History GenreTurningPoint / LiveActionFilms

* ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'', the most successful of the aforementioned ''Halloween'' imitators, turned the SlasherMovie into a {{horror}} staple by combining it with the ExploitationFilm. James A. Janisse, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOAEXEGlRPQ covering the film]] for ''WebVideo/TheKillCount'', said that "no other franchise has shaped the horror genre quite like ''Friday'' has", arguing that, even more than ''Halloween'', it popularized a new image of horror cinema in TheEighties as a teen-oriented genre about hulking mass murderers stalking horny, attractive young people and offing them in a shower of gore -- an image that on one hand brought a torrent of box-office and home video success, but on the other plunged horror back into [[SciFiGhetto the ghetto]] as criticisms of the series became criticisms of its imitators and eventually of slashers and horror as a whole. It popularized {{summer camp|y}} and [[DontGoInTheWoods the woods]] in general as a go-to setting for horror movies, and while ''Halloween'' introduced the slasher genre's reputation for sexual moralism and the killer being TheScourgeOfGod against licentious youth, ''Friday'' made what had once been subtext into an explicit part of the killer's motive.

** It was a disappointment in a crowded summer box office when it came out. Repeated showings on cable and its release on video not only made it one of the first films to develop a strong cult following that way, but its wet streets reflecting neon signs at night got copied widely in other films, commercials and music videos during the 1980s. It even influenced the look of urban space in the ''actual real-world future'' ([[http://www.flickr.com/photos/59303791@N00/2518314792/ see Times Square, ca. 2008]]).
** Furthermore, this was the film that popularized the [[ReCut Director's Cut]], giving audience a better chance to see a film like the artists truly intended while the film companies are motivated to cooperate with the profit of selling another version of a film to the same audience.
* ''Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain'' (1983, Tsui Hark) was the first film to combine Hong Kong action cinema with western special effects technology, resulting in visually-stunning displays of SupernaturalMartialArts.

* ''Film/{{The Howling|1981}}'' helped set a new visual standard for werewolves in Hollywood films from the 1980s onward (partly thanks to advances in special effects and make-up); they largely stopped looking like apes and more convincingly like bipedal wolves, at least concerning the head area.

* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' revolutionized film comedy with its groundbreaking approach, and spoofed the popular airplane disaster genre, introducing a new level of humor and satire. With its fast-paced jokes, visual gags, and sexual double entendres, ''Airplane!'' challenged the conventional notion of a serious plot, proving that a movie-length feature could succeed by packing it with wall-to-wall jokes. It influenced future comedies by demonstrating the viability of a joke-filled plot, while its irreverent references, rapid-fire humor, and visual non-sequiturs became hallmarks of its unique style. ''Airplane!'' remains one of the greatest comedies ever made and continues to inspire and entertain audiences to this day.
* ''Film/FridayThe13th1980'', the most successful of the aforementioned ''Halloween'' imitators, turned the SlasherMovie into a {{horror}} staple by combining it with the ExploitationFilm. James A. Janisse, when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOAEXEGlRPQ covering the film]] for ''WebVideo/TheKillCount'', said that "no other franchise has shaped the horror genre quite like ''Friday'' has", arguing that, even more than ''Halloween'', it popularized a new image of horror cinema in TheEighties as a teen-oriented genre about hulking mass murderers stalking horny, attractive young people and offing them in a shower of gore -- an image that on one hand brought a torrent of box-office and home video success, but on the other plunged horror into its own version of the SciFiGhetto as criticisms of the series became criticisms of its imitators and eventually of slashers and horror as a whole. It popularized {{summer camp|y}} and [[DontGoInTheWoods the woods]] in general as a go-to setting for horror movies, and while ''Halloween'' introduced the slasher genre's reputation for sexual moralism and the killer being TheScourgeOfGod against licentious youth, ''Friday'' made what had once been subtext into an explicit part of the killer's motive.

