For huge horror fans, sometimes the most fun films to watch are the ones that get super meta. That’s when a movie becomes self-referential, hearkening back to tropes and conventions of the horror genre to crack jokes, make points, and enhance the story being told on screen. The “Scream” franchise, which features six movies so far, including 2023’s “Scream 6,” is perhaps the most dominant force in the meta horror genre. Starting with 1996’s original “Scream,” the movies have poked fun at horror, true crime, and storytelling conventions for two decades.
The new movie “The Blackening,” released June 16, is another entry into the meta horror movie canon, making fun of the offensive trope that Black people always die first in movies. But in a film of all-Black actors, who dies first?
In honor of “The Blackening”‘s premiere, we rounded up some meta horror movies that do a great job of mocking and critiquing the genre while still being a satisfying horror movie on its own. Some are gory slashers, while others focus on psychological torment.
Ahead, these are seven of the best meta horror movies.
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"The Blackening"
The meta horror perspective of “The Blackening” is apparent from the title – a joke on the horror film “The Happening.” In the new film, a group of Black friends reunite in a cabin in the woods (and, yes, they’re aware that’s the kind of place a horror movie happens).
The germ of the movie (which is directed by Tim Story from a script by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins) is the idea that the Black characters always die in horror films, and at the start of the movie, some characters even remember how the two Black characters in “Scream 2” – played by Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps – also got offed by Ghostface. “The Blackening”‘s characters continue to reference and make jokes about other films (including “Get Out”) as they fight their own battle.
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"Scream"
There are six “Scream” movies, and what keeps this franchise so fresh all these years is that the meta humor and commentary has evolved with each one. When Ghostface (a villain whose identity changes every time) calls his victims, he always asks what their favorite horror movie is and gets into a long chat about how different movies work (and which disappoint).
In 1997’s “Scream 2” and 2000’s “Scream 3,” the conversations turn to the diminishing returns of sequels, and “Scream 4,” released in 2011, reflects on how horror has changed in the interim. In 2022’s “Scream 5,” Jenna Ortega‘s Tara brags about only liking “elevated” horror, while Jasmin Savoy Brown‘s Mindy dissects the tropes of a legacy reboot, or a requel. But in each film, the heroes use the tropes of horror films against Ghostface to survive the killer’s reign of terror.
Horror icon Wes Craven directed the first four films; the fifth and sixth, released after his death, are directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
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"Get Out"
“Get Out,” released in 2017, became an instant classic. Director and writer Jordan Peele uses jaw-dropping horror to critique racism and white supremacy. The movie’s impact is so wide that “the Sunken Place” – a concept from the movie – quickly slipped into parlance. Plus, Daniel Kaluuya delivers a star-making performance as Chris.
But the movie is not without humor, and those moments almost always come when his friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery) calls and drops a little meta commentary on the narrative. He warns Chris against going to the house, freaks out when Chris tells him he was hypnotized, and when things start to really hit the fan, he screams at Chris to leave. Rod has a genre awareness that brings a lot of heart to the film.
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"The Cabin in the Woods"
“The Cabin in the Woods,” released in 2011 and directed by Drew Goddard, is like a puzzle box. Five friends go to a cabin in the woods and find themselves in a slasher film – but this is a slasher film unlike any other. The entire experience is being controlled by scientists, who are dictating the friends’ experiences – and deaths. It’s a scary send-up of the classic slasher film tropes.
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"Wes Craven's New Nightmare"
Before the “Scream” franchise, Craven helmed the 1994 meta horror film “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare,” which put a new twist on Freddy Krueger, the villain of “Nightmare on Elm Street” (also a Craven film). But “New Nightmare” isn’t an “Elm Street” sequel – it takes the fictional Freddy Krueger and puts him in the real world, where he haunts the very people who made the “Nightmare on Elm Street” films. The movie references the original film constantly, even recreating some sequences.
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"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2"
Tobe Hooper directed “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” released in 1974 and a classic of the slasher genre. In 1986, he released “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” which is more of a dark comedy than a straight horror film (and is a major departure from the first film). The movie makes fun of the whole premise, drawing out some of the comedy viewers ignored the first time around.
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"Peeping Tom"
“Peeping Tom,” released in 1960, is considered one of the first meta horror movies. In it, a serial killer stalks and kills women. He has a video camera with him the whole time and records the kills and the aftermath of each one. He even screens some of the films for his future victims. The movie is considered a classic of the slasher genre and also a commentary of the genre itself and audience’s desire to watch people be killed on screens at all.
