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21 (of 23) :
Scream
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Sub-genres: Slasher, Teen, Horror-Comedy
Director: Wes Craven
Screenwriter: Kevin Williamson
Cast: Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Skeet Ulrich (Billy Loomis), Courtney Cox (Arquette) (Gale Weathers), Jamie Kennedy (Randy), Rose McGowan (Tatum), Matthew Lillard (Stu), David Arquette (Deputy Dewey Riley), Drew Barrymore (Casey Becker), Henry Winkler (Principal Himbry), Joseph Whipp (Sheriff Burke), W. Earl Brown (Kenny), Lawrence Hecht (Neil Prescott), Roger (L.) Jackson (Phone Voice), Linda Blair (Obnoxious Reporter), C. W. Morgan (Hank Loomis), Kevin Patrick Walls (Steven Orth), Francis Lee McCain (Mrs. Riley), Liev Schreiber (Cotton Weary), Leonora Scelfo (Cheerleader in Bathroom), Troy Bishop (Expelled Teen #1)
Producers: Cathy Konrad, Cary Woods
Executive Producers: Marianne Maddalena, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Co-Executive Producer: Stuart M. Besser
Associate Producer: Nicholas (C.) Mastandrea
Co-Producer: Dixie J. Capp
Music Composers: Marco Beltrami
Cinematographer/Director of Photography: Mark Irwin
Film Editor: Patrick Lussier
Production Designer: Bruce Alan Miller
Art Director: David Lubin
Set Decorator: Michele Poulik
Costume Designer: Cynthia Bergstrom
Special Make-Up Effects: KNB - Robert Kurtzman, Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger
Estimated Budget: $15,000,000
Gross: $103,001,286
Filming Location(s): Bradley Video, Santa Rosa, California; Calistoga Road, Santa Rosa (Sidney's house); Glen Ellen, California; Healdsburg, California; Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma, California; Sonoma Mountain Road, Glen Ellen (Casey's house); Tomales Bay, Tomales, California; Town Square, Healdsburg; Town and Country Market, Santa Rosa
Filming Months: April 1996 - June 1996
Production / Distribution Studio: Dimension Films / Miramax / Buena Vista
U.S. Theatrical Release Date(s): December 18 & 20, 1996
Advertisting / Promotional Tagline(s): (1) Make Your Last Breath Count / (2) Don't Answer the Phone. Don't Open the Door. Don't Try to Escape / (3) Solving This Mystery is Going to be Murder / (4) Now everybody is a victim and everybody is a suspect! / (5) From The First Name in Terror Comes the Last Word in Fear / (6) Someone Has Taken Their Love of Scary Movies One Step Too Far!
Filmed in: Widescreen / Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Major Awards Won: 1997 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films -
Saturn Award - Best Horror Film, Best Actress - Neve Campbell, Best Writer - Kevin Williamson
Region 1 DVD first released: December 3, 1997 (3 releases to date) / Screen Format: Widescreen, Languages: English 5.1 Surround, Subtitles: English / Scene Chapters: 15 / Special Features: Audio Commentary, Original Documentary (Boxset Exclusive), Original Featurette, Screen Tests (Boxset Exclusive), Behind the Scenes Footage, Outtakes (Boxset Exclusive), Video Q & A with the Cast & Crew, Photo Gallery, Text Trivia, Cast & Crew Text Profiles
Notable Facts / Trivia
These are the Horror Movie rules, as stated in the movie:
1. You will not survive if you have sex
2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs
3. You will not survive if you say, "I'll be right back"
4. Everyone is a suspect
(Two additional rules come from the killer: )
