To understand why Scream was a lightning bolt, you have to look at the landscape of the early 90s. The golden era of the 80s slasher (Freddy, Jason, Michael) had decayed into parody. Audiences were tired of the formula: a masked killer, scantily clad teenagers, and jump scares that felt telegraphed from a mile away.
A quick note on legality: Scream is in the public domain. It is owned by Paramount Pictures (via the acquisition of the Dimension/Miramax library). However, the Internet Archive operates under a complex web of copyright exceptions, including the DMCA for software preservation and the Fair Use doctrine for educational and archival purposes. Scream 1996 Archive.org
It is difficult to explain to a modern audience just how revolutionary the Casey Becker sequence was. Before Scream , horror victims were often ditzy throwaway characters. But here was Drew Barrymore, a bona fide movie star, pleading for her life against a phantom caller. To understand why Scream was a lightning bolt,
Archive.org, also known as the Internet Archive, is a non-profit digital library offering free access to collections of digitized materials. It is an incredible resource for film preservation. A quick note on legality: Scream is in the public domain