Scream (film series)
Encyclopedia
Scream is a series of American
horror slasher
films
created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven
. The films star Neve Campbell
, Courteney Cox
, and David Arquette
. The series has grossed over $
600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures. The first series entry, Scream
, was released on December 20, 1996 and is currently the highest grossing slasher film in the United States. The second entry Scream 2
was released on December 12, 1997 followed by a third installment, Scream 3
, released February 4, 2000. Scream 4
was released eleven years after the previous, on April 15, 2011. The films follow the character of Sidney Prescott
(Campbell) who becomes the target of a succession of murderers who adopt the guise of Ghostface
to stalk and torment their victims. Sidney receives support in the films from town deputy Dewey Riley (Arquette), reporter Gale Weathers (Cox), and film-geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy).
Williamson's original script was bought by Miramax and developed under the Dimension Films
label by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who recruited Craven to direct, who in turn recruited composer
Marco Beltrami
to score the film. This team went on to be involved in each film in the series though Williamson was forced to take a smaller role for Scream 3, writing only a brief plot outline due to his commitments to other projects, with Ehren Kruger
replacing him as screenwriter
. The series' violence resulted in conflicts with the Motion Picture Association of America and news media
concerning censorship resulting in a reduction of violence and gore in Scream 3 when the Columbine incident brought increased focus on the media's influence on society. Scream became notable for its use of established and recognizable actors which was uncommon for horror film
s at the time, yet has since become common in part due to Screams success.
The series has received significant critical acclaim, Scream being credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the late 90s by combining a traditional slasher film with humor, awareness of horror film cliché
and a clever plot. Scream was one of the highest grossing films of 1996 and became, and remains, the highest grossing slasher film in the world. Its success was matched by Scream 2 which not only broke box-office records of the time but which some critics argued was actually superior to the original. Scream 3 fared worse than its predecessors, both critically and financially, with critics commenting that it had become the type of horror film it originally parodied in Scream. It did however receive some positive response with claims that it was the perfect end to the trilogy. The film series has been the recipient of several awards including a Saturn Award for Best Actress and MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
for Campbell and Best Horror Film
for Scream.
on December 18, 1996 at the AMC
Avco theater in Westwood, California
and was generally released on December 20, 1996. Based on a screenplay by screenwriter Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven
, creator of the A Nightmare on Elm Street
series of slasher films, Scream offered a self-referential approach to horror by featuring a cast of characters aware of the conventions of the horror film
genre and able to use them to survive. The film focuses on teenager Sidney Prescott
as she comes under attack from a mysterious character dubbed Ghostface
while dealing with the anniversary of her mother's murder. The film went on to be a financial success earning back its $15 million budget eleven times over and receiving considerable critical acclaim for its deconstruction of the horror genre. It is credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the mid 90s and inspiring an array of imitators. It was particularly notable for its casting of established and popular actors and actresses which was previously uncommon in a horror movie.
, mocking them while simultaneously falling victim to them. The film again focuses on the character of Sidney Prescott, now a college student, as a series of copycat crimes begin, the killers again using the disguise of Ghostface. The film was financially successful, deviating from its predecessor's worldwide gross by less than US$1 million and receiving similar critical praise for its deconstruction of the horror film sequel and commentary on the influence of the media in society. The script for Scream 2 was leaked during production revealing the identity of the killers and so the film underwent extensive rewrites, changing the identity of the killers though their motivation remained intact.
and his original film Teaching Mrs. Tingle
(1999), being replaced by Ehren Kruger
who finalized a script based on several ideas supplied by Williamson. The film focuses on Sidney Prescott who faces a new Ghostface killer and the truth about her mother that led to the start of the Ghostface killings. The film, like its predecessors, featured characters who were self-aware of horror conventions, in this case the rules and structure of the final entry in a movie trilogy. Scream 3 was considerably less successful than the previous two installments, suffering both financially and critically, commentators noting that the film had become akin to the horror films it originally parodied in Scream and Scream 2. Others were critical of the change in tone, focusing more on humor instead of horror and violence. However, critics who reacted positively were supportive of this change in tone and praised the film for successfully completing the film trilogy.
announced the development of a new sequel, Scream 4, written by Williamson with Craven being secured for the project in March 2010. In May 2010, Cathy Konrad
, producer of the original three Scream films filed a $3 million lawsuit against The Weinstein Company alleging they violated an agreement with her company, Cat Entertainment, that gave them first rights to produce all Scream films. The Weinstein Company argued that the agreement requires Konrad's services to be exclusive to the franchise, an argument that Konrad called "false pretext" as the previous films did not require this stipulation. Konrad accuses the Weinsteins of attempting to force her to walk away without compensation in order to hire a cheaper producer (Craven's wife Iya Labunka) and cut costs. In April 2011, it was reported that the case had been settled out of court by The Weinstein Company.
The film underwent reshoots of some scenes in January 2011 with Craven stating that they were to enhance some scenes but that the ending remains untouched, countering criticism that, following a January 6, 2011 test screening
, the film may undergo significant changes due to poor audience responses. The fourth installment premiered on April 11, 2011 at Graumans Chinese Theater with a public release following April 15, 2011.
, confirmed that a sequel was possible, saying that despite Scream 4 performing below The Weinstein Company
s financial expectations, he was still happy with the gross it had accrued. On December 1st, 2011, the official Dimension Films
Twitter
account said, "Which sequel are you most looking forward to? Piranha 3DD Scary Movie 5, Halloween III, or Scream 5?" Insinuating that Scream 5 is confirmed.
s Johnny Depp
and Shocker
s Peter Berg
. However, the decision was made to cast actors who already had a notable body of work, marking a change from many previous horror films where casting current, popular actors was unheard of. Craven believed their budget was inadequate to secure the actors they were pursuing but felt that Barrymore's presence made people eager to take part and accepting of a lower salary.
Drew Barrymore
initially approached the production herself after reading the script and was signed to play Sidney Prescott. However as time progressed, her schedule commitments meant she would be unable to remain in the leading role, so she volunteered to play the smaller role of Casey Becker who dies early in the film. The production felt that killing off an actress of Barrymore's stature early on would be a risk but thought that it would be shocking to the audience and make them believe that no other character was safe. Following Barrymore's changed role, Alicia Witt
and Brittany Murphy
auditioned for the lead and the production also considered contacting Reese Witherspoon
. The role was ultimately given to Neve Campbell
after the director saw her in Party of Five
, believing she could best embody a character who was "innocent" but also able to handle herself while dealing with the physicality and emotions of the role. Though reluctant to undertake another horror film so soon after The Craft
, Campbell chose to do Scream as it would be her first leading role and she "adored" the character, saying "She's a fantastic character for any kind of movie." The production wanted a recognizable face for the role of news reporter Gale Weathers, offering it to both Brooke Shields
and Janeane Garofalo
. Cox
, who was starring in the hit NBC
sitcom Friends
at the time, was not considered due to her history of playing softer, kinder characters. Cox however lobbied hard for the role for that reason, wishing to play a "bitch" character, her efforts ultimately succeeding when she was cast. Actresses Melinda Clarke
and Rebecca Gayheart
auditioned for the role of Tatum Riley before Rose McGowan
was cast due to her best embodying the "spunky" nature of the character. It was believed the collective strong female cast of Campbell, Barrymore, Cox and McGowan would help draw a significant female audience to the film.
Kevin Patrick Walls
, who played Barrymore's boyfriend Steve Orth in the opening of Scream, was one of the final candidates for the role of Sidney's boyfriend, Billy Loomis, alongside Justin Whalin
before it was won by Skeet Ulrich
. Campbell and Ulrich had a prior working relationship on The Craft which they believed help them better develop the relationship between Sidney and Billy. David Arquette
was also approached for the role of Billy Loomis but instead wanted the role of Dewey. The role was described as "hunky
" instead of the younger, "goofier" approach of Arquette but Craven appreciated the idea and cast him in the role. Matthew Lillard
was cast by chance as he had accompanied his then-girlfriend to a separate audition where Scream casting director Lisa Beach saw him and asked him to audition, where he secured the role of Stu Macher. The role of Randy Meeks was contested between Jamie Kennedy
and Breckin Meyer
with the production favoring Kennedy. Having no major role prior to Scream, the studio wanted a more prominent actor than Kennedy in the role but the production were adamant that he was the best choice and successfully fought to keep him in. Roger L. Jackson
, voice of the character Ghostface
, was picked at the end of several weeks of local casting in Santa Rosa. The production had originally intended to only use his voice temporarily but ultimately decided that it was perfect for the role. He was intentionally kept from meeting many members of the cast in all three original Scream films as it was thought it would help their performance if they could not put a face to the menacing voice. The calls made by his character were genuine phone calls conducted on set by Jackson to the characters, again with the intention of aiding the interaction between his character and the character being "stalked" in a scene.
For Scream 2, Campbell had been contracted for a possible sequel before filming began on Scream. However actors with surviving characters had a sequel option added after it was known which character would be eligible to appear in the next film. In interviews, the production staff of Scream 2 stated they believed that Barrymore's role in Scream added an element of respectability to the genre that made actors normally reluctant to engage a horror film, eager to sign on to Scream 2. Many of the actors involved including Campbell, Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar
and Jerry O'Connell
were starring in their own television series at the time making scheduling their availability with the film difficult. Gellar in particular had also recently finished work on another Williamson-penned film, I Know What You Did Last Summer
(1997) which released two months prior to Scream 2. She would admit in interviews that she signed on to Scream 2 without having read the script, based on the success of the first film. Craven took their desire to participate in the film despite their workload as a compliment to the films quality. To obtain the role of Derek, O'Connell and other candidates had to audition by performing a scene from the film where the character sings "I Think I Love You
". The cast was rounded out by Laurie Metcalf
, who had just finished a nine-year run on the popular sitcom Roseanne
, Lewis Arquette
, father of David Arquette, Jada Pinkett and Timothy Olyphant
in what was his first leading role in a feature film
. Rebecca Gayheart, who had unsuccessfully auditioned to play Tatum Riley in Scream, auditioned for the roles of Hallie, Cici and Maureen Evans before being cast as Sorority Sister Lois.
For Scream 3, Craven stated in an interview that convincing the central cast to return was not difficult but their burgeoning fame and busy schedules made arranging their availability with the films production troublesome. Campbell in particular was only available for 20 days of filming which resulted in a significantly reduced role for her character and a focus on Cox and Arquette's characters. Emily Mortimer
was cast as Angelina Tyler but shortly after filming began it was discovered she lacked the required permit to work, resulting in her being flown to Vancouver
to obtain one. Carrie Fisher
made a cameo in the film at the suggestion of Bob Weinstein and Fisher helped write her character. Kelly Rutherford
was cast after filming had begun as the production was undergoing constant rewrites and the opening scene evolved from requiring only a female corpse to needing a live actress with whom Schreiber could interact. In an 2009 interview, Matthew Lillard
, who played Stu Macher in Scream, claimed that he was signed to reprise his role in Scream 3 as the primary antagonist but after the script moved in a direction without his character, he was bought out of his contract.
When production of Scream 4 was announced, Campbell initially refused offers to reprise her role as Sidney, forcing early script drafts to be written in consideration of her absence. However, in September 2009, Campbell, Cox and Arquette were all confirmed as reprising their roles as Sidney, Gale and Dewey respectively, with Jackson's commitment confirmed in July 2010. Continuing the trend started in Scream, the production cast established and popular actors Hayden Panettiere
, Rory Culkin
, Anna Paquin
, Kristen Bell
and Emma Roberts
. Roberts was cast as Jill, Sidney Prescott's cousin, beating out Ashley Greene
for the role. Lake Bell
and Lauren Graham
were cast in the film but dropped out early into production, Bell citing scheduling conflicts. Nico Tortorella
auditioned five times to secure the role of Trevor, the ex-boyfriend of Roberts' character, by reenacting a scene from Scream where the character of Billy Loomis reveals he is one of the killers.
(1996) was conceived under the title Scary Movie by screenwriter Kevin Williamson as an 18-page script inspired by a series of murders by the Gainesville Ripper that Williamson had seen in a news story and his own experience alone in a friends house after discovering an open window he had not previously noticed. The treatment covered what would become the opening scene of Scream featuring Drew Barrymore
. Williamson began to expand this script into what ultimately became Scream because his previous script, Teaching Mrs. Tingle
, was in development hell
, writing it in only three days in Palm Springs
and bringing it to his agent in June 1995 to put it up for sale. Accompanying the script were two 5-page outlines for potential sequels to the film, Williamson hoping to provide added incentive to buy the script by providing potential for a franchise. Williamson would later claim he wrote the screenplay partly because it was a film he wanted to watch and "nobody else is making it". The script was self-referential, featuring characters who watched horror film
s and were aware of the conventions of the genre and featured numerous homages to many preceding horror films which Williamson would claim inspired him, including Halloween
, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street
and Prom Night.
Williamson was told early on by his agent, Rob Paris, that the saturation of violence and gore in his script would make it "impossible" to sell and following its purchase by Miramax he was required to remove much of the gorier scenes. However, once Craven was confirmed to direct, he was able to bring much of the excised content back. Williamson intended to remove a scene in the film that took place inside the fictional school's bathroom, feeling it was awkward but Craven salvaged it believing it had potential. Williamson later confirmed that he was glad Craven did so. The death of the character Principal Himbry was added at the request of producer Bob Weinstein
who noted that there was thirty pages (thirty on-screen minutes) without a murder occurring. This later aided Williamson who was struggling to find motivation for characters to leave a party in the films finale, now able to use the discovered corpse of the Himbry character. When writing the finale, Williamson was unsure what to cite as a motivation for the killers or whether to give them one at all. Opinions were split between staff on the picture, some who felt that a motive was necessary for the audience to be given resolution while others felt it was scarier without one. Ultimately Williamson decided to do both, giving the character Billy Loomis the motive of maternal abandonment while not giving the character of Stu Macher one, instead having the character jokingly suggest "peer pressure".
Following the release of Scream, Williamson confirmed that he had considered a concept for a sequel where the character Sidney Prescott attends college and a copycat killer begins stalking her. Dimension Films agreed to pursue a sequel in March 1997, by which point Williamson had already written 42 pages of the new script. By July 1997, filming began on Scream 2, but his completed script was leaked
on the Internet
revealing much of the plot including the finale and the identity of the films killers. As a result, the production was forced to continue filming with only a partial script as Williamson conducted rewrites, changing much of the finale, the killers victims and the killers identity. To preserve the identity of the killer or important plot points being revealed again, the actors were not given the last pages of the script until weeks before shooting and the pages that revealed the killers identity were only provided on the day the scene was shot. The short production schedule on Scream 2 and his work on other projects meant that Williamson's final script used for the film was detailed in some areas but lacking in others, the intention being for Craven to fill out these scenes on set.
