WB Stars in Peril: On Late ‘90s Horror

This post began as an essay written for the exclusive enjoyment of the attendees of my all day VHS horror movie marathon that I hosted at my apartment on October 18th, 2026. The theme of the marathon was late ‘90s teen horror, so we watched Final Destination, Urban Legend, The Faculty, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream, and The Blair Witch Project. As a Halloween treat for my loyal readers, I decided to share the essay with you all. Happy Halloween!

The slasher flick was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

So, when Scream opened to boffo business at the box office in December 1996, kicking off not only a new franchise but an entire horror film revival, it was a plot twist worthy of the genre. For the next five or so years, the studios would release multiple teen slashers a year, constituting a boom time for a genre that was seen as long past its heyday of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. These imitators of Scream took the template set by Williamson and fright master Wes Craven as a challenge. How do you scare an audience hardened to the tropes and titles of the original slasher cycle? By acknowledging and one-upping them. Sincere schlock wouldn’t pass muster in the irony-pilled ‘90s and a media landscape dominated by blasé Gen Xers. Every screenplay that traded in clichés of the genre had to do so with a hefty dose of self-aware snark. And what better conduit for snark is there than the teenager?

The horrors of high school, college, and beyond formed the settings for most of these films. The popularity of this era spawned new franchises, retrofitted old ones, and stretched into other subgenres of horror like alien invasions and conspiracy thrillers.  It wasn’t just horror either, as Shakespeare and Jane Austen also got the high school treatment. They were on television too and on the covers of magazines like Entertainment Weekly. There was money to be made in catering to this audience. 

Though the first slasher cycle also had casts of largely young people, those teens were bland and interchangeable. They were subordinate in importance to the real stars: the Freddys and Jasons. In the ‘90s, that hierarchy was upturned, with the teens now the draw. In the wake of Scream, the slasher was also a whodunnit, with an unmasking now an essential component of the denouement. This pivot to the mystery genre feels as indebted to ‘70s Giallo films as it does to Scooby Doo cartoons, and it’s only possible if the audience doesn’t already know the killer. Unlike the Nightmare sequels, which saw Freddy Krueger facing off against a different final girl every time, the Scream sequels followed Sidney Prescott facing different killers. Sidney, the heroine, is what kept the audiences coming back for more. Well, her and the actress who played her. 

The starrier cast lists of this era of horror is often attributed to the successful bait-and-switch casting of Drew Barrymore in Scream, but let’s not forget that Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox were both also recognizable TV stars in 1996. This strategy also carried over to the rip offs. Most of the actors in these films came straight from the set of  shows like Party of Five and Dawson’s Creek, bringing hip cachet to a genre once populated by no-names and over-the-hill stars of yesteryear. It’s not a random teen, it’s Sarah Michelle Gellar! Josh Hartnett! Katie Holmes! Joshua Jackson!

Since audiences were now turning up to see these hot, young stars, if they were going to get killed off before the end of the movie (and the formula dictates several of them will be), their deaths had to be worth it. Like the song-and-dance routines in a musical, the kill sequences are the meat of a horror film and the standard by which we judge it. During this cycle, the kills have an arch quality to them, an inventiveness born of a keen study of the genre’s history. A personal favorite of mine comes from Valentine at the tail end of the era. Without spoiling the fun of watching it unfold, it involves Denise Richards, a hot tub, and a power drill.

It’s not enough for the self-reflexive tone to come through only in the dialogue and screenplay, it must be imbued in the filmmaking. In addition to their casts, these films announce their participation in this trend with their bright lighting and pop soundtracks. Take, as an example, the scene in I Know What You Did Last Summer where heroine Julie James spins around, flails her arms, and cries that cry of primordial fear: “What are you waiting for?” Would the scene be as iconic as it is without the bird’s-eye camera placement capturing the bizarre little twirl? Or without it being the ever-prim Jennifer Love Hewitt? Or without the uber literal score that apparently didn’t get the memo that horror movies are funny now? It’s the combination of these elements that define it as quintessentially late ‘90s horror. In other words, it’s a vibe. 

But vibes can only last so long. It was clear after the turn of the century that the party was over. The ‘00s would take the slasher genre in an increasingly grisly direction. 30 years after the release of Scream, there’s still value in revisiting this boom. Perhaps it was cynical of Hollywood to flood the market with copies of the style of one hit film, but the love for them is genuine. It was an era that had the resources and budgets so bonafide horror geeks like Robert Rodriguez could play in a celluloid sandbox. Their passion is palpable on screen. Before all entertainment becomes soulless slop, let’s take a moment to remember how good we once had it. Long live Sidney Prescott!