5. You will not survive if you ask "Who's there?"
6. You will not survive if you go out to investigate a strange noise
1. Many references to horror films/characters, filmmakers, and thrillers with vicious murderers. They include, chronologically: Halloween (1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1985-1994), Michael Myers from Halloween, Friday the 13th (1980), Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th sequels (1981-1984 & 1986-1993), The Exorcist (1973), Basic Instinct (1992), Candyman (1992), "Wes Carpenter" - a knowingly miscited reference to Wes Craven and John Carpenter, The Howling (1981), Prom Night (1980), The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977), Evil Dead (1981), Hellraiser (1987), The Fog (1980), Terror Train (1980), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Psycho (1960), Carrie (1976), Norman Bates from Psycho, and Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. Throughout the film, it also unwittingly / half-wittingly makes reference to 2 other horror films, The Bad Seed (1956) and After Midnight (1989)
2. The use of Caller ID increased more than threefold after the release of this film
3. When Drew Barrymore, one of the first actors attached to the film, got a copy of the script, she loved it and was put into contact with casting director Lisa Beach. Beach was very excited that Barrymore wanted to be in the movie and cast her as Sidney Prescott. However, Barrymore called Beach later to tell her that she wouldn't be able to play Sidney because of scheduling conflicts. But she wanted to be in the film so much that she offered instead to play the smaller role of Casey Becker as a solution. When other young actors and their agents discovered Barrymore was involved in the film, the script draw a huge amount of attention
4. Other actresses who auditioned or campaigned for the role of Sidney Prescott included Melissa Joan Hart, Reese Witherspoon, and Holly Marie Combs, who was later cast with Rose McGowan on the hit TV series Charmed, and had previously taken the lead role in the horror film, Dr. Giggles. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson had Molly Ringwald in mind when writing the film and Lisa Beach offered her the role, but she turned it down, not wanting to play a High School student at age 27. She later however, took a role in the Miramax/Dimension horror film, Office Killer, as a 20-something, and made a cameo in Not Another Teen Movie, which was the Scary Movie (the Scream parody made by Miramax/Dimension who made the Scream films) of the Teen film genre. Neither of these films would exist without Scream's success
5. Janeane Garofalo was the first actress offered the role of Gail Weathers but turned it down. Courtney Cox wanted the role from the minute she read the screenplay and tried very hard to convince Lisa Beach and Craven that she could play the role, but they didn't want to cast her because she had always played characters they saw as too likable. Beach ended up casting Cox because her job was to find the most recognizeable actress she could and the success of Friends was one of the deciding factors. The other being that none of the obvious actresses for the role wanted to play Gale Weathers because she was too un-likable
6. Melinda Clarke was the only actress offered the role of Tatum Riley to turn it down. The 2 other actresses who almost landed the role both were cast as Rose McGowan's fellow Flawless Four members in her 1999 film, Jawbreaker. Rebecca Gayheart, who played Julie, auditioned for Tatum and was a sure thing until scheduling conflicts with her film Somebody is Waiting prevented her from landing the role. She was later remembered by Lisa Beach and was immediately promised a role in Scream 2 (1997), playing a dimwitted sorority sister. Charlotte Ayanna, who played Liz Purr, was considered for Tatum before Rose was selected because she had experiences in performing her own stunts
7. Freddie Prinze Jr. auditioned for the role of Stu but Matthew Lillard was chosen instead for being more intense. When writing his screenplay for I Know What You Did Last Summer, Kevin Williamson had Freddie in mind for one of the roles and was very pleased when he was cast in the film
8. Kevin Williamson's screenplay, first titled "Scary Movie," (the Wayans brothers were well-aware of this fact when they made their spoof) caused a bidding war in Hollywood. The two other major studios interested in the film were Paramount and Universal. Miramax ended up winning the bid for the script, but as a result, initially gave the film a smaller budget than the other studios included in their deals. Of course, after a short while in production, Miramax upped the budget substancially - which changed the film's orientation, technically making it a fully-mainstream Hollywood studio film, although many reviewers and magazines continued labeling it an "Independent" production, which many horror fans resent
9. The MPAA originally designated that the slow-motion in-pursuit shot of the killer stabbing Casey Becker in the chest had to be cut out of the film or else they would force the film to be rated NC-17. Wes Craven, who insists this film was his 2nd hardest film to get an R-rating from the MPAA, told them that this take was the only one they had filmed and that the entire scene would be ruined if it was removed because the 2 shots at each end of it were close-shots of Casey on the ground, while the long-shot of Casey running features her standing up. The board caved in and allowed the shot to stay in the movie. However, Craven was lying about it being the only take they shot
10. The killing of Principal Himbry was added to the film after Bob Weinstein noticed that there was about 30 pages in the script where nobody died and told Kevin Williamson that "this is a horror movie- somebody must die." When he selected the Principal, he realized he now had a good idea for a reason to have all the "Movie party" guests to leave before the film's big climax
11. The film was originally intended to be shot at a high school in Santa Rosa, CA, following the community's learning of the income they would earn should they let production shoot there. However, the school board read the script and hastily objected to what they told the community was the film's "violent content." What they told the filmmakers was another story. They told the filmmakers that they objected to the callous nature of the teens' nonchalant discussions of movie killers and gutting the bodies of fellow students. Production was held up for over a week during this period. While a mere handful of people on the school board were refusing to change their mind, the entire community, including the student population, supported the film's production taking place at the school. But as long as the school board members continued to fight the film's content, which the filmmakers refused to alter, the filmmakers weren't allowed to shoot at the school. When filming of the high school was relocated to the Sonoma Community Center, word reached the filmmakers that one of the members of the Santa Rose school board, who objected to the film's shooting at the school, was arrested and incarcerated for beating his wife.
