Scream (1996)

In the small town of Woodsboro, teenager Casey Becker is home alone when she gets a phone call from a stranger who wants to talk about scary movies. The conversation turns threatening, and the caller forces her to answer horror trivia to save her boyfriend Steve, who is tied up outside. She gets an answer wrong. Steve is killed, and Casey is stabbed and hung from a tree.

Sidney Prescott, whose mother Maureen was raped and murdered a year earlier, is targeted next. She testified that Cotton Weary killed her mother. When the masked killer attacks her at home, her boyfriend Billy Loomis appears soon after, and a phone falls from his pocket. He is arrested, but released when the calls continue.

Reporter Gale Weathers, who wrote a book claiming Cotton was innocent, comes to town, along with Deputy Dewey Riley, the brother of Sidney's best friend Tatum. The killer murders the school principal. Students throw a party at Stu Macher's house, where film fan Randy explains the rules of surviving a horror film. Tatum is killed in the garage, crushed by the pet door.

At the party, Sidney and Billy sleep together. Then Billy is apparently stabbed by Ghostface. Sidney flees, and Gale's cameraman and others are killed. Sidney finds Billy alive: he and Stu are the killers. Billy reveals they killed Sidney's mother too, because she had an affair with Billy's father, which made Billy's mother leave. Stu says peer pressure. They framed Cotton Weary and plan to frame Sidney's father.

Sidney and Gale fight back. Sidney kills Stu by dropping a television on his head, and stabs Billy. Billy suddenly rises, as killers always do, but Sidney shoots him in the head. Gale reports the night's events on camera as police arrive.

Who are the killers in Scream? Billy Loomis, Sidney's boyfriend, and his friend Stu Macher. They take turns wearing the Ghostface costume.

Why did they do it? Billy blames Sidney's mother, Maureen, for having an affair with his father, which led his own mother to leave. Stu joins in for the thrill, and jokes that it was peer pressure.

Who killed Sidney's mother? Billy and Stu killed Maureen Prescott a year earlier, and framed Cotton Weary.

How do the killers die? Sidney drops a TV on Stu's head and shoots Billy in the head when he suddenly sits up, following the horror rule that the killer always comes back.

What are the rules? Randy says you survive a horror movie by never having sex, never drinking or doing drugs, and never saying "I'll be right back". The film both follows and breaks them.