Scream also got slashers out of a rut a bit. It did a couple smart things - went back to an OG Friday the 13th type mystery of who the killer is, and it corrected my beef about the slashers - we start to care about the people being killed a bit (or at least I did). They were just random horrible teens we want to see killed. Shelly, I am looking at you buddy.
I will give you that. I was beside myself wondering how Chandler was going to cope if Monica got murdered
I've been thinking about your beef with big stars being in horror. For me what it is more about is when it's image conscious actors or people who have a brand or show to think of. It's not always the case, but more often than not it is a signal to me that less risks are going to be taken. The movie is probably going to play it safe, and that is not the best combo for horror. Also, those people aren't usually the best actors in the first place - strike two.
Back to Scream, for me the ++s far over shadowed the --s. It was Barrymore's idea to be the one killed at the start. Cox was Ok playing the shrew. Then the kock offs come with stuff like Urban Legend, I know what you did, Cursed - stuff like that, where the lesson learned seemed to be the answer was to shove in the hot teen stars, who cares about the rest. Most were