DREW BARRYMORE, Scream (1996)

The role, a home-alone teen tortured by a prank caller/serial killer, was definitely small: Drew Barrymore's gut-wrenching transformation from perky horror aficionado to hanging corpse took all of 13 minutes in this Wes Craven slasherpiece. But it definitely had impact. For theater audiences, it signaled that the rules of the genre (and movie posters — remember Barrymore's prominent billing) could be broken. For me, a total wuss who insisted on watching the VHS tape in daylight hours (9 a.m. on a Saturday morning while visiting my parents), it meant repeated cries for my mother to come in from the next room (she didn't) and multiple suggestions from her that I ''calm down'' (I didn't). — Mandi Bierly