Williamson was approached by the Bob and Harvey Weinstein in early 1999 to pen a script for Scream 3 but at the time he was involved with the writing and directing of his original script Teaching Mrs. Tingle and developing the short-lived TV series Wasteland
. Unable to write a full script, Williamson provided a draft outline for the film that involved the filming of the film within a film "Stab 3", based on the previous films in-universe murders, that took place in the fictional town of Woodsboro from the original Scream. Arlington Road
scribe Ehren Kruger
was brought into the production by the Weinstein brothers to develop a script using Williamson's notes, though Kruger admitted that without having been involved with the characters in the previous two films he struggled to write them true to character. Early scripts by Kruger had the character of Sidney Prescott much like "Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2" at which point Craven would intervene to bring the character closer to previous iterations. Kruger admits that Craven had a hand in writing the script though he remained uncredited for it. Kruger's script would differ in many ways from Williamson's original including the removal of one of the killers and the inclusion of the death of Cotton Weary who was originally absent from the film. Additionally, the films location changed from Woodsboro to Hollywood as Kruger believed that the characters should be moving to bigger places from high school
, to college to Hollywood. However, there were also considerations that creating a film containing acts of murder in and around the fictional Woodsboro school would receive negative attention following the Columbine High School massacre
that occurred less than a year before the films eventual release. The film was given a greater emphasis on humor over violence and fared worse than previous installments both financially and critically.
Almost ten years after the last installment, in late 2009, Williamson formulated a concept for a new installment and approached Bob Weinstein who, after hearing his pitch, told Williamson to begin writing a script for what would become Scream 4. Campbell initially refused to return to the series for Scream 4 forcing early script drafts to be written in consideration of her characters absence with Cox and Arquette's characters becoming the focus. Early versions of the script involved Campbell's character being attacked and killed in the opening, a key point of contention for Weinstein who had it removed, while another version had Cox and Arquette's character as parents, but this too was removed as it was believed that them having a child would be unworkable in the context of the film. After Williamson was forced to leave the production due to contractual commitments to The Vampire Diaries
, under threat of legal action, controversy arose in July, 2010 when Scream 3 writer Ehren Kruger was brought in by Weinstein to perform re-writes on Williamson's script, about which Craven was outspoken on "losing control" of the story. He would later explain that despite rewrites it was still Williamson's characters and script. Weinstein clarified that Kruger was brought in to "punch up" the films dialog but his involvement with the writing was not to the same extent as with Scream 3. To preserve the secrecy of the script and the identity of the films killer, the cast were only provided with 75 pages of the 140 page-long script. Like the two previous installments in the series, the script underwent rewrites often with pages sometimes only ready on the day of shooting.
, Universal Pictures
and Morgan Creek
, with producer
Cathy Konrad
bringing it to the attention of Bob Weinstein
. The bidding eventually rose to an amount that the choice ultimately came down to Oliver Stone
, who was at the time working with Cinergi Pictures
, and Weinstein under Miramax. Williamson agreed to terms with Miramax for $400,000 plus a contract for two sequels and a third, unrelated film, believing their label, Dimension Films
, would produce Scream immediately and without significant restriction. Wes Craven
was approached early on to helm the film but he was occupied with remaking The Haunting
and so other directors including Robert Rodriguez
, Danny Boyle
, George Romero and Sam Raimi
were approached. Concerns were raised by Williamson and Weinstein when many of the approached directors, having read the script, believed the film to be a comedy, making them reluctant to hire those particular directors, believing they "didn't get it". Craven was approached and passed on the film several times, wanting to move away from the genre, but was enticed once Drew Barrymore became involved, reasoning that it may be different to his previous works if an actress of her recognition was involved. Ultimately the production of The Haunting, at that time, fell through and Craven was able to take over directing duties on the film. Close to the end of the films production, the Weinstein brothers had the films title changed from Scary Movie to Scream inspired by the Michael Jackson song of the same name
as Bob Weinstein felt "Scary Movie" was not suitable when the film also contained elements of satire and comedy. The change was immediately disliked by both Williamson and Craven who considered it "stupid" but would later remark that it was a positive change.
Following a successful screening with a test audience
and Miramax executives, both Williamson and Craven were offered a two-picture contract for sequels to Scream, Williamson already having been offered a three-picture deal by Miramax for unrelated films. Bob Weinstein ordered that the film be released on December 20, 1996, a date others were critical of as it was the Christmas
season where seasonal and family films were more prevalent. Weinstein argued this fact was in the films favor as it meant that horror fans and teenagers had nothing interesting to watch. When Screams first weekend takings amounted to only $6 million, it was considered that this release date gamble had failed, but the following week the takings did not drop but increased and continued the following week, leading to a total U.S. gross of over $100 million. As Screams box-office takings grew, a lawsuit would be filed against Dimension Films by Sony Pictures who claimed that the title Scream was too similar to that of Sony's own film Screamers (1995). The case was settled out of court with the details remaining secret but producer Marianne Maddalena
would confirm that the production were able to use the current and potential future titles of Scream 2 and Scream 3.
A sequel was considered in January 1997 after the first film proceeded to gross more than $50 million in its first month. Scream 2
(1997) was greenlit in March 1997 with a budget of $24 million, and was released before the first films anniversary. The production of the film suffered a significant setback when the script was leaked revealing plot details including the identity of the killers, resulting in the script being modified to change many details. In an interview, Craven commented on the rushed schedule for the film, starting in July 1997 with a December release date, with many scenes in the script provided with only a loose outline forcing him to develop scenes on set. Various titles were considered for the sequel at different points in the films production, including Scream Again, Scream Louder and Scream: The Sequel before the studio decided to simply use Scream 2.
Scream 3
(2000) was released just over two years after Scream 2 with Craven again attached to direct the film on a greatly increased budget of $40 million. Shortly before production began on the film, the Columbine incident occurred and with it came an increased scrutiny on the media and its effect on people, particularly films. There were considerations at the time about whether the studio should continue production of a third installment in the aftermath of the incident but the studio decided to continue, albeit with changes. The studio was much more apprehensive concerning violence and gore in the film than with previous installments with them pressing for a greater emphasis on the series' humor while scaling back on the violence. At one point in the production, the studio demanded that the film feature no blood or on-screen violence but Craven intervened stating that the film should either have the violence present in earlier Scream films or should be called something other than Scream. As with production of Scream, Craven would again state in an interview that issues with censorship and the MPAA made him consider leaving the horror genre.
Production of a new film, Scream 4
(2011) was announced in July 2008 by The Weinstein Company
who approached Williamson about formulating a new script, with the intention of creating a new Scream trilogy if the fourth film proved successful. By late 2009, Williamson managed to develop an idea for the film and potential sequels and began work on the script. The film was given a budget of $40 million and the principal cast were signed to the film in September 2009 followed by Craven as director in March 2010. In May 2010, Cathy Konrad
, producer on the original three films filed a $3 million lawsuit against The Weinstein Company accusing them of violating an agreement that her company, Cat Entertainment, be given first rights to produce all Scream films in order to cut costs by getting a cheaper producer (Craven's wife Iya Labunka, not named in the suit). In April 2011, it was reported that the Weinstein's had settled out of court with Conrad, the details remaining confidential. The Hollywood Reporter
however, claimed that Conrad received a cash payment and entitlement to a percentage of the profits derived from Scream 4. In addition, she was given an executive producer
credit on the film. Williamson and Bob Weinstein came into repeated conflict with each other during production with Williamson citing the creative direction of the film as the cause while Weinstein blamed the time constraints on the films development. Williamson and Weinstein did not speak to each other after Williamson left the production, claiming other responsibilities, and he had not seen the finished version of the film prior to its release.
but the location was deemed unsuitable, with scouts unable to find useful locations that would not require extensive building or modification to make fit the requirements of the film. The production instead turned to Vancouver, Washington
and Los Angeles
before discovering Sonoma county, California and the areas within, Santa Rosa
, Healdsburg
and Tomales Bay
. The house used by Barrymore's character is situated on Sonoma Mountain Road opposite the house used in the horror film Cujo
(1983). Before filming began, the production approached Santa Rosa High School about using it as Woodsboro High School. The school board insisted on seeing the script and objected to the content of the film's dialog and the foul-mouthed, aggressive character of Principal Himbry. The matter reached local newspapers who also raised criticism but there the production received support from students of the school and local residents who supported the economical benefits of the films presence and others who defended its First Amendment rights. Opposition to the film came from those who deplored its content of violence against children (teenagers), as the area had suffered the tragic kidnap and murder of Polly Klaas
three years prior. The matter resulted in a three-hour debate on the topic scheduled for the 16th of April, one day after filming was to begin. Unwilling to be delayed, Craven began filming as scheduled on the 15th with the opening scene of the film featuring Barrymore which took five days to complete. The result of the Santa Rosa debate was that permission be denied and the production was forced to find another location for the school, ultimately being offered the Santa Rosa community center which appears as Woodsboro High School in Scream.
For the films killer, Williamson's script had provided Craven only with the description "masked killer" forcing him and his design team to create the Ghostface costume from scratch to conceal the killers identity. While awaiting permission from Fun World, creators of the Ghostface mask design, Craven had the design team KNB Effects create an alternative that was used in two scenes before being replaced by the original Fun World design once permission was granted. Bob Weinstein disliked the Ghostface mask believing it was not "scary" and the studio, upon reviewing the dailies
footage of the opening scene, were concerned that it was progressing in a direction they did not want and there was consideration that Craven could ultimately be replaced. To assuage their concerns, the first thirteen minutes of the opening scene were compiled as a workprint
, a rough version of the finished film, and upon seeing it, the studio were content to let Craven continue and Weinstein was satisfied that the mask could be scary. The third and final act of the film, set at a house party, was over forty minutes long and shot at a vacant property in Tomales over twenty-one nights. The scene was considered the most difficult to shoot as it took place entirely in one location yet featured the individual stories and deaths of multiple characters and as it was set at night, meant that production had to halt at daybreak.
After filming completed in June, Craven spent two months editing the final product, encountering repeated conflicts with the film rating
body MPAA concerning the content of scenes, being forced to tone down or obscure the more intense scenes and violence to avoid an NC-17. Though Dimension Films had previously released NC-17 films, the rating made those films difficult to market and attract an audience and thus they were desperate for a less restrictive R-rating. For an early scene involving the death of the character Casey Becker, Craven lied to the MPAA by claiming he had only one take of the scene and could not replace it with something less intense, in order to keep it in the film. In interviews, Craven indicated that the conflict was enough that, at the time, he was considering leaving the horror genre. In total, Craven sent eight different cuts of the film to the MPAA before before Bob Weinstein intervened and personally contacted the MPAA, believing they misunderstood to which genre Scream belonged. Weinstein explained to the organisation that although he agreed it was intense, it also had comedic elements and satirized its content and was not just a horror film glorifying violence. The MPAA reviewed their decision and granted the film an R-rating.
Production of a sequel, Scream 2
was greenlit in March 1997, with filming beginning on July 16, 1997 with a budget of $24 million and wrapping on August 28, 1997. Filming took place largely in Atlanta, Georgia
over four weeks before moving to Los Angeles
. Agnes Scott College
in Atlanta and UCLA in Los Angeles were used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in the film. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the fictional "Stab" film was filmed over three days in the Vista theater on Sunset Drive, Hollywood, the exterior represented by the Rialto theater in South Pasadena
. Due to the large number of extras present in the scene, its details were leaked onto the Internet shortly after filming completed which Craven cited as the productions first experience of a major plot leak. After his interactions with the MPAA in Scream, Craven sent them a copy of the film that was intentionally much more graphically violent than they were planning to release, featuring Omar Epps
' character being stabbed in the ear three times and an extended scene of Randy Meeks death. Their idea was that the MPAA would force them to remove the content the production already did not want while keeping the content they did. However, the MPAA gave them an R-Rating for the more violent cut, stating that they felt the message of the film was significant. Following a script leak early into filming, security around the production was significantly increased with a focus on closed filmsets and strict restriction on what personnel could be present during filming and have access to the script with all present required to sign non-disclosure agreements. The script itself was reprinted on specialty paper to prevent photocopying and was often destroyed after use.
Filming for Scream 3
began on July 6, 1999 in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, in the areas of San Fernando Valley
, Macarthur Park
, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills
and Silverlake
, with a $40 million budget and wrapped on September 29, 1999. The isolated home of Campbell's character is situated in Topanga Canyon
and Cox's character is introduced in a classroom
at UCLA. A scene where Campbell's character is pursued through movie set replicas of locations from Scream was not scripted but the sets were built because Craven knew he wanted to revisit the original film in some way, after which they wrote the scene around the set. Due to the constantly changing script used for the film, which would often be usable on the day of filming, the production filmed large amounts of footage of different variations of the same scenes in order that, should the script again change, they would ideally have a scene they could use without having to film new ones at a later date. In particular, the opening scene had three variants and the three-minute scene featuring the character of Randy Meeks had two-hours of filmed footage. The ending too was refilmed in January 2000, three months after principal photography finished, adding in the character of Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey
) and having Campbell's character beaten and then shot by Ghostface after it was decided she defeated him too easily. So in flux was the script that the final scene of the movie was filmed with three variants of Dempsey's character, one with him absent, one with his arm in bandage
s and one with him in a normal condition as they were unsure of what his fate would be.
Principal photography
for Scream 4
began on June 28, 2010 with a budget of $40 million and concluded on September 24, 2010. Filming took place in Michigan
in the areas of Ann Arbor
, Dearborn
, Livonia
and Northville
. In January 2011, the film underwent an additional four days of filming to reshoot two scenes, following a test screening
- the opening scene and a later scene that took place in a parking garage with Alison Brie
. Amidst criticism that the reshoots meant the film was in trouble and the result of a negative response from the test audience, director Craven countered,
Craven also complimented the films ending, labeling it "kick-ass" and stated that it remained untouched as part of the reshoot process. In an interview, Craven also highlighted that the script was so long they had filmed many scenes which had to be cut from the final film to reduce its running time.
