3) Scream
There’s no arguing with the fact that the late, great Wes Craven is one of the most important figures in horror history. Not only did he produce one of the flagship horrors of the 1980s in Nightmare on Elm Street, but he then rejuvenated the genre a decade later with the brilliantly meta Scream.
It took someone who knew the slasher genre inside out to helm this complete deconstruction of it. A film where the masked killer asks his victims what their favourite scary movie is and the main characters try and survive by following the rules of a horror film. Interestingly, Scream also adds an element of its own – slashers aren’t usually whodunnits but this one keeps the identity of its killer a secret.
Scream is more playful and subversive than overtly comic, but there are enough wry laughs and knowing smiles to be had from the film for it to count to be counted as a horror comedy. However it’s classified, though, it’s unarguably one of the most successful horrors over the past twenty years.