Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror

The Scream film franchise reinvented and revolutionized the horror genre, according to this thorough debut study from entertainment journalist Cullins. When Kevin Williamson wrote the screenplay for the original movie in the mid-1990s, the horror genre had imploded since its 1970s and 1980s heyday and was rife with uninspired content. Cullins explains how Williamson changed the game by crafting a self-aware film, one that blended comedy and horror so audiences would “laugh with the characters instead of at them.” Moviegoers relished the film’s surprise twists, like the killing of the character played by Drew Barrymore, the film’s biggest star, in the opening scene, and disturbing plot: a masked serial killer targets high schoolers in a suburban town. Cullins explores how the sequels employed metacommentary; Scream 3, for example, was a slasher film about a slasher film, filled with critiques of Hollywood’s mistreatment of women. The series kept going (the seventh is in development) because, Cullins explains, Williamson “had created a brilliant concept that could be picked up and reset in any place and any time.” Filled with poignant analyses and extensive interviews with the cast and crew—including David Arquette, Neve Campbell, and Parker Posey—Cullins’s tribute makes clear the staying power of the films. Scream fans will have a blast. (Aug.)