movies had become more meta and realistic, which became the death of 80's slasher tropes.
How Scream Shaped the Future
There are a ton of other things that Scream did that was unlike any other slasher movies. They heavily showed off Drew Barrymore in promos and press, only for her to die in the cold open, which was a huge shock. Scream also started the craze for whodunnit slashers, where the killer is someone thought to be a friend or aquaintence to the protagonist. In the movie, Sidney Prescott, the final girl, was dating Billy Loomis, who ended up being the killer. However, another twist was the fact that there were two killers, with the second one being Stu Macher. Because of Scream, modern day slashers tend to make their characters more self-aware, and plenty of movies play off the whodunnit element, like Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) or Thanksgiving (2023). To this day, Scream continues to have more and more movies, as Scream 7 just released and Scream 8 is already in production.