* 1941's ''Film/CitizenKane'' was the TropeCodifier if not the TropeMaker for a new kind of filmmaking. Where filmmakers had used montages, art direction, set design, performances, and sound to tell stories before, Creator/OrsonWelles was the first to combine them in such a way as to create a new, heightened kind of storytelling. Its GenreBusting approach, using a {{Mockumentary}} style, multiple flashbacks, and multiple narrators to tell a psychologically consistent story of three-dimensional characters, was considered as a sign that movies could be movies ''and still be'' as complex and modern as the best plays and novels. By borrowing ideas and concepts from genre and epic movies (special effects, miniatures, multiple camera tricks) to a serious film, Welles committed major GenreAdultery. Likewise, Welles' unique contract became the TropeMaker for AuteurLicense, and the fact that he made it at the age of 25 proved that cinema wasn't merely the work of established professionals but also open to upstarts and tyros as well.

** 1955's ''Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain'', meanwhile, upped the ante over its predecessor by pitting Godzilla against another giant monster, Anguirus. With this SequelEscalation, the "kaiju battle" style of monster movie was born as audiences found the idea of two or more monsters fighting even more sensational than watching just one destroy a city. Not only would most later ''Godzilla'' movies (barring [[RevisitingTheRoots back-to-basics reboots]] like ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla'' and ''Film/ShinGodzilla'') follow this formula, so would many other kaiju films.

* ''Film/KingKong1933'' codified a lot of the technical makeup of blockbuster and genre movies, in particular bringing into focus the [[{{Kaiju}} Giant Monster movie]] on both sides of the Pacific. The stop-motion effects courtesy of Creator/WillisOBrien kicked off the techniques for the next century, as even computer graphic animation would borrow much from them, like armatures that support each model. Max Steiner's music was one of the first for a major hollywood movie and brought the {{Leitmotif}} into the cinematic world to help induce emotions in audiences.

* TheWestern had been popular from the beginning of the movies with the aforementioned ''The Great Train Robbery'', but it faded when sound arrived. Then came Creator/JohnFord's 1939 film ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', which marked the true start of the modern Western. It introduced the star-making role of the greatest Western star, Creator/JohnWayne, location shooting at Monument Valley (the first time Ford shot there), realistic action sequences, and the use of the Western genre as a vehicle for social commentary, with civilization positioned as a corrupting influence on the natural and rugged frontier with greedy bankers standing in for AcceptableTargets during the Depression.

* 1978's ''Film/AnimalHouse'' was probably the first "teen" movie to combine youthful angst with zany comedy -- which, in the ensuing decades, resulted in teen comedies becoming not only a lot more common, but a lot more serious as well. Also, while there were similarly shocking comedies before it (''Film/PinkFlamingos'', ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', ''The Kentucky Fried Movie''), it was the first mainstream hit comedy to fully take advantage of the loosened restrictions of the post-[[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]] era, allowing it to hit audiences with explicit sex jokes that would never have flown even a decade prior as opposed to just [[DoubleEntendre innuendos]]. This set off a boom in the American SexComedy genre in the late 1970s and [[TheEighties early 1980s]] as other such films pushed that much further with their comedy.

** A less discussed but potentially even greater legacy, though, is in how it [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-nobodys-replicated-blair-witch-projects-success/ pioneered]] ViralMarketing. The filmmakers created a website purporting that the film was authentic "lost footage" and the last trace of three missing hikers/documentarians, creating a mountain of hype as people argued over whether or not it was actually real. As the internet grew more popular in the '00s, the success of ''The Blair Witch Project'' became a blueprint for viral marketing that was frequently replicated. The influence of such also stretches beyond film; Emily St. James, [[https://www.vox.com/2014/8/6/5974127/sixth-sense-blair-witch-horror-movies-20-year-anniversary writing]] for ''Vox'', suggested that the film's marketing strategy, which built up a mythology surrounding the Blair Witch, was an important progenitor to {{creepypasta}}, the internet-born horror stories and UrbanLegends that would take off in the late 2000s.

** And of course, we scarcely need to describe the founding of Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic to create some of the greatest visual-effects shots in history. Lucas was, arguably, the first filmmaker to be able to truly execute on some of his most imaginative ideas, raising the stakes of what it was possible to film and setting a bar that almost nobody else can meet -- unless they hire ILM.