12. The killer was based on a Florida serial killer, the "Gainesville Ripper"
13. The final film shares many similarities to previous horror films. The beginning of the movie is plotted much like When a Stranger Calls (1979). A cover of the song, "Don't Fear the Reaper" plays in Sidney's bedroom, which originally played in Halloween with Annie and Laurie listening to it in the car, though performed by it's original artist. When Sidney runs into her house, the killer comes out of the closet the same way Michael Myers comes out of the closet after a victim in Halloween. When Casey's parents come home and see that something is wrong, her father says to her mother, "Go down the street to the Mackenzies' house and call the police" which is a quote from Halloween. Billy (who looks like Johnny Depp) sneaks into Sidney's room by climbing the rose trellis on the side of her house, just like Depp's character in A Nightmare On Elm Street. Casey hanging from the tree looks like the opening of Suspiria. Tatum wears a jersey with the number 10 on it, this is the same number as Johnny Depp's character wore in A Nightmare on Elm Street. The school janitor, Fred, is actually played by director Craven and is obviously wearing Freddy Krueger's outfit from A Nightmare On Elm Street. When Casey is trying to answer the "Friday the 13th" trivia question, a cue in the music score plays as an homage to Halloween's score. Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween (1978). And actor David Arquette's sister, Patricia, starred in A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, produced and co-written by Wes Craven
14. The Ghostface mask is based on the painting "Scream" by Edvard Munch
15. The character of Casey claims that all of the sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street "sucked." Wes Craven had sold the rights to sequels before the film was a success and disliked most of them. However, this line was not his idea, nor originally did he want to use it in the film. But he changed his mind for 2 basic reasons- 1) a lot of actual teens continue to argue that no horror sequels have ever surpassed their original, and 2) because Wes Craven's New Nightmare was an official sequel to the film, he directed it, and it was included in the films that "sucked"
16. When the phone slips out of Billy's hand and hit's Stu's head, it was completely unintentional. Wes Craven kept it in because of Stu's realistic reaction, and his following comical ad-lib, "you f***in' hit me with the phone, Dick!" Other lines that Lillard ad-libbed for this scene include, "Houston, we have a problem here," "BOO-KAH!", "My Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad at me," and "I always had a thing for ya, Sid!" to which she, in-character, replied, "in your dreams!" - another ad-lib
17. The person wearing the Ghostface costume was played by a stunt man, not an actor. Most horror filmmakers consider it a Golden Rule of casting that you should never hire a stuntman to play a character in a costume because they aren't talented enough to be able to portray the character with proper psychology. Among these filmmakers, Dan O'Bannon who directed The Return of the Living Dead, John Carpenter who directed Halloween, and Jack Sholder who directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. The stuntman is credited by Craven as the one who came up with the Killers' insistance of wiping the blood off the blade before running off to kill again, which Craven / Williamson decided to continue including in scenes for Scream 2. However, the scene where the killer is sneaking up behind Randy is the only one where the person in the costume is actually one of the actors rather than the stunt man. Skeet Ulrich had specifically asked if he could wear the costume for one scene
18. When the kids watch Halloween at the party, someone comments, "the blood is all wrong! Now why do they do that? It's too red!" Halloween has barely any blood. What little it does have looks black because of the darkly lit rooms the final scenes took place in. However, the 1981 sequel has several scenes where ultra-red blood drips all over the place, especially Laurie Strode's hospital flashback to her childhood and a sequence where a boy is near-fatally injured slipping in another victim's pool of blood. This is the most-likely source for the movie's dialogue in this sequence
19. Wes Craven found the famous Ghostface mask in a store while location-scouting in California. When Bob Weinstein watched rough cuts of the first scenes filmed, he said that the mask was "idiotic" and requested that a scene be shot with seven different masks and let him choose which one he liked the most. The producers were so furious, they threatened to shut down production. They told him to wait until the first sequence was completed and edited to see that they had the perfect mask. After watching it, he happily agreed to the mask used and didn't make another
