"It all began with a scream over 9-1-1...and ended in a bloodbath that has rocked the town of Woodsboro."

Raised the bar and changed the entire game just by playing said game by its genre's rules. I'm rather confident in saying that had this not come around, the entire slew of fun 90s slashers would not have occupied so much of said decade, ergo possibly a longer gap before reaching the recent horror wave we've been getting of late. A watershed moment for the genre that could use another rebirth in the coming years. It's been at least a decade since I first watched this—unless you count various Scary Movie rewatches in between—and I have no idea why I didn't give it a higher initial rating. My guess is because I saw it as a kid and didn't have as full a grasp on the genre machinations, deconstruction, and references as I do now. It truly is one of the best slashers and a revolution for the tropes and meta referential plot narratives of the horror genre. A pre-Behind the Mask + Cabin in the Woods, and just a damn endlessly rewatchable delight! Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy are still the highlights of the cast for me, but a massive shout-out to Neve Campbell's capable and actually fighting back final girl (and the use of Nick Cave & the Bad Seed's "Red Right Hand").

Rewatching this increases my impressed admiration for how perfect of a parody Scary Movie is, just as rewatching Scary Movie makes me love Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer even more. That "Wes Carpenter" sure knows how to make em, just as 90s Kevin Williamson sure writes them. Thanks to the Horror Hunt/Hooptober double whammy, I'm aiming to finally complete a handful of long overdue horror staple franchises; Halloween's coffin (so far) is finally gunned down and blown up. Texas Chainsaw and Friday the 13th, your days are numbered.

PS: Killer intro: ALL-TIMER.
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CAMPUS HORROR