Scream was one on the watchlist for a while, as I saw Scream 5 this year as my first entry into the Scream franchise. 
Wes Craven crafted something truly brilliant with Scream. It’s funny, it’s self aware and it has the scare factor you need. 
The opening scene is top tier horror, from the dialogue to the look of Ghost Face, to killing off someone who you think is the main character for the story is truly genius and very clever. 
I mean the identity of Ghost Face was fairly obvious. Nonetheless the story was great, the kills and laughs were great. 
I can easily see how this paved for the way for horror today.