Scream (1996)

We can play favorites all we want, but the truth is that the first Scream is the best one. I doubt one will ever come along that’ll outdo it, even if I find the escalating lunacy and campiness of its several sequels enthralling in its own right. What other franchise is constantly mocking itself while providing scares and commentary on the genre and the movie business?

The first Scream is the gift that keeps on giving. The opening with Drew Barrymore is timeless, not least of all for being the genesis of the line, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” Scream gave us the best final girl ever in Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. It gave us the incredible homoerotic sexual tension between Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). It gave us freakin’ Ghostface, the most iconic slasher villain since Jason Voorhees, Jamie Kennedy as a horror film aficionado trying to predict and get ahead of the slaughter that descends upon the town of Woodsboro, and one of the most mesmerizing finales of a horror flick ever. It’s got gore, humor, and a star-studded cast. Scream will simply always be one of the best horror films you can possibly watch now or ever. — Moises Taveras