All ‘Scream’ Movies and Series, Ranked

Ever since audiences were first introduced to the seemingly sleepy Northern California town of Woodsboro, the meta-horror landscape was forever changed. With the release of Scream in 1996, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson reinvented the slasher genre, blending genuine terror with razor-sharp self-awareness.

What began as the story of a masked killer terrorizing a small town quickly evolved into something more: a franchise that examined not only violence, but the rules, expectations, and cultural obsession surrounding horror itself. With each film, the cinematic rules of war when it came to slasher pics were re-examined and picked apart, creating a delightful parody that both paid tribute to the genre and fit snugly within it.