Wes Craven is an American film director, writer, and producer known for the makings of his horror movies, more particularly his slasher movies. One of his movies, “Scream”, was made in 1996 and starred Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. He re-invented the rules of slasher-horror movies with this classic horror which manages to be clever, funny, and still scary. 

“Scream” follows a teenage girl as a masked-knife maniac stalks her. During the span of the movie, the characters make fun of horror movies and talk about the ‘new rules’ that need to be followed in order to survive in a horror movie. Craven makes “Scream” into a bit of a self-parody as the characters claim to know the ‘rules’ and then break all of them. He also makes fun of the other horror films he’s made such as “Nightmare on Elm Street”.

 The killer in “Scream” is a mystery to the characters, but they do know that it must be someone they know. During the movie, the audience and the characters believe that the killer is someone who has seen one too many horror movies and now kills based on the ‘rules’ of horror films. But at the end of the movie, it explains the real motive for killing and takes on a whole different plot twist.

 “I mean did Norman Bates have a motive? Did we ever find out why Hannibal Lector liked to eat people? Don’t think so. See it’s a lot scarier when there’s no motive.” This is just one of the many quotes Craven uses to dissect horror movies. 

“Scream” has redefined the expectations of not only horror movies but also all sequels and trilogies. Throughout all of the “Scream” movies, they redefine the ‘rules’ of horror films. Overall, “Scream” is a very entertaining film that takes on a unique approach to slasher-horror movies.