Throughout the ’80s, horror fans were given countless stories of masked murderers wreaking havoc on suburban teens, with figures like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees earning such pop-culture notoriety that they became more like caricatures of an entire genre than maniacs who could strike fear into the hearts of audiences. The early ’90s saw the genre world pivot into the realm of psychological thrillers with successes like The Silence of the Lambs and Jacob’s Ladder, almost exterminating the effectiveness of the slasher subgenre for good. In 1996, director Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson delivered audiences Scream, which managed to not only be a compelling murder-mystery in its own right, but even found ways to mock the tired tropes of slashers and turned the world of horror cinema on its head. With this year’s Scream, audiences once again witness the effectiveness of the subgenre when it’s firing on all cylinders, yet will also remember the inherent challenges of attempting to reimagine a formulaic concept.