, starting with Scream in what was his feature film
debut. Beltrami was brought onto the production of Scream after Craven's assistant Julie Pleck requested input on the now defunct site "Hollywood Cafe", asking for opinions on was "new", "fresh" and "wonderful" and was provided with Beltrami's name by several people. Craven sent for samples of Beltrami's work and was impressed by what he heard, bringing him to the set to view the first thirteen minutes of the film featuring the introduction and murder of the character Casey Becker. Craven had Beltrami produce music based on this scene and then demonstrate it, impressing Craven enough to hire him. For Scream (1996), the decision was made to intentionally use music to raise the tension in scenes where it was unnecessary when the characters were entering a situation where the audience may expect a killer to suddenly appear, only to not deliver on that expectation, part of the film's theme of playing with horror conventions. Craven and editor Patrick Lussier
provided Beltrami with advice on how best to deliver the music during scary and tense scenes as Beltrami had no prior experience in developing a horror score. Beltrami intentionally avoided conventional horror score styles and approached the film as a western, taking influence from Ennio Morricone
, prolific composer of many western films, in the creation of Screams music. When scoring a theme for the character of Dewey, Beltrami approached him as a sheriff but also as a "quirky" character, using a Morricone-style guitar accompaniment to maintain the Western approach. An acoustic cover of Blue Öyster Cult
's "Don't Fear the Reaper" plays softly in the background to Sidney and Billy's discussion of their relationship, which analyst Jeff Smith describes as
The theme tune of Sidney Prescott, entitled "Sidney's Lament", became a signature track for the series, variations of the tune appearing across the score of Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3. The track features a female choral arrangement expressing "sorrow" concerning the fate of the character. In Scream, Beltrami stated that the voice "spoke" for the character, "lamenting" the loss of her mother. In future films it went on to represent the murders and ensuing trauma inflicted on her. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks
called the "haunting" vocals of the track the "voice of the franchise". The track "Sid Wears a Dress" features in the finale of Scream 3 where the sorrowful chorus of "Lament" gradually shifts key
to represent "hope" for the characters future following the resolution of her storyline in what was then the final film in the series. The female voice would be accompanied by a male addition for the first time in "Pied a Terror" from Scream 3 to represent the brother of the character.
Beltrami returned for Scream 2 (1997), leading the score though there would be a late inclusion by Danny Elfman
in the form of the choral track "Cassandra Aria". In addition, excerpts from the score of Broken Arrow
by Hans Zimmer
appeared in the film, in particular guitar work by Duane Eddy
, for the character 'Dewey', replacing many of the character's related tracks from the original Scream score. Beltrami later explained that the Zimmer piece was used as a scratch track for test screening
purposes before the score was finalized. The test audience reaction to it influenced the studio keep the Zimmer piece, reducing "Dewey's Theme", which Beltrami had composed to fill its place, to minor use during more serious scenes involving the character. The Zimmer piece would continue to be used in Scream 3 during scenes concerning the evolving relationship between the characters of Dewey and Gale with Beltrami appropriating and adding his own influence to the piece to blend it into the thematic Scream 3 score.
For Scream 3, Beltrami employed seven orchestrators to aid in scoring the extensive orchestral accompaniment featured in the film's score. Additionally, he experimented with new styles of sound production by recording instruments in abnormal circumstances such as inserting objects into a piano and recording at various velocities to create a distorted, unnatural sound and modifying the results electronically.
, Child's Play
, Friday the 13th, the Hannibal Lecter
series, Psycho
, Saw, Halloween
, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — with figures adjusted for 2011 inflation, is the sixth highest grossing horror franchise in the domestic United States at $442.9 million. This list is topped by Friday the 13th at $687.1 million, followed by the Nightmare on Elm Street series with $592.8 million. The Hannibal Lecter film series with $588.7 million, Halloween with $557.5 million, the Saw series with $457.4 million, the Scream series which is followed by Psycho with $376.3 million, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $304.6 million, and the Child's Play film series with approximately $203 million.
The original Scream has remained the most successful of the series accruing a US$173,046,663 gross worldwide and receiving a largely positive critical reception, closely followed by Scream 2 with less than $1 million separating their respective box-office takings. Scream 3 suffered significantly worse domestically and critically than its predecessors, taking only $89.1 million compared to Scream and Scream 2 with $103 million and $101.1 million respectively. All three installments takings remained relatively equal in foreign territories with less than $2 million separating them, however Scream 3 remains the lowest financially performing series entry to date. Scream is currently the 518th highest grossing movie worldwide, followed by Scream 2 at 520 and Scream 3 at 616. As of 2011, Scream remains the highest grossing film in the slasher
genre, followed by Scream 2 and Scream 3 at #2 and #3 respectively.
Despite competition from other big name films during its release, including Tom Cruise
's Jerry Maguire
and Tim Burton
's Mars Attacks!
, its release date of December 20, during the Christmas
season, and Variety
labeling it "D.O.A.
" before it was even released, Scream became the surprise hit of the year and continued to show in cinemas for nearly eight months. By late 1997, Scream 2 was considered such a potential box office success that the James Bond
film Tomorrow Never Dies
and James Cameron
's future hit Titanic
were moved from their release date of December 12 to December 19 so as to not face the film as competition. With $33 million, Scream 2 broke December opening weekend records for its box-office takings in 1997 and held the record until December 15, 2000, being replaced by What Women Want
(2000).
Adam Smith called it "Clever, quick and bloody funny.". Other reviews appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels." Williamson's script received praise for its "fiendishly clever, complicated plot" which "deftly mixes irony, self-reference and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills." Janet Maslin of The New York Times
was less complimentary saying "[Craven] wants things both ways, capitalizing on lurid material while undermining it with mocking humor. Not even horror fans who can answer all this film's knowing trivia questions may be fully comfortable with such an exploitative mix".
Scream went on to rank #32 on Entertainment Weekly
list of the '50 Best High School Movies and #13 on Bravo's 'The 100 Scariest Movie Movements'. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly would add additional praise to the film, listing it as #60 on their list of the '100 Best Films of the Last 13 years'. The film ranked #482 on Empire
2008 list of 'The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time'. Scream received several awards in 1996 including the Saturn Award
's Best Actress for Campbell, Best Writing
for Kevin Williamson and Best Horror Film
plus nominations for Best Director for Wes Craven and Best Supporting Actor for both Ulrich and Barrymore. The film was also awarded the 1997 Best Movie
by the MTV Movie Awards
.
Scream 2 received equally positive critical response with some critics arguing that the film surpassed the original in scares and humor. Both Gene Siskel
and the New York Times Janet Maslin gave the sequel positive reviews despite their negative response to Scream. The film failed to achieve the same success as the original in terms of awards however, winning only the 1998 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
for Campbell plus Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Horror Film for Campbell, Cox and Scream 2 respectively.
Scream 3 received mixed to negative reviews earning on a 38% average score on review-site Rotten Tomatoes
compared to Screams 82% and Scream 2s 81% with general consensus that "Scream 3 became what the series originally started out spoofing
" and concluded that the series "lost its freshness and originality by falling back on the old horror formulas and cliché
s". Of the characters, Roger Ebert said "[the characters] are so thin, they're transparent" but praised Campbell's appearance saying "The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tribute". However, not all reviews were negative with the Los Angeles Times calling it "Genuinely scary and also highly amusing" and the BBC
stating that "as the conclusion to the trilogy it works more effectively than anyone had a right to expect".
on December 2, 1997, followed by Scream 2 on December 1, 1998 and Scream 3 on October 24, 2000. All releases were conducted by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3s release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment
.
The Scream films were released on DVD
for the first time on December 3, 1997 starting with Scream. with a Collector's Edition of the film released on December 8, 1998, containing the film as well as deleted scenes, outtakes, the films theatrical trailer, cast interviews, directors commentary and behind the scenes
information. Scream 2 was released in the US on July 22, 1998 with a Collector's Edition following on August 7, 2001. The Collector's Edition featured additional material including outtakes, deleted scenes, the films theatrical trailer, music videos of songs featured in the film and directors' commentary. Scream 3 was released in the US on July 4, 2000 only as a Collector's Edition featuring deleted scenes, outtakes, audio commentary, music videos of songs featured in the film, trailers for the film and biographies on the cast and crew involved in the films production. In 2001, the Scream 3 release was nominated for a Saturn Award
for Best Home Video Release, losing to Princess Mononoke
(1997). All of the US releases were undertaken by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3s release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
Following the release of, then series finale, Scream 3, the three films were collected in "The Ultimate Scream Collection" by Dimension Films
on September 26, 2000, in a boxset containing Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 plus "Behind the Scream" a short documentary
about the production of the three films and additional material including screentests of actors involved in the films, outtakes and deleted scenes.
Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 remained unreleased in foreign territories including Europe and Japan until 2001 where they were simultaneously released on February 26 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Each film contained the additional content found in the Collector's Edition version of their US release including deleted scenes, outtakes, theatrical trailers, music videos and commentary from each respective films crew. Additionally, the three films were collected together in a single pack, again released on February 26 and released as "Scream Trilogy".
The three original films were released individually and in a collection in Blu-ray Disc
format on March 29, 2011, two weeks prior to the release of Scream 4, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
, hosting the films in 1080p
high definition
. In addition to the films, each release contained audio commentary, theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes footage for each respective film.
, features 12 songs by various artists including the original piece "Trouble In Woodsboro"/"Sidney's Lament" from the films score by Marco Beltrami
, most of which appeared in various scenes in the film. The piece "School's Out
" by Alice Cooper
appeared in the film but was replaced with a cover version of the song by The Last Hard Men on the album. The album was given 3 out of 5 stars by Allmusic though it was considered a failure and never charted on the Billboard 200
despite the success of the film.
The Scream score by Marco Beltrami would be his first time scoring a major film release and the ensuing exposure allowed him to go on to score other blockbuster films such as I, Robot
and Live Free or Die Hard
. The score would not be released commercially until July 14, 1998 by Varèse Sarabande
in a dual-pack with the Scream 2 score. However it was found to lack several pieces from the films, with a runtime of only 12 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores due to the high reuse fees involved in obtaining the rights to commercially release the music. Beltrami was considered to have taken inspiration from the synthetic styles of Éric Serra
and other successful scores, the references becoming more pronounced in his score to Scream 2. The theme for the central character Sidney Prescott, "Sidney's Lament" incorporated a "haunting" female solo vocal that would be utilized in other tracks throughout the entire film series. The score to Scream received generally positive reviews with Mikael Carlsson labeling it as some of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years while Filmtracks claimed the scores had "cult status
".
featuring 15 songs in the R&B
, Rap
and Rock
genres by various artists, some of which are represented in the film. The album spent ten weeks on the Billboard 200, rising as high as #50 but received a lower score than its predecessor from the music guide AllMusic, gaining only 2 out of 5. Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic opined that the soundtrack was an attempt to compensate for the previous films lack of a hit soundtrack, but failed to do, creating an "uneven" album of songs not "good enough to make [the artists'] own albums".
The Scream 2 score was, as in Scream, developed by Marco Beltrami and was released on July 14, 1998 in a dual-pack with the score to Scream by Varèse Sarabande. The commercially released score was found to be lacking several pieces used in the film, with a runtime of only 17 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores. Included in the missing pieces was the track "Cassandra Aria" created by Danny Elfman
, described by soundtrack-review site Filmtracks as "a frenzied, choral-enhanced three minutes" that remains unreleased as of March, 2011. The length of the released score was considered disappointing and blamed on the fees required to be paid to musicians in order to release their music. The influence of several other famous composers could be heard in the score including Hans Zimmer
, Elliot Goldenthal
, Ennio Morricone
and Christopher Young
. In particular excerpts of the Hans Zimmer's score to Broken Arrow
, featuring guitar by Duane Eddy
, would become a component of the theme tune of the character Dewey Riley.
featuring 18 songs consisting largely of the metal
genre by artists such as System of a Down
and Powerman 5000
, some of which are represented in the film. The album fared better than its predecessors, spending fourteen weeks on the Billboard 200 and reaching a top rank of #32. and scoring a 2.5 out of 5 from music guide AllMusic. Reviewer Steve Huey claims that the "high pedigree" of the albums contributors had produced a "pretty listenable album".
The Scream 3 score was again helmed by Marco Beltrami who employed seven orchestrators and experimented with the recording of instruments in unusual circumstances such as physically and electronically altering the traditional sound of a piano while continuing to include a heavy vocal orchestra in his tracks There was consideration that Beltrami was forced to hire multiple orchestrators to complete the score to meet the films deadline. Like previous scores in the series, the Scream 3 score was released by Varèse Sarabande on February 29, 2000 with a total length of 33 minutes of music, though the album was again found to be missing certain sections of the score utilized within the film. Beltrami took inspiration from other composers for the score, again incorporating excerpts of the score to Broken Arrow
by Hans Zimmer in the track "Sid Wears a Dress". Music guide AllMusic awarded the Scream 3 score 2.5 out of 5.
In January 1998, 16-year-old Mario Padilla and his 14-year-old cousin, Samuel Ramirez stabbed Mario's mother, Gina Castillo, 45 times, killing her. The case became known as the "Scream murder" and fell under intense media scrutiny after the boys claimed they were inspired by Scream and Scream 2. They would also admit to needing the money acquired from Gina's murder to fund a killing spree and purchase two Ghostface costumes and a voice-changer used by the character in the film. During their trial, psychologist, Madeline Levine, who studied the effect of violence on children, stated
The case was expected to highlight the effect of violent films on teenagers but the presiding judge
, John Cheroske, ordered that evidence pertaining to Scream be barred and that the case not be referred to as the "Scream murder", refusing media access to the courtroom
, intending that the case was tried as murder
and nothing else.
On January 17, 1999, 13-year-old Ashley Murray was stabbed multiple times in the head and back before being left for dead by his then-friends Daniel Gill, 14, and Robert Fuller, 15; he was later found and saved by an elderly man walking his dog. The pair were dubbed the "Scream attackers" after it emerged that they had watched Scream shortly before the attack and drawings of the Ghostface mask were found amongst their possessions, though their actions were additionally blamed on physical abuse
, drugs
and exposure to black magic
in their home life. Murray, who later testified against the pair, himself stated that he believed the film may have influenced the pair to attack him.
On May 4, 1999, following the Columbine incident and increasing news media
scrutiny on the effects on society of violence in films, games and other media, the United States Senate
Commerce committee
held a hearing about Hollywood's marketing of films to youths and the horror genre of films in particular, using the opening scene of Scream featuring the murder of Casey Becker, as an example of negative media which may be viewed by children.