* 1978's ''Film/AnimalHouse'' was probably the first "teen" movie to combine youthful angst with zany comedy -- which, in the ensuing decades, resulted in teen comedies becoming not only a lot more common, but a lot more serious as well. Also, while there were similarly shocking comedies before it (''Film/PinkFlamingos'', ''Film/BlazingSaddles'', ''The Kentucky Fried Movie''), it was arguably the first mainstream hit comedy to fully take advantage of the loosened restrictions of the post-[[UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode Hays Code]] era, allowing it to hit audiences with explicit sex jokes that would never have flown even a decade prior as opposed to just [[DoubleEntendre innuendos]]. This set off a boom in the American SexComedy genre in the late 1970s and [[TheEighties early 1980s]] as other such films pushed that much further with their comedy.

** It was a disappointment in a crowded summer box office when it came out. Repeated showings on cable and its release on video not only made it one of the first films to develop a strong cult following that way, but its wet streets reflecting neon signs at night got copied widely in other films, commercials and music videos during the 1980s. It arguably influenced the look of urban space in the ''actual real-world future'' ([[http://www.flickr.com/photos/59303791@N00/2518314792/ see Times Square, ca. 2008]]).

** Also, ''Blade'' arguably reinvented not only the comic-book film genre, but science fiction as well. Prior to 1998, most such films had 1) been gimmicky and (somewhat) [[{{Narm}} unintentionally campy]]; 2) set in surrealistic worlds, frequently with [[RetroUniverse "retro"]] or {{Zeerust}} touches; or 3) dealt only fleetingly, if at all, with serious real-world issues, sublimating them to the mindless action. The Wesley Snipes film, on the other hand, is set in contemporary (late 1990s) America, includes very little humor (and what there is of it is quite dark), features two "heroes" who aren't very inspiring and not exactly on the hunt for adventure (and one of them is dying of cancer!), and scales back the fanciful, gee-whiz element of earlier such films as much as it can; even the vampires are discussed in quasi-scientific terms and are given a plausible historical backstory. It solidified MovieSuperheroesWearBlack, which not even ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' had managed to establish. ''Blade'' was what opened the door for "realistic" sci-fi (''Franchise/TheMatrix'') and comic-book tales that took place in [[ThisIsReality what could almost pass for the real world]] (the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'', et cetera).

** A less discussed but arguably even greater legacy, though, is in how it [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-nobodys-replicated-blair-witch-projects-success/ pioneered]] ViralMarketing. The filmmakers created a website purporting that the film was authentic "lost footage" and the last trace of three missing hikers/documentarians, creating a mountain of hype as people argued over whether or not it was actually real. As the internet grew more popular in the '00s, the success of ''The Blair Witch Project'' became a blueprint for viral marketing that was frequently replicated. The influence of such also stretches beyond film; Emily St. James, [[https://www.vox.com/2014/8/6/5974127/sixth-sense-blair-witch-horror-movies-20-year-anniversary writing]] for ''Vox'', suggested that the film's marketing strategy, which built up a mythology surrounding the Blair Witch, was an important progenitor to {{creepypasta}}, the internet-born horror stories and UrbanLegends that would take off in the late 2000s.

** In a similar spirit, we have Creator/AdamMcKay, whose feature debut ''Film/AnchormanTheLegendOfRonBurgundy'' was incidentally produced by Apatow. [=McKay=]'s 2000s output with Creator/WillFerrell - ''Anchorman'', ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby'' and ''Film/StepBrothers'' - arguably helped to infuse biting social commentary into 21st century comedy films, notably with ''Anchorman'' and its overt depiction of the sexism and homophobia present in the '70s journalism scene.

-->"Older franchises tended to be [[FranchiseZombie whittled away until there was nothing left]], getting trapped in [[{{Sequelitis}} a cycle of reduced budgets and diminished returns]]. Modern franchises tend to [[FranchiseKiller implode]] when costs become too high to be sustainable, growing so large that they [[BoxOfficeBomb collapse under their own weight]]."

