There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a Scream movie.

When the original Scream was released over 25 years ago, it ran with the horror movies tropes that preceded it and became a self-aware scary movie that kept audiences guessing from the very first scene by pulling a trick that only Hitchcock had successfully accomplished prior. In fact, there are so many references to scary movies that the film franchise plays like a love letter to the genre. And so, after a couple of decades and four sequels, Scream continues to play by the rules while finding ways to turn them on their head.

How has Scream evolved since the days when teens with cell phones caused suspicion and movies were watched on VHS tapes? How did they use the same aspects of the original film over and over again and still remain relevant?

Let’s look at the original Scream from 25 years ago and how it’s changed, and not changed, since.

Now would be a good time to mention that there are plenty of spoiler alerts coming up, but all from the older films, not the 2022 version.

The original Scream (1996)

Drew Barrymore was billed as one of the stars of Scream, a new horror film by one of the genre’s masters: Wes Craven. She had the most acting experience in the cast, starting with her role as the younger sister in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. And now — spoiler alert! — Craven was going to kill her in the first scene of his movie by a knife-wielding, Ghostface mask-wearing psychopath who uses a voice-altering device to shield their identity.

While co-stars Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox had hit shows on TV and appeared in a few movies prior, what Craven did was put audiences on its toes and indicate that everyone is fair game including Monica from Friends or Julia from Party of Five.

But horror movies need something other than a surprise murder in the first 15 minutes. Scream’s originality was found in how the characters saw themselves in their own version of a horror movie and were subject to its rules.

The film follows Sidney Prescott (Campbell) a high schooler who tragically lost her mother one year before the story starts. Now, a killer who uses scary movies as part of a deadly game is hunting down Sidney and her friends. Along for the ride is Gale Weathers (Cox), a fame-seeking reporter who confronts Sidney about the possibility that the man she sent to prison for her mom’s murder may be innocent.

The famous rules of surviving a horror film come from Randy (Jamie Kennedy), a horror movie nerd who works at a video store and goes to school with the other characters. He constantly shares his theories of living in a scary movie and who the likely suspects are, culminating in a speech about the rules to surviving a horror film.

The rules to surviving an original horror film according to Randy:

1. You can never have sex. Sex = death.
2. Never drink or do drugs.
3. Never say “I’ll be right back” because you won’t be back.

Scream consistently sets up doubt, ensuring the audience constantly wonders who the killer is. What they do know is that Ghostface can come out of anywhere and tends to call the victims before killing them. A ringing phone tells the audience to buckle up and get ready for some blood.

The film, which takes place over the course of just a couple of days, concludes at a party where high school students congregate at a house looking to do what teenagers do — which, I’d be remiss to not point out, happens despite two of their fellow classmates being brutally stabbed to death two days ago which no one seems to be the least bit sad or concerned about.

A final twist that makes this film different than other horror films is there are two killers: Billy (Skeet Ulrich), Sidney's sexually frustrated boyfriend, and Stu (Matthew Lillard), who team up to accomplish their goal of serial killing.

Scream (1996) was written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore.

Playing the sequel tropes

With the first film discussing the tropes of scary movies and creating rules on how to survive, it’s only natural for these tropes to continue in each subsequent film.

In Scream 2, after two people are murdered by the familiar Ghostface killer at a screening of Stab, a Hollywood version of the Woodsboro murders, Randy shares his rules for horror sequels, which include a higher body count, more elaborate deaths, and that anyone can die.

What this second film sets up is that the self-awareness of the horror movie hasn't subsided. In fact, each Scream that follows has its own rules to consider. Even after Randy’s demise in the second film, he makes an appearance in the third — a video tape he created in case he didn’t survive the sequel — which presents the rules of being in the final film of a trilogy, where they start off by killing a major character.

With over a decade between the third and fourth Scream, there were new rules to share about the reboot and then, in the latest version, the rules to surviving a “requel” – a sequel that also is a somewhat reboot.

Having been a critical part of the first film, it was important to play off the horror movie tropes and use them to keep the audiences engaged while meeting their expectations.

The first phone call

Within a few moments, the phone rings. It’s a familiar ring we’ve all heard in all the Scream movies. From there, the audience expects the first murder of the film.

