Scream
Top-lined by David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and Drew Barrymore, Scream is the perfect horror film for Gen X’ers; full of slyly self-referential humor, Wes Craven’s 1996 meta-slasher flick came out of nowhere during that year’s Christmas season and assumed Godzilla-like proportions in the number of sequels it has spawned. It also ignited Kevin Williamson’s career whose follow-up projects, like Dawson’s Creek, were the beginning of a one-man cottage industry.
About Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy is a genre-bending screenwriter whose fearless wit and empathy-driven storytelling have made him one of the most distinctive voices in modern horror-comedy. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio and now based in Los Angeles, Kennedy cut his teeth working behind the scenes in film and television before emerging as a writer with a singular knack for turning familiar tropes inside out.
His breakout feature Freaky (co-written with Christopher Landon) fused body-swap comedy with slasher horror, creating a wildly inventive mix of scares, satire, and sincerity. It announced Kennedy as a filmmaker unafraid to explore identity and transformation through both laughter and bloodshed.
He followed with It’s a Wonderful Knife, a twisted holiday riff on small-town redemption, and Heart Eyes, a rom-com-meets-horror collision that further showcased his ability to blend dark humor, heart, and genuine terror in equal measure.
Kennedy’s work thrives on contrast — empathy and anarchy, heart and horror. Beneath the outrageous premises and sly genre play lies a writer deeply attuned to questions of self, morality, and the monsters that live within us all.
Whether he’s dismantling slasher myths or finding humanity in the absurd, Michael Kennedy brings a rare mix of intelligence, humor, and emotional truth to everything he writes — the kind of sensibility that reminds us why horror and comedy have always been perfect bedfellows. 🌈