* 1927's ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' wasn't a particularly good film beyond [[DancingBear its gimmick]], but that gimmick, the use of sound as a means of the storytelling rather than just accompaniment as in the case of ''Don Juan'', changed the film industry across the world. The arrival of sound introduced more realistic acting, putting an end to the careers of many stars who came to prominence in the silent era. Silent comedy of the likes of Creator/BusterKeaton and Creator/HaroldLloyd was left in the lurch, while Creator/CharlieChaplin became far less prolific and more cautious. It also rendered permanent Hollywood's global rise to prominence. Formerly, simply replacing the intertitles from one film in local translation made it possible for Italian, French, Russian, and Swedish movies to have global audiences, though UsefulNotes/WorldWarI had devastated the European and particularly the French film industry, consolidating Hollywood's dominance. Now, though, the language barrier led to the greater hegemony of English-language cinema around the world, as Hollywood, with its vast American and British markets far outstripping the smaller, linguistically-restrained national cinemas of other countries, was able to field the biggest budgets for the biggest movies. By the time the technology for dubbing and subtitles caught up, Hollywood was well into [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood its Golden Age]], and there was no looking back.

* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'' revolutionized film comedy with its groundbreaking approach, and spoofed the popular airplane disaster genre, introducing a new level of humor and satire. With its fast-paced jokes, visual gags, and sexual double entendres, ''Airplane'' challenged the conventional notion of a serious plot, proving that a movie-length feature could succeed by packing it with wall-to-wall jokes. It influenced future comedies by demonstrating the viability of a joke-filled plot, while its irreverent references, rapid-fire humor, and visual non-sequiturs became hallmarks of its unique style. ''Airplane'' remains one of the greatest comedies ever made and continues to inspire and entertain audiences to this day.

* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' (1979): While there had been films spun off from various television series before, they tended to either be released while the show was still airing (such as with ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''), or be several episodes edited together into a CompilationRerelease (like the film compilations of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978''). This was the first high level, big budget feature film adapted from a television series, and is generally credited with establishing the trend of reviving or remaking television series as theatrical feature films (like ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'', ''Film/TheFugitive'', and the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'').

* 2014's ''Film/JohnWick'' set a new standard for the Action Movie genre, which was previously held by films like ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' and ''Film/{{Taken}}''. With its stylistically fluid and tightly choreographed fight scenes using advanced [[GunKata gunplay]], finding a balance between over-the-top violence with surprising moments of [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome realism]], it was a breath of fresh air after years of the former's shaky-cam brawls (which was beginning to show its age as losing the immersive energy it once had, becoming simply disorienting and confusing).
** John himself was seen as a minor return to form for the HollywoodActionHero, after the ''Film/DieHard'' series thoroughly deconstructed and replaced it with the ActionSurvivor template (which both ''Bourne'' and ''Taken'' played with). Instead, while John is human and isn't [[DentedIron totally invincible]], he is so ''[[TheAce astoundingly]] competent'' that he might as well be.

** 2005's ''Film/BatmanBegins'' codified the concept of the "back to basics" ContinuityReboot and SettingUpdate. It was openly cited as a model for, among other films, Creator/DanielCraig's turn as Film/JamesBond in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'', and by by Creator/JonFavreau as a model for ''Film/IronMan1'' in telling a more psychological and character-motivated turn to altruism.

* Creator/MichaelCimino's 1980 film ''Film/HeavensGate'', although not for the same reasons as most of the other examples: it was such a notorious TroubledProduction and BoxOfficeBomb that it [[GenreKiller killed]] the [[TheWestern Hollywood Western]] (at least for a time), [[CreatorKiller United Artists as an independent studio, and director Michael Cimino's career]]. It and other high-profile flops (''One From the Heart'', ''Sorcerer'') also killed the [[UsefulNotes/NewHollywood auteur period]] in Hollywood.