In November, 2001, Belgian Thierry Jaradin, 24, garbed in a Ghostface mask and costume murdered 15-year-old Alisson Cambier after she rejected his romantic advances. Jaradin later claimed to police that the murder was premeditated and inspired by the Scream film trilogy. The following year a seventeen-year-old French
youth, identified only as Julien, following prior failed attempts with other girls, lured a fellow pupil to a secluded spot and stabbed her to death after showing her his Ghostface mask. French authorities of the time claimed the murder as the third Scream related killing since 2000.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
horror slasher
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
films
Film series
A film series is a collection of related films in succession. Their relationship is not fixed, but generally share a common diegetic world. Sometimes the work is conceived as a multiple-film work, for example the Three Colours series, but in most cases the success of the original film inspires...
created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
. The films star Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell
Neve Adrianne Campbell is a Canadian actress. After beginning her career on stage, and on numerous commercials, she starred on the Canadian television series Catwalk. She then rose to international fame on the Golden Globe-winning 1990s television series Party of Five, playing the role of teenager...
, Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
, and David Arquette
David Arquette
David Arquette is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, fashion designer, and occasional professional wrestler. A member of the Arquette acting family, he first became known during the mid 1990s after starring in several Hollywood films, such as the Scream series, Wild Bill and...
. The series has grossed over $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures. The first series entry, Scream
Scream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
, was released on December 20, 1996 and is currently the highest grossing slasher film in the United States. The second entry Scream 2
Scream 2
Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film created and written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy and Liev Schreiber, released on December 12, 1997 as the second installment in the Scream film series...
was released on December 12, 1997 followed by a third installment, Scream 3
Scream 3
Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film created by Kevin Williamson, directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette, released on February 4, 2000 as the third, and originally, concluding installment in the Scream film series...
, released February 4, 2000. Scream 4
Scream 4
Scream 4 is a 2011 American slasher horror film and the fourth installment in the Scream film series. Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and Scream 2, the film stars an ensemble cast which includes David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts,...
was released eleven years after the previous, on April 15, 2011. The films follow the character of Sidney Prescott
Sidney Prescott
Sidney Prescott is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Scream series of slasher films. The character was created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven and is portrayed by Canadian actress Neve Campbell. She first appeared in Scream followed by three sequels: Scream 2 , Scream 3 ...
(Campbell) who becomes the target of a succession of murderers who adopt the guise of Ghostface
Ghostface (Scream)
Ghostface is a fictional identity adopted by the main antagonists in the Scream series of slasher films. The character is voiced by Roger L. Jackson regardless of who is behind the mask...
to stalk and torment their victims. Sidney receives support in the films from town deputy Dewey Riley (Arquette), reporter Gale Weathers (Cox), and film-geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy).
Williamson's original script was bought by Miramax and developed under the Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
label by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who recruited Craven to direct, who in turn recruited composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
to score the film. This team went on to be involved in each film in the series though Williamson was forced to take a smaller role for Scream 3, writing only a brief plot outline due to his commitments to other projects, with Ehren Kruger
Ehren Kruger
-Life and career:Kruger was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended college at New York University. He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, graduating in 1990....
replacing him as screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. The series' violence resulted in conflicts with the Motion Picture Association of America and news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
concerning censorship resulting in a reduction of violence and gore in Scream 3 when the Columbine incident brought increased focus on the media's influence on society. Scream became notable for its use of established and recognizable actors which was uncommon for horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s at the time, yet has since become common in part due to Screams success.
The series has received significant critical acclaim, Scream being credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the late 90s by combining a traditional slasher film with humor, awareness of horror film cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
and a clever plot. Scream was one of the highest grossing films of 1996 and became, and remains, the highest grossing slasher film in the world. Its success was matched by Scream 2 which not only broke box-office records of the time but which some critics argued was actually superior to the original. Scream 3 fared worse than its predecessors, both critically and financially, with critics commenting that it had become the type of horror film it originally parodied in Scream. It did however receive some positive response with claims that it was the perfect end to the trilogy. The film series has been the recipient of several awards including a Saturn Award for Best Actress and MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
This is a following list of the MTV Movie Award winners and nominees for Best Performance from 1992 onward. In all but two years, the awards are separated into Male and Female categories.-1992:...
for Campbell and Best Horror Film
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Scream.
Films
| Film | Director | Writer(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scream Scream (film) Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette... (1996) |
Wes Craven Wes Craven Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the... |
Kevin Williamson | Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees... & Cary Woods Cary Woods Cary Woods is a film producer. He produced the first films by Alexander Payne, M Night Shyamalan, Doug Liman, Harmony Korine, Kevin Williamson. Woods helped to fuel the rise of the independent films... |
| Scream 2 Scream 2 Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film created and written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy and Liev Schreiber, released on December 12, 1997 as the second installment in the Scream film series... (1997) |
Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees... , Wes Craven & Marianne Maddalena Marianne Maddalena Marianne Maddalena is an American film producer. She is part of a joint venture called Craven-Maddalena Films alongside Wes Craven... |
||
| Scream 3 Scream 3 Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film created by Kevin Williamson, directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette, released on February 4, 2000 as the third, and originally, concluding installment in the Scream film series... (2000) |
Ehren Kruger Ehren Kruger -Life and career:Kruger was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended college at New York University. He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, graduating in 1990.... , Kevin Williamson (Characters) |
Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees... , Kevin Williamson & Marianne Maddalena Marianne Maddalena Marianne Maddalena is an American film producer. She is part of a joint venture called Craven-Maddalena Films alongside Wes Craven... |
|
| Scream 4 Scream 4 Scream 4 is a 2011 American slasher horror film and the fourth installment in the Scream film series. Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and Scream 2, the film stars an ensemble cast which includes David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts,... (2011) |
Kevin Williamson | Iya Labunka, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven |
Scream (1996)
The film series began with Scream, premieringPremiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
on December 18, 1996 at the AMC
AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres , officially known as AMC Entertainment, Inc., is the second largest movie theater chain in North America with 5,325 screens, second only to Regal Entertainment Group, and one of the United States's four national cinema chains AMC Theatres (American Multi-Cinema), officially known as...
Avco theater in Westwood, California
Westwood, California
Westwood is a census-designated place in Lassen County, California, United States. Westwood is located west-southwest of Susanville, at an elevation of 5128 feet...
and was generally released on December 20, 1996. Based on a screenplay by screenwriter Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
, creator of the A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
series of slasher films, Scream offered a self-referential approach to horror by featuring a cast of characters aware of the conventions of the horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
genre and able to use them to survive. The film focuses on teenager Sidney Prescott
Sidney Prescott
Sidney Prescott is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Scream series of slasher films. The character was created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven and is portrayed by Canadian actress Neve Campbell. She first appeared in Scream followed by three sequels: Scream 2 , Scream 3 ...
as she comes under attack from a mysterious character dubbed Ghostface
Ghostface (Scream)
Ghostface is a fictional identity adopted by the main antagonists in the Scream series of slasher films. The character is voiced by Roger L. Jackson regardless of who is behind the mask...
while dealing with the anniversary of her mother's murder. The film went on to be a financial success earning back its $15 million budget eleven times over and receiving considerable critical acclaim for its deconstruction of the horror genre. It is credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the mid 90s and inspiring an array of imitators. It was particularly notable for its casting of established and popular actors and actresses which was previously uncommon in a horror movie.
Scream 2 (1997)
The series continued with Scream 2, premiering on December 10, 1997 at Graumans Chinese Theater followed by general release on December 12, 1997, again written by Williamson and directed by Craven, released less than a year after the original film. Like Scream, the film features characters aware of the horror genre and the conventions of the horror sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
, mocking them while simultaneously falling victim to them. The film again focuses on the character of Sidney Prescott, now a college student, as a series of copycat crimes begin, the killers again using the disguise of Ghostface. The film was financially successful, deviating from its predecessor's worldwide gross by less than US$1 million and receiving similar critical praise for its deconstruction of the horror film sequel and commentary on the influence of the media in society. The script for Scream 2 was leaked during production revealing the identity of the killers and so the film underwent extensive rewrites, changing the identity of the killers though their motivation remained intact.
Scream 3 (2000)
The series continued with Scream 3, which received its premiere on February 3, 2000 at the AMC Avco theater in Westwood, California and was generally released on February 4, 2000. Like previous entries, the film was directed by Craven, but Williamson was unable to formulate a complete script due to his commitment to the short-lived television series WastelandWasteland (TV series)
Wasteland is an American television drama on ABC network created by Kevin Williamson. The show debuted in 1999, a Miramax Films production....
and his original film Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Teaching Mrs. Tingle is a 1999 black comedy film and the directing debut of screenwriter Kevin Williamson. The film stars Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Marisa Coughlan, Barry Watson and Jeffrey Tambor and was released on August 20, 1999. It was originally titled Killing Mrs...
(1999), being replaced by Ehren Kruger
Ehren Kruger
-Life and career:Kruger was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended college at New York University. He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, graduating in 1990....
who finalized a script based on several ideas supplied by Williamson. The film focuses on Sidney Prescott who faces a new Ghostface killer and the truth about her mother that led to the start of the Ghostface killings. The film, like its predecessors, featured characters who were self-aware of horror conventions, in this case the rules and structure of the final entry in a movie trilogy. Scream 3 was considerably less successful than the previous two installments, suffering both financially and critically, commentators noting that the film had become akin to the horror films it originally parodied in Scream and Scream 2. Others were critical of the change in tone, focusing more on humor instead of horror and violence. However, critics who reacted positively were supportive of this change in tone and praised the film for successfully completing the film trilogy.
Scream 4 (2011)
In July 2008, The Weinstein CompanyThe Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
announced the development of a new sequel, Scream 4, written by Williamson with Craven being secured for the project in March 2010. In May 2010, Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees...
, producer of the original three Scream films filed a $3 million lawsuit against The Weinstein Company alleging they violated an agreement with her company, Cat Entertainment, that gave them first rights to produce all Scream films. The Weinstein Company argued that the agreement requires Konrad's services to be exclusive to the franchise, an argument that Konrad called "false pretext" as the previous films did not require this stipulation. Konrad accuses the Weinsteins of attempting to force her to walk away without compensation in order to hire a cheaper producer (Craven's wife Iya Labunka) and cut costs. In April 2011, it was reported that the case had been settled out of court by The Weinstein Company.
The film underwent reshoots of some scenes in January 2011 with Craven stating that they were to enhance some scenes but that the ending remains untouched, countering criticism that, following a January 6, 2011 test screening
Test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold...
, the film may undergo significant changes due to poor audience responses. The fourth installment premiered on April 11, 2011 at Graumans Chinese Theater with a public release following April 15, 2011.
Future
In an interview, Craven confirmed that he was contracted to work on a fifth and sixth installment of the Scream franchise, to be made if the fourth film achieves a successful release and reception. Following difficulties with script rewrites on Scream 2, Scream 3 and Scream 4, often with pages only being ready on the day of filming, and the related stress of the situation, Craven stated that he would need to see a finalized version of a script for Scream 5 before committing to the production. In a separate interview, writer Williamson also confirmed his contractual obligation for Scream 4 and Scream 5, having submitted concepts for three films leading up to Scream 6, though his contract for the sixth film had not yet been finalized. Williamson indicated that if a Scream 5 were to be made, it would be a continuation of the story of the characters who lived through Scream 4 but that Scream 4 would not include any cliffhangers that led into the potential sequel. Actor David Arquette also added his support to the potential future of the franchise, stating "It [the ending] definitely leaves it open," before adding that he would welcome the opportunity to play the character of Dewey in future installments. In May 2011, executive producer Harvey WeinsteinHarvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...
, confirmed that a sequel was possible, saying that despite Scream 4 performing below The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
s financial expectations, he was still happy with the gross it had accrued. On December 1st, 2011, the official Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account said, "Which sequel are you most looking forward to? Piranha 3DD Scary Movie 5, Halloween III, or Scream 5?" Insinuating that Scream 5 is confirmed.
Cast and characters
Craven initially intended to hire talented but relatively unknown actors who had not yet had a "big break" in the film industry, as he had done with A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American slasher film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund, and Johnny Depp in his feature film...
s Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
and Shocker
Shocker (film)
Shocker is a 1989 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. The relatively low-budget film has since become a cult classic...
s Peter Berg
Peter Berg
Peter Berg is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is known for directing films such as Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom, The Rundown, Hancock and Battleship. He also developed the television series Friday Night Lights, which was adapted from the film he directed. As an actor...
. However, the decision was made to cast actors who already had a notable body of work, marking a change from many previous horror films where casting current, popular actors was unheard of. Craven believed their budget was inadequate to secure the actors they were pursuing but felt that Barrymore's presence made people eager to take part and accepting of a lower salary.
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
initially approached the production herself after reading the script and was signed to play Sidney Prescott. However as time progressed, her schedule commitments meant she would be unable to remain in the leading role, so she volunteered to play the smaller role of Casey Becker who dies early in the film. The production felt that killing off an actress of Barrymore's stature early on would be a risk but thought that it would be shocking to the audience and make them believe that no other character was safe. Following Barrymore's changed role, Alicia Witt
Alicia Witt
Alicia Roanne Witt is an American film, stage, television actress and singer.-Early life:Witt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her mother, Diane , is a junior high school reading teacher, and her father, Robert Witt, is a science teacher and photographer. She has a brother, Ian...
and Brittany Murphy
Brittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys...
auditioned for the lead and the production also considered contacting Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
. The role was ultimately given to Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell
Neve Adrianne Campbell is a Canadian actress. After beginning her career on stage, and on numerous commercials, she starred on the Canadian television series Catwalk. She then rose to international fame on the Golden Globe-winning 1990s television series Party of Five, playing the role of teenager...
after the director saw her in Party of Five
Party of Five
Party of Five is an American teen drama television series that aired on Fox for six seasons, from September 12, 1994, until May 3, 2000.Critically acclaimed, the show suffered from low ratings and after its first season was slated for cancellation...
, believing she could best embody a character who was "innocent" but also able to handle herself while dealing with the physicality and emotions of the role. Though reluctant to undertake another horror film so soon after The Craft
The Craft (film)
The Craft is a 1996 American supernatural teen horror film directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Rachel True, Fairuza Balk and Neve Campbell. The film's plot centers on a group of four teenage girls who pursue witchcraft and use it for their own gain...
, Campbell chose to do Scream as it would be her first leading role and she "adored" the character, saying "She's a fantastic character for any kind of movie." The production wanted a recognizable face for the role of news reporter Gale Weathers, offering it to both Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
and Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...
. Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
, who was starring in the hit NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
at the time, was not considered due to her history of playing softer, kinder characters. Cox however lobbied hard for the role for that reason, wishing to play a "bitch" character, her efforts ultimately succeeding when she was cast. Actresses Melinda Clarke
Melinda Clarke
Melinda Patrice Clarke is an American actress who has primarily worked in television. Clarke is best known for playing Faith Taylor on the daytime drama Days of our Lives, the manipulative and cunning Julie Cooper-Nichol on The O.C., and the professional dominatrix Lady Heather on CSI...
and Rebecca Gayheart
Rebecca Gayheart
-Early life:Gayheart was born in Hazard, Kentucky and raised in Pine Top, Kentucky, the daughter of Floneva , who worked as a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant, and Curtis Gayheart, a miner and coal truck driver. She is of Irish, Italian, and German descent...
auditioned for the role of Tatum Riley before Rose McGowan
Rose McGowan
Rose Arianna McGowan is an actress and singer. She is known for her role as Paige Matthews in The WB Television Network supernatural drama series Charmed. She played Ann-Margret alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Elvis Presley in the CBS mini-series Elvis...
was cast due to her best embodying the "spunky" nature of the character. It was believed the collective strong female cast of Campbell, Barrymore, Cox and McGowan would help draw a significant female audience to the film.
Kevin Patrick Walls
Kevin Patrick Walls
Kevin Patrick Walls is an American actor who has appeared in minor film roles.He auditioned for the lead role of Billy Loomis in 1996 film Scream but lost the role to Skeet Ulrich...
, who played Barrymore's boyfriend Steve Orth in the opening of Scream, was one of the final candidates for the role of Sidney's boyfriend, Billy Loomis, alongside Justin Whalin
Justin Whalin
Justin Garrett Whalin is an American actor best known for his role as Jimmy Olsen in the American television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.-Early life:...
before it was won by Skeet Ulrich
Skeet Ulrich
Bryan Ray Trout , best known as Skeet Ulrich, is an American actor best known for starring in the CBS drama Jericho as Jake Green and for portraying Billy Loomis in Scream...
. Campbell and Ulrich had a prior working relationship on The Craft which they believed help them better develop the relationship between Sidney and Billy. David Arquette
David Arquette
David Arquette is an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, fashion designer, and occasional professional wrestler. A member of the Arquette acting family, he first became known during the mid 1990s after starring in several Hollywood films, such as the Scream series, Wild Bill and...
was also approached for the role of Billy Loomis but instead wanted the role of Dewey. The role was described as "hunky
Beefcake
Beefcake is a term denoting the use of nude or semi-nude male bodies. It can refer to a genre or a person. It often is used to denote male sexual attractiveness stemming from physical build but the definition has expanded to include anyone interested in physical fitness, bodybuilding and weight...
" instead of the younger, "goofier" approach of Arquette but Craven appreciated the idea and cast him in the role. Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his roles as Stu Macher in Scream, Stevo in SLC Punk , and Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film series and the Animated reboot series.-Early life:Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Tustin, California...
was cast by chance as he had accompanied his then-girlfriend to a separate audition where Scream casting director Lisa Beach saw him and asked him to audition, where he secured the role of Stu Macher. The role of Randy Meeks was contested between Jamie Kennedy
Jamie Kennedy
James Harvey "Jamie" Kennedy is an American comedian, rapper, and actor.-Early life:Kennedy, the youngest of six children, was born in Upper Darby Township, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family is of Irish descent and he was raised Roman Catholic. He attended and graduated from...
and Breckin Meyer
Breckin Meyer
-Early life:Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann , a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant. As a child of divorced parents, he lived in California, Texas, West Virginia and New Jersey. He has an older brother,...
with the production favoring Kennedy. Having no major role prior to Scream, the studio wanted a more prominent actor than Kennedy in the role but the production were adamant that he was the best choice and successfully fought to keep him in. Roger L. Jackson
Roger L. Jackson
Roger Labon Jackson is an American voice actor. He is best known for voicing the killer Ghostface in the Scream films, leaving him to keep an unknown identity to withhold the mystery of Ghostface...
, voice of the character Ghostface
Ghostface (Scream)
Ghostface is a fictional identity adopted by the main antagonists in the Scream series of slasher films. The character is voiced by Roger L. Jackson regardless of who is behind the mask...
, was picked at the end of several weeks of local casting in Santa Rosa. The production had originally intended to only use his voice temporarily but ultimately decided that it was perfect for the role. He was intentionally kept from meeting many members of the cast in all three original Scream films as it was thought it would help their performance if they could not put a face to the menacing voice. The calls made by his character were genuine phone calls conducted on set by Jackson to the characters, again with the intention of aiding the interaction between his character and the character being "stalked" in a scene.
| "I can't imagine Scream without Ghostface...Roger Jackson's voice is very remarkable, it's got an evil sophistication." |
| — Director Wes Craven on Roger L. Jackson's role. |
For Scream 2, Campbell had been contracted for a possible sequel before filming began on Scream. However actors with surviving characters had a sequel option added after it was known which character would be eligible to appear in the next film. In interviews, the production staff of Scream 2 stated they believed that Barrymore's role in Scream added an element of respectability to the genre that made actors normally reluctant to engage a horror film, eager to sign on to Scream 2. Many of the actors involved including Campbell, Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Sarah Michelle Prinze , known professionally by her birth name of Sarah Michelle Gellar , is an American actress, singer and executive producer...
and Jerry O'Connell
Jerry O'Connell
Jeremiah "Jerry" O'Connell is an American actor, best known for his roles in the TV series Sliders, Andrew Clements in My Secret Identity, Vern Tessio in the film Stand by Me, Charlie Carbone in Kangaroo Jack, and Detective Woody Hoyt on the drama Crossing Jordan...
were starring in their own television series at the time making scheduling their availability with the film difficult. Gellar in particular had also recently finished work on another Williamson-penned film, I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a 1997 American horror film. The film stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr. The screenplay was written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream, and very loosely based on Lois Duncan's popular novel of the same title...
(1997) which released two months prior to Scream 2. She would admit in interviews that she signed on to Scream 2 without having read the script, based on the success of the first film. Craven took their desire to participate in the film despite their workload as a compliment to the films quality. To obtain the role of Derek, O'Connell and other candidates had to audition by performing a scene from the film where the character sings "I Think I Love You
I Think I Love You
"I Think I Love You" is a 1970 single by The Partridge Family, featuring David Cassidy, composed by songwriter Tony Romeo. The song was released at the same time as the debut of the network television sitcom The Partridge Family. During the show's first season the song was featured on the show...
". The cast was rounded out by Laurie Metcalf
Laurie Metcalf
Lauren Elizabeth "Laurie" Metcalf is an American actress. She is widely known for her performance as Jackie Harris on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, the voice of Mrs. Davis in the Toy Story film series and as Debbie Salt in Scream 2...
, who had just finished a nine-year run on the popular sitcom Roseanne
Roseanne (TV series)
Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from October 18, 1988 to May 20, 1997. Starring Roseanne Barr, the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working class family...
, Lewis Arquette
Lewis Arquette
Lewis Michael Arquette was an American film actor, writer and producer. Arquette was known for playing "J.D. Pickett" on the TV series, The Waltons, where he worked from 1978–1981.-Life and career:...
, father of David Arquette, Jada Pinkett and Timothy Olyphant
Timothy Olyphant
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor whose notable roles in television drama series include Deadwood as Seth Bullock, Justified as Raylan Givens, The Office as Danny Cordray, and Damages as Wes Krulik...
in what was his first leading role in a feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
. Rebecca Gayheart, who had unsuccessfully auditioned to play Tatum Riley in Scream, auditioned for the roles of Hallie, Cici and Maureen Evans before being cast as Sorority Sister Lois.
For Scream 3, Craven stated in an interview that convincing the central cast to return was not difficult but their burgeoning fame and busy schedules made arranging their availability with the films production troublesome. Campbell in particular was only available for 20 days of filming which resulted in a significantly reduced role for her character and a focus on Cox and Arquette's characters. Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
was cast as Angelina Tyler but shortly after filming began it was discovered she lacked the required permit to work, resulting in her being flown to Vancouver
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
to obtain one. Carrie Fisher
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher is an American actress, novelist, screenwriter, and lecturer. She is most famous for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the original Star Wars trilogy, her bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge, for which she wrote the screenplay to the film of the same name, and her...
made a cameo in the film at the suggestion of Bob Weinstein and Fisher helped write her character. Kelly Rutherford
Kelly Rutherford
Kelly Danne Melissa Rutherford is an American actress known for her roles of Stephanie "Sam" Whitmore on Generations, Megan Lewis on Melrose Place from 1996 to 1999 and currently as Lily van der Woodsen on Gossip Girl...
was cast after filming had begun as the production was undergoing constant rewrites and the opening scene evolved from requiring only a female corpse to needing a live actress with whom Schreiber could interact. In an 2009 interview, Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lillard
Matthew Lyn Lillard is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his roles as Stu Macher in Scream, Stevo in SLC Punk , and Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film series and the Animated reboot series.-Early life:Lillard was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in Tustin, California...
, who played Stu Macher in Scream, claimed that he was signed to reprise his role in Scream 3 as the primary antagonist but after the script moved in a direction without his character, he was bought out of his contract.
When production of Scream 4 was announced, Campbell initially refused offers to reprise her role as Sidney, forcing early script drafts to be written in consideration of her absence. However, in September 2009, Campbell, Cox and Arquette were all confirmed as reprising their roles as Sidney, Gale and Dewey respectively, with Jackson's commitment confirmed in July 2010. Continuing the trend started in Scream, the production cast established and popular actors Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
, Rory Culkin
Rory Culkin
Rory Hugh Culkin is an American actor and is the younger brother of actors Macaulay Culkin and Kieran Culkin.-Personal life:...
, Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
, Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell
Kristen Anne Bell is an American actress. Although her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...
and Emma Roberts
Emma Roberts
Emma Rose Roberts is an American actress, model and singer. She is the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts. Roberts became known for her role as Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous. She released her debut album, which also served as the show's...
. Roberts was cast as Jill, Sidney Prescott's cousin, beating out Ashley Greene
Ashley Greene
Ashley Michele Greene is an American actress and model, best known for playing Alice Cullen in the film adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels.- Personal life :...
for the role. Lake Bell
Lake Bell
-Early life:Bell was born in New York City, the daughter of Robin Bell, owner of the design firm Robin Bell Design, Inc. in New York, and Harvey Siegel. Her father is Jewish and her mother is Protestant, and Bell has stated that she was raised in a "comically dysfunctional family".Bell attended The...
and Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham
Lauren Helen Graham is an American actress and producer. She is best known for playing Lorelai Gilmore on the WB Network dramedy series Gilmore Girls and Sarah Braverman on Parenthood.-Early life:...
were cast in the film but dropped out early into production, Bell citing scheduling conflicts. Nico Tortorella
Nico Tortorella
Nico Tortorella is an American actor and model. He is best known for his role of Trevor Sheldon in the 2011 horror film Scream 4, and as Razor in the ABC TV series Make It or Break It.-Life and career:...
auditioned five times to secure the role of Trevor, the ex-boyfriend of Roberts' character, by reenacting a scene from Scream where the character of Billy Loomis reveals he is one of the killers.
Writing
ScreamScream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
(1996) was conceived under the title Scary Movie by screenwriter Kevin Williamson as an 18-page script inspired by a series of murders by the Gainesville Ripper that Williamson had seen in a news story and his own experience alone in a friends house after discovering an open window he had not previously noticed. The treatment covered what would become the opening scene of Scream featuring Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore
Drew Blyth Barrymore is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer and model. She is a member of the Barrymore family of American actors and granddaughter of John Barrymore. She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered...
. Williamson began to expand this script into what ultimately became Scream because his previous script, Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Teaching Mrs. Tingle is a 1999 black comedy film and the directing debut of screenwriter Kevin Williamson. The film stars Helen Mirren, Katie Holmes, Marisa Coughlan, Barry Watson and Jeffrey Tambor and was released on August 20, 1999. It was originally titled Killing Mrs...
, was in development hell
Development hell
In the jargon of the media-industry, "development hell" is a period during which a film or other project is trapped in development...
, writing it in only three days in Palm Springs
Palm Springs
Palm Springs is a desert city in CaliforniaPalm Springs may also refer to:* Palm Springs, Florida* Palm Springs, Hong Kong, a residential development in Yuen Long, Hong Kong* Coachella Valley, also known as the Palm Springs area...
and bringing it to his agent in June 1995 to put it up for sale. Accompanying the script were two 5-page outlines for potential sequels to the film, Williamson hoping to provide added incentive to buy the script by providing potential for a franchise. Williamson would later claim he wrote the screenplay partly because it was a film he wanted to watch and "nobody else is making it". The script was self-referential, featuring characters who watched horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s and were aware of the conventions of the genre and featured numerous homages to many preceding horror films which Williamson would claim inspired him, including Halloween
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
and Prom Night.
Williamson was told early on by his agent, Rob Paris, that the saturation of violence and gore in his script would make it "impossible" to sell and following its purchase by Miramax he was required to remove much of the gorier scenes. However, once Craven was confirmed to direct, he was able to bring much of the excised content back. Williamson intended to remove a scene in the film that took place inside the fictional school's bathroom, feeling it was awkward but Craven salvaged it believing it had potential. Williamson later confirmed that he was glad Craven did so. The death of the character Principal Himbry was added at the request of producer Bob Weinstein
Bob Weinstein
Robert "Bob" Weinstein is an American film and theatre producer, the founder and head of Dimension Films, former co-chairman of Miramax Films, and current head, with his brother Harvey Weinstein, of The Weinstein Company.-Career:...
who noted that there was thirty pages (thirty on-screen minutes) without a murder occurring. This later aided Williamson who was struggling to find motivation for characters to leave a party in the films finale, now able to use the discovered corpse of the Himbry character. When writing the finale, Williamson was unsure what to cite as a motivation for the killers or whether to give them one at all. Opinions were split between staff on the picture, some who felt that a motive was necessary for the audience to be given resolution while others felt it was scarier without one. Ultimately Williamson decided to do both, giving the character Billy Loomis the motive of maternal abandonment while not giving the character of Stu Macher one, instead having the character jokingly suggest "peer pressure".