How does the killer continue a call? In the first film, the killer claims it’s a wrong number and Casey (Barrymore) hangs up. But he calls back and coaxes her into talking until it becomes a game of life or death — always leading to death.

Every single version of this throughout the film series is suspenseful even though the audience knows exactly how it’s going to end. This has a built-in “what would you do?” factor. How would you escape? How can you hang up the phone when yours or someone you care about has their life on the line?

Each victim has some association with the main characters and only one time do we know exactly how (Cotton Weary in Scream 3). As the sequel numbers go up, the closer they are in relation to Sidney Prescott — Scream 2 was based on names of the first victim, Scream 3 was Cotton Weary, Scream 4 is a friend of Sidney’s cousin, Scream (2022)…not going to tell you.

Scream 2 was the only film to not have one of these phone calls at the beginning, unless you count the people in the theater watching the first phone call in Stab.

Who is Ghostface?

Ghostface wants fame or vengeance. From the very beginning, we see two characters, Billy and Stu, who want to be famous for being original serial killers. The second film involves vengeance from Billy’s mom but also a film student at the college Sidney attends who wants to be known for recreating the brutal Woodsboro murders at the same time Stab is released. Maybe then, he can have his own movie. Creating something original tends to be the underlying theme through most of the killers’ motivations.

What makes Ghostface such an intriguing character is that they are somewhat mortal beings, and they are never the same person. The audience knows who the killer is in a Halloween film. Ghostface involves some detective work.

In the original Scream, Randy goes through a laundry list of reasons why any one of their friends, including himself, could be the killer. “Everybody is a suspect!” he shouts. And it’s true. Any one of the characters introduced in the films are considered suspect, including Sidney, Gale and Dewey. Each has their reasons to don the mask, which lends itself to theories, red herrings, and doubts about other characters’ motives.

When the audience does discover who the elusive Ghostface is, they are met with a long-winded piece of exposition which is seemingly its own joke on the genre — it’s literally a lesson in putting too much dialogue on the page. The killers in Scream spend five minutes explaining their motives; the killers in Scream 2 spend eight minutes!

The final blood bath

A killer in scary movies needs a lot of victims, especially toward the end. How do you get a group of people together? How about a party? It’s such a trope in these films that in one of the Scream films, they literally call out how they shouldn’t go to a party because that’s where the killer will murder them.

Yet in every single Scream film, this is the case (except Scream 2) — never mind there is a murderer on the loose, several of their friends have died, and a curfew is in place.

Just like the beginning of the films where the filmmakers must make the same phone-call-leading-to-murder suspenseful, so to they have to figure out how to reveal the villains, stab a lot of people, and give Sidney another chance to save herself.

What Scream has been able to do so well is avoid the pitfalls of sequels and the unsubstantiated need to both be original while also being familiar. It’s because they call out that the party is the final scene of a horror film that makes it okay that they keep going back to it.

Stab: The movie within a movie

After the first film, the franchise decided that one of the best ways to comment on horror films and sequels is to put a movie in the movie. Thus, Stab was invented. Stab is the film in Scream that is based on the “true events” of the Woodsboro massacre. Each film comments on the ridiculousness of some horror films and their sequels through Stab.

Stab has become a critical part of the backstory in all the films, including the latest version. Scream 2 starts off with the opening of Stab in theaters and is where we find our first victims. In Scream 3, the characters are in Los Angeles where they are on the set of Stab 3 and the Ghostface killer is murdering the cast.

In Scream (2022), Stab has gone bonkers. What little we see of the latest film is through internet commentary focusing on how cartoonish the franchise has become, which offers its own thoughts on how ridiculous sequels can become when there seems to be an endless amount being produced.

Do you like scary movies?

Each Scream film has its tropes and uses the story to comment on other horror movies, including how they’ve evolved over the years. In Scream (1996), the comment is on horror films of the previous 20 years. The latest Scream (2022) is no different. One of the first topics that the Ghostface voice on the phone and the first victim talk about is elevated horror and how both either like or dislike the way horror movies evolved over the years.

By using these tropes and commentary, Scream has maintained its relevance, entertainment value, and originality.