On this episode of History of the ’90s, Scream, the movie directed by legendary director Wes Craven gave new life to the horror genre and inspired a generation of teen movies. In the mid 90’s, the horror movie genre was almost dead, thanks in part to a slew of badly received sequels to iconic franchise like Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. Then Scream, with its “Ghostface” serial killer, slashed its way into theaters. Scream was like no other horror movie before because it wasn’t just terrifying, it was also incredibly self-aware. From the opening scene when Drew Barrymore is asked, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” it was pretty clear this wasn’t what we were used to. Scream was unique. The characters knew about slasher movies and ironically recognized they were in the middle of one. This episode looks back at how Scream came to be, including the little-known story of its inspiration. Also did you know that scream was originally called Scary Movie? But studio execs thought