* Film journalist Stephen Metcalf [[http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_dilettante/2012/08/tony_scott_s_days_of_thunder_did_it_rescue_hollywood_from_the_grips_of_producers_like_don_simpson_.single.html argues]] that the [[TroubledProduction wretched production excesses]] of ''Film/DaysOfThunder'', and their attendant impact on the film's profits, made auteur-driven filmmaking acceptable again a decade after the notion had been discredited by the box-office failure of ''Film/HeavensGate''. Creator/UnitedArtists' willingness to indulge Creator/MichaelCimino on that film had led to a backlash where studios favored producers like Creator/DonSimpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer who were effectively the sole creative forces behind their films, with directors merely taking orders from them. After similar excesses on the part of the producers, studios would let directors assert themselves creatively again, and it's no coincidence that ''Days'' director Creator/TonyScott's critical reputation improved over the course of the '90s.

** And of course we scarcely need to describe the founding of Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic to create some of the greatest visual-effects shots in history. Lucas was, arguably, the first filmmaker to be able to truly execute on some of his most imaginative ideas, raising the stakes of what it was possible to film and setting a bar that almost nobody else can meet -- unless they hire ILM.

** First of all, the MCU was a SharedUniverse much like its source material. Before ''Film/IronMan1'' in 2008 and ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', the idea of a superhero team-up movie was considered a pipe dream among comics fans. Earlier superhero films, despite the odd MythologyGag and in-joke, had their heroes existing in the world as the only beings of their kind, be it ''Film/{{Batman|1989}}'', ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', or even Creator/SamRaimi's ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' and the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''. The MCU changed the game when ''The Avengers'' proved that a big-budget live-action superhero ensemble film, with characters and subplots already seen in standalone films merged into a single one, could and would work and be phenomenally successful, and it wouldn't be overcrowded with too many heroes or characters. It led to a renewal and modification of the blockbuster franchise mode, one that directly spurred the creation of the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse and myriad other attempts at shared continuities and {{Modular Franchise}}s.
** 2011's ''Film/{{Thor}}'' and ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', and especially 2014's ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'', changed the dominant aesthetic of superhero films away from MovieSuperheroesWearBlack, RealIsBrown, and DoingInTheWizard, opening the doors for bringing in most of the fantastic and science-fiction pulp elements which were there in the comics but were always reimagined and updated in earlier movies (such as ''Film/BatmanBegins'' making ComicBook/RasAlGhul into a title passed down in a MasterApprenticeChain rather than an immortal being who dips into Lazarus Pits). These films not only allowed for CrystalSpiresAndTogas, StupidJetpackHitler Nazis, and talking animals and plants, but made them dramatically and emotionally compelling, while also blending superhero genres with HistoricalFiction, AlternateHistory, HighFantasy, and SpaceOpera, and opening the floodgates for almost any kind of comic book character and story (and so ''any'' kind of movie) to be conceivable in live-action, no matter how outlandish in concept.

* What ''Animal House'' didn't do, Creator/JohnHughes' teen movies probably did. ''Film/SixteenCandles'', ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'', ''Film/PrettyInPink'', and ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', all released in the span of just three years in the mid-'80s, took the problems of their teenage protagonists seriously in a way that few other teen movies had before, leaving a mark on a generation of filmmakers such that, if a teen comedy is not a SexComedy influenced by ''Animal House'', it's likely taking after Hughes' films. (Some draw influence from both, as seen with ''Film/AmericanPie''.) To this day, Hughes' takes on, and {{deconstruct|edCharacterArchetype}}ions of, various high school archetypes (the AlphaBitch, the JerkJock, the nerd, the {{delinquent|s}}, the [[LonersAreFreaks outcast loner]][[note]]As if to demonstrate the power that his films still have over the genre, you're probably thinking of the exact characters, all from the same film, that we're talking about here[[/note]]) still form the defining images of such seen in countless teen movies. Its influence stretches beyond film, too; Darren Star, co-creator of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' (itself listed in the Live-Action TV section), said that his intention with that show was to create [[SpiritualAdaptation a TV version of a John Hughes teen movie]].