complaint for the rest of the filming
20. The KNB special effects team used about 50 gallons of fake blood on-set, the most in the film series. The sequels used steadily less as the climate of the country became more liberal and films across the board decreased their violent content - even though dialogue in the sequel says, "the sequels are supposed to have more blood and more gore. Carnage-candy." Films like Scream were also targeted in a sweep of entertainment blamed for influencing violent youth like the Columbine high school shooters, although it wasn't necessarily proven that they even saw this movie
21. The filming locations include 2 cinematic horror houses, a 1 real-life house much of the cast & crew found to be "haunted." Tatum's house was across the street from the house used in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and the house used for Casey's opening scene was next door to the house used in Cujo (1983). The house used for the final location, of Stu's party, had been owned by a nice couple who had died shortly before the production was scouting for houses. The couple's children allowed filming to take place there
22. A poster of Jamie Lee Curtis (who Scream names the Scream Queen) for the film Mother's Boys (1994) is shown prominently at the video store. Another film of hers, Trading Places (1983) is later mentioned
23. William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying (1930) features a character named Skeet McGowan (the film's Skeet Ulrich and Rose McGowan), and a character named Dewey (the film's Deputy Dewey)
24. The cheerleader in the Girls' Bathroom scene was played by Skeet Ulrich's girlfriend. Also, the location for this scene was later re-used as the Studio-Set bathroom in Scream 3
25. Kevin Patrick Walls, who plays Drew Barrymore's ill-fated boyfriend, was given this small part as compensation for being the other major contender for the role of Billy. The part was given to Skeet Ulrich after casting director Lisa Beach swore by his performance being the best of all actors auditioned for the role, even though Walls fit screenwriter Kevin Williamson's physical description of Billy in the script much more than Ulrich did. The casting of David Arquette was also radically different than the script's description of Dewey Riley. Originally, Dewey was meant to be a much more physically buff and hunky character with a less quirky personality and played with less humor, which came naturally to anything Arquette played. Proof of this exists further in the scene where Gale Weathers comments on Dewey having a very muscularly defined upper torso. So, in the sequels, the character of Dewey was written to be more quirky and energetic to fit Arquette's physical acting style. Arquette managed to convince Wes Craven that he would be a great choice for Dewey, and Craven agreed based on Arquette's body of acting work - he didn't have to audition for the role
26. When Sidney comes out of the closet and stabs Billy with an umbrella, the stunt person was supposed to hit a pad taped to Skeet Ulrich's chest. The first hit got the pad but the second one slipped and hit him in the chest, which might not have hurt Ulrich as badly as it did, except that he actually has a metal plate in his chest from an injury he had sustained in his life. Having this reaction with the sharp metal point of the umbrella, caused him excrutiating pain. Wes Craven kept it in because of the authenticity of his facial expression
27. Rose McGowan intentionally dyed her hair blonde in order to contrast her black hair from Neve Campbell's
28. Wes Craven is actually wearing the Ghostface costume during the shots where he smashes his head through a window and is hit by Casey with the telephone
29. The idea of the pet door in the Garage scene came from Williamson's assistant. Originally, Tatum's death scene was to be a fist fight with the killer, and having the door come down on her neck. During filming of the scene, actress Rose McGowan discovered that she could easily fit all the way through the tiny flap and escape. But for the sake of the scene, they made her get stuck anyway
30. The character of Dewey was intended to die in the script from the stab wound to the back he incurs in the film. Director Wes Craven filmed the scene at the end of the film, where Dewey is alive and being taken to the hospital, just in case he changed his mind about killing Dewey. The screen-test audience loved the character Dewey so much, that Craven decided to add his survival scene in the final cut