Following the release of Scream, Williamson confirmed that he had considered a concept for a sequel where the character Sidney Prescott attends college and a copycat killer begins stalking her. Dimension Films agreed to pursue a sequel in March 1997, by which point Williamson had already written 42 pages of the new script. By July 1997, filming began on Scream 2, but his completed script was leaked
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
revealing much of the plot including the finale and the identity of the films killers. As a result, the production was forced to continue filming with only a partial script as Williamson conducted rewrites, changing much of the finale, the killers victims and the killers identity. To preserve the identity of the killer or important plot points being revealed again, the actors were not given the last pages of the script until weeks before shooting and the pages that revealed the killers identity were only provided on the day the scene was shot. The short production schedule on Scream 2 and his work on other projects meant that Williamson's final script used for the film was detailed in some areas but lacking in others, the intention being for Craven to fill out these scenes on set.
| "Look, there was a bumpy period when things shifted over from Kevin to Ehren. I signed up to do a script by Kevin and unfortunately that didn't go all the way through the shooting. But it certainly is Kevin's script and concept and characters and themes" |
| — Director Wes Craven on controversial rewrites to the Scream 4 script. |
Williamson was approached by the Bob and Harvey Weinstein in early 1999 to pen a script for Scream 3 but at the time he was involved with the writing and directing of his original script Teaching Mrs. Tingle and developing the short-lived TV series Wasteland
Wasteland (TV series)
Wasteland is an American television drama on ABC network created by Kevin Williamson. The show debuted in 1999, a Miramax Films production....
. Unable to write a full script, Williamson provided a draft outline for the film that involved the filming of the film within a film "Stab 3", based on the previous films in-universe murders, that took place in the fictional town of Woodsboro from the original Scream. Arlington Road
Arlington Road
Arlington Road is a 1999 American drama/mystery film, which tells the story of a widowed George Washington University professor who suspects his new neighbors are involved in terrorism and becomes obsessed with foiling their terrorist plot. The film stars Jeff Bridges, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, and...
scribe Ehren Kruger
Ehren Kruger
-Life and career:Kruger was raised in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended college at New York University. He attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, graduating in 1990....
was brought into the production by the Weinstein brothers to develop a script using Williamson's notes, though Kruger admitted that without having been involved with the characters in the previous two films he struggled to write them true to character. Early scripts by Kruger had the character of Sidney Prescott much like "Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2" at which point Craven would intervene to bring the character closer to previous iterations. Kruger admits that Craven had a hand in writing the script though he remained uncredited for it. Kruger's script would differ in many ways from Williamson's original including the removal of one of the killers and the inclusion of the death of Cotton Weary who was originally absent from the film. Additionally, the films location changed from Woodsboro to Hollywood as Kruger believed that the characters should be moving to bigger places from high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, to college to Hollywood. However, there were also considerations that creating a film containing acts of murder in and around the fictional Woodsboro school would receive negative attention following the Columbine High School massacre
Columbine High School massacre
The Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
that occurred less than a year before the films eventual release. The film was given a greater emphasis on humor over violence and fared worse than previous installments both financially and critically.
Almost ten years after the last installment, in late 2009, Williamson formulated a concept for a new installment and approached Bob Weinstein who, after hearing his pitch, told Williamson to begin writing a script for what would become Scream 4. Campbell initially refused to return to the series for Scream 4 forcing early script drafts to be written in consideration of her characters absence with Cox and Arquette's characters becoming the focus. Early versions of the script involved Campbell's character being attacked and killed in the opening, a key point of contention for Weinstein who had it removed, while another version had Cox and Arquette's character as parents, but this too was removed as it was believed that them having a child would be unworkable in the context of the film. After Williamson was forced to leave the production due to contractual commitments to The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries is a young adult vampire horror series of novels written by L. J. Smith. The story centers around Elena Gilbert, a high school girl torn between two vampire brothers. The series was originally a trilogy published in 1991, but pressure from readers led Smith to write a fourth...
, under threat of legal action, controversy arose in July, 2010 when Scream 3 writer Ehren Kruger was brought in by Weinstein to perform re-writes on Williamson's script, about which Craven was outspoken on "losing control" of the story. He would later explain that despite rewrites it was still Williamson's characters and script. Weinstein clarified that Kruger was brought in to "punch up" the films dialog but his involvement with the writing was not to the same extent as with Scream 3. To preserve the secrecy of the script and the identity of the films killer, the cast were only provided with 75 pages of the 140 page-long script. Like the two previous installments in the series, the script underwent rewrites often with pages sometimes only ready on the day of shooting.
Development
The script for Scream (1996), then known as Scary Movie was released for sale on a Friday and by 8am the following Monday had become involved in a significant bidding war from several studios including Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
and Morgan Creek
Morgan Creek Productions
Morgan Creek Productions is an American film studio that has released box-office hits like Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League, True Romance, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The King and I, The Crush, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and others. The studio was co-founded in 1987 by James G...
, with producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees...
bringing it to the attention of Bob Weinstein
Bob Weinstein
Robert "Bob" Weinstein is an American film and theatre producer, the founder and head of Dimension Films, former co-chairman of Miramax Films, and current head, with his brother Harvey Weinstein, of The Weinstein Company.-Career:...
. The bidding eventually rose to an amount that the choice ultimately came down to Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, who was at the time working with Cinergi Pictures
Cinergi Pictures
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment Inc. was a small independent production company that was founded by Andrew G. Vajna, after he had sold his interest in his first production company, Carolco International Pictures in 1989, which he had started with his partner Mario F. Kassar in 1975.-Cinergi...
, and Weinstein under Miramax. Williamson agreed to terms with Miramax for $400,000 plus a contract for two sequels and a third, unrelated film, believing their label, Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
, would produce Scream immediately and without significant restriction. Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
was approached early on to helm the film but he was occupied with remaking The Haunting
The Haunting (1999 film)
The Haunting is a 1999 remake of the 1963 horror film of the same name. Both films are based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, published in 1959. The Haunting was directed by Jan de Bont and stars Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor...
and so other directors including Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
, Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, George Romero and Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
were approached. Concerns were raised by Williamson and Weinstein when many of the approached directors, having read the script, believed the film to be a comedy, making them reluctant to hire those particular directors, believing they "didn't get it". Craven was approached and passed on the film several times, wanting to move away from the genre, but was enticed once Drew Barrymore became involved, reasoning that it may be different to his previous works if an actress of her recognition was involved. Ultimately the production of The Haunting, at that time, fell through and Craven was able to take over directing duties on the film. Close to the end of the films production, the Weinstein brothers had the films title changed from Scary Movie to Scream inspired by the Michael Jackson song of the same name
Scream/Childhood
"Scream"/"Childhood" is the lead single from Michael Jackson's ninth studio album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I where "Scream" is the first song and "Childhood" is the tenth song on the second disc of the album HIStory Continues. The A-side, "Scream", is a duet with his younger sister...
as Bob Weinstein felt "Scary Movie" was not suitable when the film also contained elements of satire and comedy. The change was immediately disliked by both Williamson and Craven who considered it "stupid" but would later remark that it was a positive change.
Following a successful screening with a test audience
Test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold...
and Miramax executives, both Williamson and Craven were offered a two-picture contract for sequels to Scream, Williamson already having been offered a three-picture deal by Miramax for unrelated films. Bob Weinstein ordered that the film be released on December 20, 1996, a date others were critical of as it was the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season where seasonal and family films were more prevalent. Weinstein argued this fact was in the films favor as it meant that horror fans and teenagers had nothing interesting to watch. When Screams first weekend takings amounted to only $6 million, it was considered that this release date gamble had failed, but the following week the takings did not drop but increased and continued the following week, leading to a total U.S. gross of over $100 million. As Screams box-office takings grew, a lawsuit would be filed against Dimension Films by Sony Pictures who claimed that the title Scream was too similar to that of Sony's own film Screamers (1995). The case was settled out of court with the details remaining secret but producer Marianne Maddalena
Marianne Maddalena
Marianne Maddalena is an American film producer. She is part of a joint venture called Craven-Maddalena Films alongside Wes Craven...
would confirm that the production were able to use the current and potential future titles of Scream 2 and Scream 3.
A sequel was considered in January 1997 after the first film proceeded to gross more than $50 million in its first month. Scream 2
Scream 2
Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film created and written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy and Liev Schreiber, released on December 12, 1997 as the second installment in the Scream film series...
(1997) was greenlit in March 1997 with a budget of $24 million, and was released before the first films anniversary. The production of the film suffered a significant setback when the script was leaked revealing plot details including the identity of the killers, resulting in the script being modified to change many details. In an interview, Craven commented on the rushed schedule for the film, starting in July 1997 with a December release date, with many scenes in the script provided with only a loose outline forcing him to develop scenes on set. Various titles were considered for the sequel at different points in the films production, including Scream Again, Scream Louder and Scream: The Sequel before the studio decided to simply use Scream 2.
Scream 3
Scream 3
Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film created by Kevin Williamson, directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette, released on February 4, 2000 as the third, and originally, concluding installment in the Scream film series...
(2000) was released just over two years after Scream 2 with Craven again attached to direct the film on a greatly increased budget of $40 million. Shortly before production began on the film, the Columbine incident occurred and with it came an increased scrutiny on the media and its effect on people, particularly films. There were considerations at the time about whether the studio should continue production of a third installment in the aftermath of the incident but the studio decided to continue, albeit with changes. The studio was much more apprehensive concerning violence and gore in the film than with previous installments with them pressing for a greater emphasis on the series' humor while scaling back on the violence. At one point in the production, the studio demanded that the film feature no blood or on-screen violence but Craven intervened stating that the film should either have the violence present in earlier Scream films or should be called something other than Scream. As with production of Scream, Craven would again state in an interview that issues with censorship and the MPAA made him consider leaving the horror genre.
Production of a new film, Scream 4
Scream 4
Scream 4 is a 2011 American slasher horror film and the fourth installment in the Scream film series. Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and Scream 2, the film stars an ensemble cast which includes David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts,...
(2011) was announced in July 2008 by The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
who approached Williamson about formulating a new script, with the intention of creating a new Scream trilogy if the fourth film proved successful. By late 2009, Williamson managed to develop an idea for the film and potential sequels and began work on the script. The film was given a budget of $40 million and the principal cast were signed to the film in September 2009 followed by Craven as director in March 2010. In May 2010, Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad
Cathy Konrad is an award winning American film producer. She has produced several successful films including the Scream trilogy, Girl, Interrupted, and, most recently, 3:10 to Yuma.-Producer:* Men in Trees...
, producer on the original three films filed a $3 million lawsuit against The Weinstein Company accusing them of violating an agreement that her company, Cat Entertainment, be given first rights to produce all Scream films in order to cut costs by getting a cheaper producer (Craven's wife Iya Labunka, not named in the suit). In April 2011, it was reported that the Weinstein's had settled out of court with Conrad, the details remaining confidential. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
however, claimed that Conrad received a cash payment and entitlement to a percentage of the profits derived from Scream 4. In addition, she was given an executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
credit on the film. Williamson and Bob Weinstein came into repeated conflict with each other during production with Williamson citing the creative direction of the film as the cause while Weinstein blamed the time constraints on the films development. Williamson and Weinstein did not speak to each other after Williamson left the production, claiming other responsibilities, and he had not seen the finished version of the film prior to its release.
Filming
Filming for Scream began on April 15, 1996 and finished on June 8, 1996. Filming was intended to take place on North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
but the location was deemed unsuitable, with scouts unable to find useful locations that would not require extensive building or modification to make fit the requirements of the film. The production instead turned to Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
before discovering Sonoma county, California and the areas within, Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...
, Healdsburg
Healdsburg, California
Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a population of 11,254...
and Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay is a long narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. It is approximately 15 miles long and averages nearly 1.0 miles wide, effectively separating the Point Reyes Peninsula from the mainland of Marin County. It is located...
. The house used by Barrymore's character is situated on Sonoma Mountain Road opposite the house used in the horror film Cujo
Cujo
Cujo is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982, and was made into a film in 1983....
(1983). Before filming began, the production approached Santa Rosa High School about using it as Woodsboro High School. The school board insisted on seeing the script and objected to the content of the film's dialog and the foul-mouthed, aggressive character of Principal Himbry. The matter reached local newspapers who also raised criticism but there the production received support from students of the school and local residents who supported the economical benefits of the films presence and others who defended its First Amendment rights. Opposition to the film came from those who deplored its content of violence against children (teenagers), as the area had suffered the tragic kidnap and murder of Polly Klaas
Polly Klaas
Polly Hannah Klaas was an American murder victim whose case gained national attention. At the age of twelve, she was kidnapped at knife point from her mother's home during a slumber party in Petaluma, California, on October 1, 1993. She was later strangled...
three years prior. The matter resulted in a three-hour debate on the topic scheduled for the 16th of April, one day after filming was to begin. Unwilling to be delayed, Craven began filming as scheduled on the 15th with the opening scene of the film featuring Barrymore which took five days to complete. The result of the Santa Rosa debate was that permission be denied and the production was forced to find another location for the school, ultimately being offered the Santa Rosa community center which appears as Woodsboro High School in Scream.
| "I'm a director who can do something very well but am not allowed to put it on screen. And they ultimately get you, as they did on this one, on intensity. They say, 'it's not a specific shot, it's not blood, it's just too intense'." |
| — Director Wes Craven on his conflict with MPAA censorship during production of Scream |
For the films killer, Williamson's script had provided Craven only with the description "masked killer" forcing him and his design team to create the Ghostface costume from scratch to conceal the killers identity. While awaiting permission from Fun World, creators of the Ghostface mask design, Craven had the design team KNB Effects create an alternative that was used in two scenes before being replaced by the original Fun World design once permission was granted. Bob Weinstein disliked the Ghostface mask believing it was not "scary" and the studio, upon reviewing the dailies
Dailies
Dailies, in filmmaking, are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synched to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director and some members...
footage of the opening scene, were concerned that it was progressing in a direction they did not want and there was consideration that Craven could ultimately be replaced. To assuage their concerns, the first thirteen minutes of the opening scene were compiled as a workprint
Workprint
A workprint is a rough version of a motion picture, used by the film editor during the editing process. Such copies generally contain original recorded sound that will later be re-dubbed, stock footage as placeholders for missing shots or special effects, and animation tests for in-production...
, a rough version of the finished film, and upon seeing it, the studio were content to let Craven continue and Weinstein was satisfied that the mask could be scary. The third and final act of the film, set at a house party, was over forty minutes long and shot at a vacant property in Tomales over twenty-one nights. The scene was considered the most difficult to shoot as it took place entirely in one location yet featured the individual stories and deaths of multiple characters and as it was set at night, meant that production had to halt at daybreak.
