Single-handedly resuscitating the horror genre, as well as the sagging career of its director, Scream, the 1996 sleeper written by then-Hollywood neophyte Kevin Williamson, brought in a staggering $103 million at the box office and inaugurated a new wave of "teenie kill pics." Self-consciously flagging the hackneyed conventions of post-Halloween stalk-and-slash horror movies, Scream contrived to grip audiences by mixing genuine scares with affectionate spoofing. Originally titled Scary Movie, the name was changed amid concerns that middle America might think this implied it was a comedy. Beyond the startle effects and the self-parody, however, there lies in Scream a scathing critique of the way America's mass-media representatives exploit tragedy for profit. In this respect, Scream more closely resembles Oliver Stone's serial-killer farce Natural Born Killers (1994) than it does Sean Cunningham's stalker classic Friday the 13th (1980).

After unsuccessful stints as an actor and as an assistant director of music videos...