31. Linda Blair, child star of the infamous, The Exorcist, plays the obnoxious reporter who hounds Sidney when she gets out of Dewey's cop car and says, "so how does it feel to be almost brutally butchered? People want to know, they have a right to know!" Also, the actress who plays Tatum and Dewey's mother, Francis Lee McCain, was the mother of the Billy character in Gremlins (1984), who is tormented by the title creatures in the film's famously violent Kitchen and Christmas Tree attack sequences
Disney Connection: The house used to film scenes of Tatum's house is right across the street from the house used in Pollyanna (1960), located in Santa Rosa, California
What the Critics Have to Say:
Roger Ebert - "3 (out of 4) stars" "The movie itself, for all of its ironic in-jokes, also functions as a horror film -- a bloody and gruesome one, that uses as many cliches as it mocks", "What did I think about this movie? As a film critic, I liked it. I liked the in-jokes and the self-aware characters. At the same time, I was aware of the incredible level of gore in this film. It is *really* violent", "some viewers will be horrified"
Leonard Maltin - "3 (out of 4) stars"
San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Stack - "amusingly twisted", "it's party time for horror-movie fans", "designed to make the faint of heart rush for the exits", "The film plays lively games with the macabre. It's the sort of creepy hemoglobin shocker that peaked in the 1980s when horror movies were all the rage", "fresh", "a sizzling splatter movie" ((don't ask me about that one)), "it's above average in the field", "wicked fun with flickers of intelligence. It will have horror fans howling and the P.C. police blowing whistles", "Scream is exceptionally violent, making no bones about a point-blank evisceration", "highly inventive", "For many who have lost sight of how entertaining a horror-thriller can be, this one aims to get folks hyped", "savvy", "Scream puts the acting burden on Campbell, and she fares well", "
San Francisco Examiner, Bob Stephens - "the eerie distortion, the elongation, of the killer's skeletal mask is an effective design", "Three of the featured actresses give good performances: Neve Campbell as the heroine; Courteney Cox as an ambitious TV scandal monger; and, best of all, Rose McGowan as the funny and touchingly gutsy sidekick of Campbell's character. Drew Barrymore is also impressive in the brief opening sequence", "wild, truly frightening energy"
Washington Post, Richard Herrington - "Go Ahead and
Scream", "The best fright fest of the '90s, Scream playfully tweaks many of the horror/slasher conventions in place", "a fiendishly clever, complicated plot that makes it an instant classic", "it begins and ends with requisite bloody roughness", "the film deftly mixes irony, self-reference, and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills. And even to a veteran genre fan like myself, the ending was a genuine surprise", "(a) wild ride", "Craven unleashes a living, knife-wielding nightmare", "truly unsettling"
DVD Verdict - (
SITE NOT WORKING, hopefully this is temporary)
The Video Graveyard - "a decent and entertaining flick with a fine young cast"
The Cavalcade of Schlock, Brian J. Wright - "a real nailbiter", "Campbell (is) quite good. Sweet, winsome, vulnerable yet tough, she's basically what all those "good-girl" slasher-movie heroines of the 80's strove to be but rarely pulled off", "Matthew Lilliard is hilarious, going for a Stephen Geoffreys kind of nutjob charm, except here making it believable", "Jamie Kennedy steals most scenes he's in", "Man, these kids actually have parents! That's a new one in this kind of film, ain't it?", "The action is skillfully handled by Craven; this is his best work in a dozen years, maybe even his best, period", "Tossing in clues and laughs both obvious and subtle, Scream goes above and beyond the call", "The score by Marco Beltrami is great, blending orchestral music with electronics to good effect", "Jamie Kennedy delivers his pop-culture references like a genuine fan", "excellent example of teen horror, as good any produced in the past twenty years", "Love it or hate it, it'll be remembered"
Zombie Keeper - "3 (out of 4)" "Scream is one of the smartest and straight up brilliant horror scripts ever written", "Scream not only brought on a horror movie resurgence but it also ranks as one of the best horror films of the nineties. The cast of mostly young actors give solid, convincing performances, and the final revelation of who the killer(s) are is a stunner", "Scream is chock full of great lines", "The film is funny without being slapstick", "scary, smart, and bloody. Scream is a modern day classic"
SF, Fantasy, and Horror - "4 (out of 5) stars" "Scream would have to be the singlemost influential horror film of the 1990s"
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Photo Gallery
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Director Wes Craven
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