In the late '90s, slasher films had become a parody of themselves. Films like Halloween: Resurrection depicted a world far more aware of slasher movie tropes and attempted to play that up in clever ways. The killer had to be innovative to kill their genre-savvy victims. This choice started to put slashers on the back burner until Wes Craven returned to revolutionize the genre, yet again, with Scream.
Craven is best known for introducing the world to Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street, taking terror into a more supernatural direction. In contrast, Scream brought the genre back to a more realistic and self-aware route that ultimately saved the genre. However, before its release, the film wasn't originally going to be titled Scream.
During production, Craven wanted to title the film Scary Movie, which played up the film's meta context. However, the Weinsteins felt that the movie's name should be titled Scream, like the Michael Jackson song of the same name. Craven thought the idea was "stupid but was forced to use it for the film's final cut. However, following its success, he later admitted that the change was probably for the best.
Scream followed a group of teenagers in a town plagued by the murders of their classmates. The now iconic character, Ghostface, taunted his victims by asking them questions about old horror movies. This was a running gag in the film, which played up the tropes that slasher films have exploited to the point that they started to become predictable, all the way to the "final girl." Scream later spawned a larger franchise and put Ghostface into the pantheon of other classic slashers like Jason Vorhees.
When it came to why the Weinsteins chose to change the film's title from Scary Movie, they stated it was due to the movie having more humor and satire elements than straight-up horror. At the time, Slasher films were no stranger to humor, as that was what had made Child's Play stand out for over a decade. However, the statement eventually came full circle as Scary Movie was used again for a franchise that spoofed classic horror and sci-fi films, including Scream.
Scream helped to usher in a new generation of horror right around the time of the millennium. Its contributions pushed filmmakers to be more creative in the genre -- with films like The Conjuring and Saw -- and will continue to do so as long as fans are still interested. In hindsight, it's hard to imagine the 1996 film being released with the name Scary Movie instead.