After filming completed in June, Craven spent two months editing the final product, encountering repeated conflicts with the film rating
Motion picture rating system
A motion picture rating system is designated to classify films with regard to suitability for audiences in terms of issues such as sex, violence, substance abuse, profanity, impudence or other types of mature content...
body MPAA concerning the content of scenes, being forced to tone down or obscure the more intense scenes and violence to avoid an NC-17. Though Dimension Films had previously released NC-17 films, the rating made those films difficult to market and attract an audience and thus they were desperate for a less restrictive R-rating. For an early scene involving the death of the character Casey Becker, Craven lied to the MPAA by claiming he had only one take of the scene and could not replace it with something less intense, in order to keep it in the film. In interviews, Craven indicated that the conflict was enough that, at the time, he was considering leaving the horror genre. In total, Craven sent eight different cuts of the film to the MPAA before before Bob Weinstein intervened and personally contacted the MPAA, believing they misunderstood to which genre Scream belonged. Weinstein explained to the organisation that although he agreed it was intense, it also had comedic elements and satirized its content and was not just a horror film glorifying violence. The MPAA reviewed their decision and granted the film an R-rating.
Production of a sequel, Scream 2
Scream 2
Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film created and written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy and Liev Schreiber, released on December 12, 1997 as the second installment in the Scream film series...
was greenlit in March 1997, with filming beginning on July 16, 1997 with a budget of $24 million and wrapping on August 28, 1997. Filming took place largely in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
over four weeks before moving to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Agnes Scott College
Agnes Scott College
Agnes Scott College is a private undergraduate college in the United States. Agnes Scott's campus lies in downtown Decatur, Georgia, nestled inside the perimeter of the bustling metro-Atlanta area....
in Atlanta and UCLA in Los Angeles were used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in the film. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the fictional "Stab" film was filmed over three days in the Vista theater on Sunset Drive, Hollywood, the exterior represented by the Rialto theater in South Pasadena
South Pasadena, California
South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in in the West San Gabriel Valley...
. Due to the large number of extras present in the scene, its details were leaked onto the Internet shortly after filming completed which Craven cited as the productions first experience of a major plot leak. After his interactions with the MPAA in Scream, Craven sent them a copy of the film that was intentionally much more graphically violent than they were planning to release, featuring Omar Epps
Omar Epps
Omar Hashim Epps is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. Epps' television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER,...
' character being stabbed in the ear three times and an extended scene of Randy Meeks death. Their idea was that the MPAA would force them to remove the content the production already did not want while keeping the content they did. However, the MPAA gave them an R-Rating for the more violent cut, stating that they felt the message of the film was significant. Following a script leak early into filming, security around the production was significantly increased with a focus on closed filmsets and strict restriction on what personnel could be present during filming and have access to the script with all present required to sign non-disclosure agreements. The script itself was reprinted on specialty paper to prevent photocopying and was often destroyed after use.
Filming for Scream 3
Scream 3
Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film created by Kevin Williamson, directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger, starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette, released on February 4, 2000 as the third, and originally, concluding installment in the Scream film series...
began on July 6, 1999 in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, in the areas of San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, Macarthur Park
MacArthur Park
MacArthur Park is a park in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, named after General Douglas MacArthur and designated city of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument #100.- Geography :...
, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Hills
The Hollywood Hills is an affluent and exclusive neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southeastern Santa Monica Mountains. It is bound by Laurel Canyon Boulevard to the west, Vermont Avenue to the east, Mulholland Drive to the north, and Sunset Boulevard to the south.-Hollywood Hills...
and Silverlake
Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California
Silver Lake is a hilly neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California east of Hollywood and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles. Silver Lake is inhabited by a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups, but it is best known as an eclectic gathering of hipsters and the creative class.The...
, with a $40 million budget and wrapped on September 29, 1999. The isolated home of Campbell's character is situated in Topanga Canyon
Topanga, California
Topanga is a census-designated place in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. It is located in the Santa Monica Mountains. Occupying Topanga Canyon, it is often referred to by that name. Topanga is bounded on three sides by State Park or conservancy lands, and on the south by the Pacific...
and Cox's character is introduced in a classroom
Classroom
A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...
at UCLA. A scene where Campbell's character is pursued through movie set replicas of locations from Scream was not scripted but the sets were built because Craven knew he wanted to revisit the original film in some way, after which they wrote the scene around the set. Due to the constantly changing script used for the film, which would often be usable on the day of filming, the production filmed large amounts of footage of different variations of the same scenes in order that, should the script again change, they would ideally have a scene they could use without having to film new ones at a later date. In particular, the opening scene had three variants and the three-minute scene featuring the character of Randy Meeks had two-hours of filmed footage. The ending too was refilmed in January 2000, three months after principal photography finished, adding in the character of Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
) and having Campbell's character beaten and then shot by Ghostface after it was decided she defeated him too easily. So in flux was the script that the final scene of the movie was filmed with three variants of Dempsey's character, one with him absent, one with his arm in bandage
Bandage
A bandage is a piece of material used either to support a medical device such as a dressing or splint, or on its own to provide support to the body; they can also be used to restrict a part of the body. During heavy bleeding or following a poisonous bite it is important to slow the flow of blood,...
s and one with him in a normal condition as they were unsure of what his fate would be.
Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
for Scream 4
Scream 4
Scream 4 is a 2011 American slasher horror film and the fourth installment in the Scream film series. Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, writer of Scream and Scream 2, the film stars an ensemble cast which includes David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts,...
began on June 28, 2010 with a budget of $40 million and concluded on September 24, 2010. Filming took place in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
in the areas of Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
, Dearborn
Dearborn, Michigan
-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...
, Livonia
Livonia, Michigan
Livonia is a city in the northwest part of Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Livonia is a very large suburb with an array of traditional neighborhoods connected to the metropolitan area by freeways. The population was 96,942 at the 2010 census, making it Michigan's 9th largest...
and Northville
Northville, Michigan
Northville is a city located in and divided by Oakland and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of Michigan and a suburb in Metro Detroit. The population was 5,970 at the 2010 census. The Oakland County portion is surrounded by the city of Novi. The Wayne County portion is surrounded by Northville...
. In January 2011, the film underwent an additional four days of filming to reshoot two scenes, following a test screening
Test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold...
- the opening scene and a later scene that took place in a parking garage with Alison Brie
Alison Brie
-External links:...
. Amidst criticism that the reshoots meant the film was in trouble and the result of a negative response from the test audience, director Craven countered,
Craven also complimented the films ending, labeling it "kick-ass" and stated that it remained untouched as part of the reshoot process. In an interview, Craven also highlighted that the script was so long they had filmed many scenes which had to be cut from the final film to reduce its running time.
Music
The score for the Scream series was provided by Marco BeltramiMarco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
, starting with Scream in what was his feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
debut. Beltrami was brought onto the production of Scream after Craven's assistant Julie Pleck requested input on the now defunct site "Hollywood Cafe", asking for opinions on was "new", "fresh" and "wonderful" and was provided with Beltrami's name by several people. Craven sent for samples of Beltrami's work and was impressed by what he heard, bringing him to the set to view the first thirteen minutes of the film featuring the introduction and murder of the character Casey Becker. Craven had Beltrami produce music based on this scene and then demonstrate it, impressing Craven enough to hire him. For Scream (1996), the decision was made to intentionally use music to raise the tension in scenes where it was unnecessary when the characters were entering a situation where the audience may expect a killer to suddenly appear, only to not deliver on that expectation, part of the film's theme of playing with horror conventions. Craven and editor Patrick Lussier
Patrick Lussier
Patrick Lussier is a Canadian horror and thriller genre writer, editor and director.- Career :Lussier has worked as a film editor on most of Wes Craven's latter films, including Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Vampire in Brooklyn, Scream and Red Eye and has directed films including Dracula 2000, The...
provided Beltrami with advice on how best to deliver the music during scary and tense scenes as Beltrami had no prior experience in developing a horror score. Beltrami intentionally avoided conventional horror score styles and approached the film as a western, taking influence from Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
, prolific composer of many western films, in the creation of Screams music. When scoring a theme for the character of Dewey, Beltrami approached him as a sheriff but also as a "quirky" character, using a Morricone-style guitar accompaniment to maintain the Western approach. An acoustic cover of Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult, often abbreviated BÖC, is an American rock band, most of whose members first came together in Long Island, NY in 1967 as the band Soft White Underbelly...
's "Don't Fear the Reaper" plays softly in the background to Sidney and Billy's discussion of their relationship, which analyst Jeff Smith describes as
The theme tune of Sidney Prescott, entitled "Sidney's Lament", became a signature track for the series, variations of the tune appearing across the score of Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3. The track features a female choral arrangement expressing "sorrow" concerning the fate of the character. In Scream, Beltrami stated that the voice "spoke" for the character, "lamenting" the loss of her mother. In future films it went on to represent the murders and ensuing trauma inflicted on her. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks
Filmtracks.com
Filmtracks.com is a leading modern film score review website created and maintained out of Missoula, Montana by its sole reviewer, Christian Clemmensen...
called the "haunting" vocals of the track the "voice of the franchise". The track "Sid Wears a Dress" features in the finale of Scream 3 where the sorrowful chorus of "Lament" gradually shifts key
Key (music)
In music theory, the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a specific key, such as in the key of C major or in the key of F-sharp. Sometimes the terms "major" or "minor" are appended, as in the key of A minor or in the...
to represent "hope" for the characters future following the resolution of her storyline in what was then the final film in the series. The female voice would be accompanied by a male addition for the first time in "Pied a Terror" from Scream 3 to represent the brother of the character.
Beltrami returned for Scream 2 (1997), leading the score though there would be a late inclusion by Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
in the form of the choral track "Cassandra Aria". In addition, excerpts from the score of Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow (1996 film)
Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film directed by John Woo, written by Graham Yost, and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer, and features guitarist Duane Eddy. It deals with the theft of an American nuclear weapon.The film received...
by Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
appeared in the film, in particular guitar work by Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, for the character 'Dewey', replacing many of the character's related tracks from the original Scream score. Beltrami later explained that the Zimmer piece was used as a scratch track for test screening
Test screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release in order to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population, and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold...
purposes before the score was finalized. The test audience reaction to it influenced the studio keep the Zimmer piece, reducing "Dewey's Theme", which Beltrami had composed to fill its place, to minor use during more serious scenes involving the character. The Zimmer piece would continue to be used in Scream 3 during scenes concerning the evolving relationship between the characters of Dewey and Gale with Beltrami appropriating and adding his own influence to the piece to blend it into the thematic Scream 3 score.
For Scream 3, Beltrami employed seven orchestrators to aid in scoring the extensive orchestral accompaniment featured in the film's score. Additionally, he experimented with new styles of sound production by recording instruments in abnormal circumstances such as inserting objects into a piano and recording at various velocities to create a distorted, unnatural sound and modifying the results electronically.
Box office
The Scream series, when compared to the other high-grossing American horror franchises - A Nightmare on Elm StreetA Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
, Child's Play
Child's Play (film series)
Child's Play is a horror film franchise created by Don Mancini, with its first installment, Child's Play, being released on November 9, 1988. The film has so far spawned four sequels and has gone into other media, such as comic books. The films all feature Chucky, a killer Good Guys doll with the...
, Friday the 13th, the Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter
Hannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
series, Psycho
Psycho (film series)
The Psycho film series is an American horror film franchise loosely based on the Psycho novels by Robert Bloch. The first film, Psycho, was directed by legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, with three sequels, a spin-off, and a remake following. The official films consist of Psycho,...
, Saw, Halloween
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — with figures adjusted for 2011 inflation, is the sixth highest grossing horror franchise in the domestic United States at $442.9 million. This list is topped by Friday the 13th at $687.1 million, followed by the Nightmare on Elm Street series with $592.8 million. The Hannibal Lecter film series with $588.7 million, Halloween with $557.5 million, the Saw series with $457.4 million, the Scream series which is followed by Psycho with $376.3 million, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $304.6 million, and the Child's Play film series with approximately $203 million.
The original Scream has remained the most successful of the series accruing a US$173,046,663 gross worldwide and receiving a largely positive critical reception, closely followed by Scream 2 with less than $1 million separating their respective box-office takings. Scream 3 suffered significantly worse domestically and critically than its predecessors, taking only $89.1 million compared to Scream and Scream 2 with $103 million and $101.1 million respectively. All three installments takings remained relatively equal in foreign territories with less than $2 million separating them, however Scream 3 remains the lowest financially performing series entry to date. Scream is currently the 518th highest grossing movie worldwide, followed by Scream 2 at 520 and Scream 3 at 616. As of 2011, Scream remains the highest grossing film in the slasher
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
genre, followed by Scream 2 and Scream 3 at #2 and #3 respectively.
Despite competition from other big name films during its release, including Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
's Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
and Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's Mars Attacks!
Mars Attacks!
Mars Attacks! is a 1996 American science fiction film directed by Tim Burton and based on the cult trading card series of the same name. The film uses elements of black comedy, surreal humour, and political satire, and claims to be also a parody of multiple science fiction B movies...
, its release date of December 20, during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season, and Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
labeling it "D.O.A.
Dead on arrival
Dead on arrival or D.O.A. is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police...
" before it was even released, Scream became the surprise hit of the year and continued to show in cinemas for nearly eight months. By late 1997, Scream 2 was considered such a potential box office success that the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering...
and James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
's future hit Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
were moved from their release date of December 12 to December 19 so as to not face the film as competition. With $33 million, Scream 2 broke December opening weekend records for its box-office takings in 1997 and held the record until December 15, 2000, being replaced by What Women Want
What Women Want
What Women Want is a 2000 American romantic comedy film, directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The movie was a box office success with a domestic gross of $182,811,707 and a worldwide gross of $374,111,707, against a budget of $70 million.-Plot:Nick Marshall, a Chicago...
(2000).
| Film | Release date (United States) |
Budget (estimated) |
Box office revenue | Box office ranking | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Foreign | Worldwide | Release year | All time U.S. | All time worldwide | |||
| Scream | December 20, 1996 | $15,000,000 | $103,046,663 | $70,000,000 | $173,046,663 | #15 | #436 | #518 |
| Scream 2 | December 12, 1997 | $24,000,000 | $101,363,301 | $71,000,000 | $172,363,301 | #21 | #453 | #520 |
| Scream 3 | February 4, 2000 | $40,000,000 | $89,143,175 | $72,691,101 | $161,834,276 | #27 | #548 | #616 |
| Scream 4 | April 15, 2011 | $40,000,000 | $38,180,928 | $58,856,682 | $97,037,610 | #47 | #1,621 | |
| Total | $119,000,000 | $331,734,067 | $272,547,783 | $604,281,850 | ||||
| Note(s)
|
||||||||
Critical reaction
The Scream series has received a largely positive critical response since the release of the first film in 1996 with Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times calling Scream "a bravura, provocative sendup of horror pictures" while EmpireEmpire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
Adam Smith called it "Clever, quick and bloody funny.". Other reviews appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels." Williamson's script received praise for its "fiendishly clever, complicated plot" which "deftly mixes irony, self-reference and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills." Janet Maslin of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was less complimentary saying "[Craven] wants things both ways, capitalizing on lurid material while undermining it with mocking humor. Not even horror fans who can answer all this film's knowing trivia questions may be fully comfortable with such an exploitative mix".