** While ''Jaws'' is usually regarded as the first modern "blockbuster" movie, this was the one that proved that kids -- a demographic ignored by most 1970s movies -- were audience members too, that escapist sci-fi wasn't as [[BMovie disposable as once thought]], and that fantasy and science fiction in general were untapped resources. The whole GenreThrowback idea was popularized here, and while FollowTheLeader meant there were many crappy imitators within the years that followed, it did lead directly to Franchise/{{Superman}} getting [[Film/{{Superman}} a big movie of his own]], thus launching the rise of cinematic comic book adaptations. It also helped launch the revival of rival series ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Indeed, some blame this movie for hastening the end of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywood era and leading to the dumbed-down SummerBlockbuster mentality of the industry today, especially once the ''sequels'' arrived.

* The modern SlasherMovie has its roots in murder mysteries and Italian ''{{giall|o}}i'', and most film historians will point to two films released on the same day in 1974, ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}'' and ''Film/{{Black Christmas|1974}}'', as the first true examples of the genre. The genre didn't truly explode in popularity, however, until the release of ''Film/Halloween1978'', which [[TropeCodifier codified]] most of the tropes of the genre (the [[MalevolentMaskedMen masked]] ImplacableMan killer, the MurdererPOV shot, the morally upright FinalGirl, the killer having a {{leitmotif}}), launched the careers of its writer/director Creator/JohnCarpenter and its star Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, and spawned so many imitators that TheEighties came to be known as the slasher genre's GoldenAge.
* The 1978 ''Film/{{Superman}}'' movie.

* TheWestern had been popular from the beginning of the movies with the aforementioned ''Film/The Great Train Robbery'', but it faded when sound arrived. Then came Creator/JohnFord's 1939 film ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', which marked the true start of the modern Western. It introduced the star-making role of the greatest Western star, Creator/JohnWayne, location shooting at Monument Valley (the first time Ford shot there), realistic action sequences, and the use of the Western genre as a vehicle for social commentary, with civilization positioned as a corrupting influence on the natural and rugged frontier with greedy bankers standing in for AcceptableTargets during the Depression.

* TheWestern had been popular from the beginning of the movies with the aforementioned ''Film/TheGreatTrainRobbery'', but it faded when sound arrived. Then came Creator/JohnFord's 1939 film ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', which marked the true start of the modern Western. It introduced the star-making role of the greatest Western star, Creator/JohnWayne, location shooting at Monument Valley (the first time Ford shot there), realistic action sequences, and the use of the Western genre as a vehicle for social commentary, with civilization positioned as a corrupting influence on the natural and rugged frontier with greedy bankers standing in for AcceptableTargets during the Depression.

* 1903's ''Film/TheGreatTrainRobbery'' to become the first well known, again if not ''the'' first (time, spotty record keeping and the then-assumed disposable nature of film has led to much of early film history being lost) to truly use the language of ''film''; differing camera angles, moving camera shots, and creative cutting within scenes.

* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' (1979): While there had been past films spun off from various television series, this was the first high level, big budget feature film adapted from a television series. Thus, this film is generally credited with establishing the trend of reviving or remaking television series as theatrical feature films, e.g. ''Film/TheAddamsFamily'', ''Film/TheFugitive'', and the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries''.

** At the same time, however, while it did reinvent the slasher for a new generation, ''Scream'' also killed off a lot of the moral-panicky tropes used in '80s slashers, such as DeathBySex and TheScourgeOfGod. Nowadays, most horror films in which young, horny, pot-smoking teens get killed off by a masked maniac, with the pure, virginal FinalGirl surviving to the end and defeating him, are either [[GenreThrowback tributes to the genre]] (like the ''Film/{{Hatchet}}'' and ''Film/WrongTurn'' series) or [[AffectionateParody parodies of it]] (like ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods'' and ''Film/TheFinalGirls''), with straight examples often seen as cliched and trite due to ''Scream''[='=]s mockery of them. Indeed, one could argue that this was part of the reason why the slasher boom that followed ''Scream'' was so short-lived (besides the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre putting people out of the mood for violence directed at teenage characters) -- many of the lesser teen slashers that came out in its wake played those same tropes unironically, even though they were now much harder to take seriously.