Scream went on to rank #32 on Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
list of the '50 Best High School Movies and #13 on Bravo's 'The 100 Scariest Movie Movements'. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly would add additional praise to the film, listing it as #60 on their list of the '100 Best Films of the Last 13 years'. The film ranked #482 on Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
2008 list of 'The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time'. Scream received several awards in 1996 including the Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
's Best Actress for Campbell, Best Writing
Saturn Award for Best Writing
The following is a list of people who have won the Saturn Award for Best Writing.-Multiple Winners:*James Cameron - 3 awards*Christopher Nolan - 3 awards*William Peter Blatty - 3 awards-External links:* http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html#writing...
for Kevin Williamson and Best Horror Film
Saturn Award for Best Horror Film
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Horror Film:-References:...
plus nominations for Best Director for Wes Craven and Best Supporting Actor for both Ulrich and Barrymore. The film was also awarded the 1997 Best Movie
MTV Movie Award for Best Movie
This is a following list of the MTV Movie Award winners and nominees for Best Movie.-References:...
by the MTV Movie Awards
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...
.
Scream 2 received equally positive critical response with some critics arguing that the film surpassed the original in scares and humor. Both Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
and the New York Times Janet Maslin gave the sequel positive reviews despite their negative response to Scream. The film failed to achieve the same success as the original in terms of awards however, winning only the 1998 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance
MTV Movie Award for Best Performance
This is a following list of the MTV Movie Award winners and nominees for Best Performance from 1992 onward. In all but two years, the awards are separated into Male and Female categories.-1992:...
for Campbell plus Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Horror Film for Campbell, Cox and Scream 2 respectively.
Scream 3 received mixed to negative reviews earning on a 38% average score on review-site Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
compared to Screams 82% and Scream 2s 81% with general consensus that "Scream 3 became what the series originally started out spoofing
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
" and concluded that the series "lost its freshness and originality by falling back on the old horror formulas and cliché
Cliché
A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s". Of the characters, Roger Ebert said "[the characters] are so thin, they're transparent" but praised Campbell's appearance saying "The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tribute". However, not all reviews were negative with the Los Angeles Times calling it "Genuinely scary and also highly amusing" and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
stating that "as the conclusion to the trilogy it works more effectively than anyone had a right to expect".
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance... |
Metacritic Metacritic Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Cream of the Crop | ||
| Scream | 83% (59 reviews) | 75% (16 reviews) | 65 (25 reviews) |
| Scream 2 | 81% (73 reviews) | 94% (18 reviews) | 63 (22 reviews) |
| Scream 3 | 36% (111 reviews) | 38% (26 reviews) | 56 (32 reviews) |
| Scream 4 | 58% (161 reviews) | 52% (33 reviews) | 52 (32 reviews) |
| Average Ratings | 65% | 65% | 59 |
Home media
Scream was released in US territories on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on December 2, 1997, followed by Scream 2 on December 1, 1998 and Scream 3 on October 24, 2000. All releases were conducted by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3s release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is the home video distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment also operates as Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Also, "Buena Vista" translated in Spanish is "Good View"...
.
The Scream films were released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
for the first time on December 3, 1997 starting with Scream. with a Collector's Edition of the film released on December 8, 1998, containing the film as well as deleted scenes, outtakes, the films theatrical trailer, cast interviews, directors commentary and behind the scenes
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
information. Scream 2 was released in the US on July 22, 1998 with a Collector's Edition following on August 7, 2001. The Collector's Edition featured additional material including outtakes, deleted scenes, the films theatrical trailer, music videos of songs featured in the film and directors' commentary. Scream 3 was released in the US on July 4, 2000 only as a Collector's Edition featuring deleted scenes, outtakes, audio commentary, music videos of songs featured in the film, trailers for the film and biographies on the cast and crew involved in the films production. In 2001, the Scream 3 release was nominated for a Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Best Home Video Release, losing to Princess Mononoke
Princess Mononoke
is a 1997 epic Japanese animated historical fantasy feature film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. is not a name, but a general term in the Japanese language for a spirit or monster...
(1997). All of the US releases were undertaken by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3s release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
Following the release of, then series finale, Scream 3, the three films were collected in "The Ultimate Scream Collection" by Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
on September 26, 2000, in a boxset containing Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 plus "Behind the Scream" a short documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
about the production of the three films and additional material including screentests of actors involved in the films, outtakes and deleted scenes.
Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 remained unreleased in foreign territories including Europe and Japan until 2001 where they were simultaneously released on February 26 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Each film contained the additional content found in the Collector's Edition version of their US release including deleted scenes, outtakes, theatrical trailers, music videos and commentary from each respective films crew. Additionally, the three films were collected together in a single pack, again released on February 26 and released as "Scream Trilogy".
The three original films were released individually and in a collection in Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
format on March 29, 2011, two weeks prior to the release of Scream 4, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...
, hosting the films in 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
high definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
. In addition to the films, each release contained audio commentary, theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes footage for each respective film.
Scream
The Scream original soundtrack, released December 17, 1996 by the label TVT RecordsTVT Records
TVT Records was an independent US record label founded by Steve Gottlieb. Over the course of its 25 year history the label released some 25 Gold, Platinum and Multi-platinum releases. Its roster included Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule, Lil Jon, Underworld, The KLF, Sevendust, Brian Jonestown Massacre and...
, features 12 songs by various artists including the original piece "Trouble In Woodsboro"/"Sidney's Lament" from the films score by Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami
Marco Beltrami is an American film composer.-Life and career:Beltrami was born in Long Island, New York of Italian and Greek descent...
, most of which appeared in various scenes in the film. The piece "School's Out
School's Out (song)
Female pop duo Daphne & Celeste, released a cover of the song in 2000. The chorus is based on Alice Cooper's hit of the same name, and some other elements of that song have been retained, although much of the song is "original", in a pop-rap style...
" by Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
appeared in the film but was replaced with a cover version of the song by The Last Hard Men on the album. The album was given 3 out of 5 stars by Allmusic though it was considered a failure and never charted on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
despite the success of the film.
The Scream score by Marco Beltrami would be his first time scoring a major film release and the ensuing exposure allowed him to go on to score other blockbuster films such as I, Robot
I, Robot (film)
I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del...
and Live Free or Die Hard
Live Free or Die Hard
Live Free or Die Hard , is a 2007 American action film, and the fourth installment in the Die Hard series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane. The name was adapted from the state motto of New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die"...
. The score would not be released commercially until July 14, 1998 by Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande
Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...
in a dual-pack with the Scream 2 score. However it was found to lack several pieces from the films, with a runtime of only 12 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores due to the high reuse fees involved in obtaining the rights to commercially release the music. Beltrami was considered to have taken inspiration from the synthetic styles of Éric Serra
Eric Serra
Éric Serra is a French composer. He has often worked on the movies of Luc Besson.- Biography :Éric Serra's father Claude was a famous French songwriter in the 1950s and '60s, and, as such, Éric was exposed to music and its production at a young age. His mother died when he was just seven years old...
and other successful scores, the references becoming more pronounced in his score to Scream 2. The theme for the central character Sidney Prescott, "Sidney's Lament" incorporated a "haunting" female solo vocal that would be utilized in other tracks throughout the entire film series. The score to Scream received generally positive reviews with Mikael Carlsson labeling it as some of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years while Filmtracks claimed the scores had "cult status
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
".
Scream 2
The Scream 2 original soundtrack was released November 18, 1997 by Capitol RecordsCapitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
featuring 15 songs in the R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, Rap
Rap
Rap may refer to:*Rapping, performance in which rhyming lyrics are used, with or without musical accompaniment ; while an MC performs spoken verses in time to a beat/ melody**Hip hop subculture**Hip hop music...
and Rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
genres by various artists, some of which are represented in the film. The album spent ten weeks on the Billboard 200, rising as high as #50 but received a lower score than its predecessor from the music guide AllMusic, gaining only 2 out of 5. Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic opined that the soundtrack was an attempt to compensate for the previous films lack of a hit soundtrack, but failed to do, creating an "uneven" album of songs not "good enough to make [the artists'] own albums".
The Scream 2 score was, as in Scream, developed by Marco Beltrami and was released on July 14, 1998 in a dual-pack with the score to Scream by Varèse Sarabande. The commercially released score was found to be lacking several pieces used in the film, with a runtime of only 17 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores. Included in the missing pieces was the track "Cassandra Aria" created by Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman
Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film. Up until 1995, he was the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band Oingo Boingo, a group he formed in 1976...
, described by soundtrack-review site Filmtracks as "a frenzied, choral-enhanced three minutes" that remains unreleased as of March, 2011. The length of the released score was considered disappointing and blamed on the fees required to be paid to musicians in order to release their music. The influence of several other famous composers could be heard in the score including Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
, Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal
Elliot Goldenthal is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a student of Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and is best known for his distinctive style and ability to blend various musical styles and techniques in original and inventive ways...
, Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...
and Christopher Young
Christopher Young
Christopher Young is an American music composer for both film and television.Many of his music compositions are for horror films, including Hellraiser, Tales from the Hood, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, Urban Legend, and Drag Me to Hell...
. In particular excerpts of the Hans Zimmer's score to Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow (1996 film)
Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film directed by John Woo, written by Graham Yost, and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer, and features guitarist Duane Eddy. It deals with the theft of an American nuclear weapon.The film received...
, featuring guitar by Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy
Duane Eddy is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he had a string of hit records, produced by Lee Hazlewood, which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" sound, including "Rebel Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young"...
, would become a component of the theme tune of the character Dewey Riley.
Scream 3
The Scream 3 original soundtrack was released on January 25, 2000 by Wind-up RecordsWind-Up Records
Wind-up Entertainment, Inc. is a record label based in New York City. It was formed in 1997 by Alan Meltzer, former owner of CD One Stop, following his 1996 purchase of Grass Records. Wind-up is currently the largest independently-owned record label in the world...
featuring 18 songs consisting largely of the metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
genre by artists such as System of a Down
System of a Down
System of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is a rock band from Southern California. The band was formed in 1994. It consists of Serj Tankian , Daron Malakian , Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan...
and Powerman 5000
Powerman 5000
Powerman 5000 is an American Metal band formed in 1991. Through the span of over two decades, the group has released several albums and gained their highest commercial success with 1999's science fiction themed Tonight the Stars Revolt!...
, some of which are represented in the film. The album fared better than its predecessors, spending fourteen weeks on the Billboard 200 and reaching a top rank of #32. and scoring a 2.5 out of 5 from music guide AllMusic. Reviewer Steve Huey claims that the "high pedigree" of the albums contributors had produced a "pretty listenable album".
The Scream 3 score was again helmed by Marco Beltrami who employed seven orchestrators and experimented with the recording of instruments in unusual circumstances such as physically and electronically altering the traditional sound of a piano while continuing to include a heavy vocal orchestra in his tracks There was consideration that Beltrami was forced to hire multiple orchestrators to complete the score to meet the films deadline. Like previous scores in the series, the Scream 3 score was released by Varèse Sarabande on February 29, 2000 with a total length of 33 minutes of music, though the album was again found to be missing certain sections of the score utilized within the film. Beltrami took inspiration from other composers for the score, again incorporating excerpts of the score to Broken Arrow
Broken Arrow (1996 film)
Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film directed by John Woo, written by Graham Yost, and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer, and features guitarist Duane Eddy. It deals with the theft of an American nuclear weapon.The film received...
by Hans Zimmer in the track "Sid Wears a Dress". Music guide AllMusic awarded the Scream 3 score 2.5 out of 5.
Controversies
Amidst the series' success, it has also been tinged with controversy with claims of real-world copycat crime inspirations and inducing violence.In January 1998, 16-year-old Mario Padilla and his 14-year-old cousin, Samuel Ramirez stabbed Mario's mother, Gina Castillo, 45 times, killing her. The case became known as the "Scream murder" and fell under intense media scrutiny after the boys claimed they were inspired by Scream and Scream 2. They would also admit to needing the money acquired from Gina's murder to fund a killing spree and purchase two Ghostface costumes and a voice-changer used by the character in the film. During their trial, psychologist, Madeline Levine, who studied the effect of violence on children, stated
The case was expected to highlight the effect of violent films on teenagers but the presiding judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
, John Cheroske, ordered that evidence pertaining to Scream be barred and that the case not be referred to as the "Scream murder", refusing media access to the courtroom
Courtroom
A courtroom is the actual enclosed space in which a judge regularly holds court.The schedule of official court proceedings is called a docket; the term is also synonymous with a court's caseload as a whole.-Courtroom design:-United States:...
, intending that the case was tried as murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
and nothing else.
On January 17, 1999, 13-year-old Ashley Murray was stabbed multiple times in the head and back before being left for dead by his then-friends Daniel Gill, 14, and Robert Fuller, 15; he was later found and saved by an elderly man walking his dog. The pair were dubbed the "Scream attackers" after it emerged that they had watched Scream shortly before the attack and drawings of the Ghostface mask were found amongst their possessions, though their actions were additionally blamed on physical abuse
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...
, drugs
DRUGS
Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows are an American post-hardcore band formed in 2010. They released their debut self-titled album on February 22, 2011.- Formation :...
and exposure to black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
in their home life. Murray, who later testified against the pair, himself stated that he believed the film may have influenced the pair to attack him.
On May 4, 1999, following the Columbine incident and increasing news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
scrutiny on the effects on society of violence in films, games and other media, the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Commerce committee
United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate in charge of all senate matters related to the following subjects:* Coast Guard* Coastal zone management* Communications...
held a hearing about Hollywood's marketing of films to youths and the horror genre of films in particular, using the opening scene of Scream featuring the murder of Casey Becker, as an example of negative media which may be viewed by children.
In November, 2001, Belgian Thierry Jaradin, 24, garbed in a Ghostface mask and costume murdered 15-year-old Alisson Cambier after she rejected his romantic advances. Jaradin later claimed to police that the murder was premeditated and inspired by the Scream film trilogy. The following year a seventeen-year-old French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
youth, identified only as Julien, following prior failed attempts with other girls, lured a fellow pupil to a secluded spot and stabbed her to death after showing her his Ghostface mask. French authorities of the time claimed the murder as the third Scream related killing since 2000.