Scream (film)

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Scream
Directed by	Wes Craven
Produced by	Cathy Konrad, Cary Woods
Written by	Kevin Williamson
Starring	David Arquette Neve Campbell Skeet Ulrich Courteney Cox Matthew Lillard Rose McGowan Jamie Kennedy Liev Schreiber and Drew Barrymore
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release date(s)	December 20, 1996
Running time	111 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 USD (estimated)
Followed by	Scream 2

Scream is a 1996 satire of the horror film genre, directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. The film revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s by using a standard concept (teens being brutally killed off being one example) with a tongue-in-cheek approach that successfully combined straightforward scares with dialogue that satirized slasher film conventions, (for example, the final girl).

The film was a major hit upon its release, and was one of the highest grossing films of 1996. It was also highly acclaimed by many critics worldwide. As a result it spawned two sequels, Scream 2 and Scream 3. The original Scream was filmed in and around Healdsburg, California.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Detailed plot 3 Cast 3.1 Characters 3.2 Main Characters 3.3 Other Characters 4 The Rules 5 References to other horrors 6 Reaction 6.1 Box office performance 6.2 Critical reception 6.3 Awards 7 Cultural impact 8 Soundtrack 8.1 Track listing 9 VHS and DVD releases 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Sidney Prescott, a teenage girl (Neve Campbell) finds herself the target of a mysterious killer. Sidney and her friends race to uncover dark secrets about their town's past, seeking any clues that might reveal the killer's true identity.

[edit] Detailed plot

In the film, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) attempts to cope with the anniversary of her mother's brutal rape and murder. Meanwhile, two teenagers at her school, Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) and her boyfriend Steve Orth (Kevin Patrick Walls) have been killed. The next night, while at home alone, the killer, who calls their victims on the phone and taunts them before attacking, invades her house and attempts to kill her. The killer is known as Ghostface, who wears a Halloween costume reminiscent of the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Sidney tries to sort through the trauma of being attacked and, in reaction to circumstantial evidence, points an accusatory finger at her boyfriend Billy Loomis, played by Skeet Ulrich. She decides to stay at the home of her friend Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) and Tatum's brother Dwight, nicknamed Dewey (David Arquette), the deputy sheriff. While there, she receives a phone call from the killer. Billy is released, as he couldn't have placed the call from jail.

Already under considerable stress, Sidney is forced to deal with the scandalization of her own attack by ambitious tabloid television newswoman Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Gale is responsible for a tell-all book revealing the promiscuous affair between Sidney's mother and her convicted killer, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber). School is soon cancelled as a precautionary measure, leaving the building temporarily abandoned. Despite the closing, the school principal (Henry Winkler) is killed and Sidney encounters her attacker a second time, barely managing to escape. Unaware of their principal's fate, the teenagers plan a party. They are joined by Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), a horror movie buff, and Tatum's boyfriend Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), who suggested the party. The party quickly becomes a bloodbath as the killer murders Tatum, who dies when her head becomes stuck inside an automatic garage door.

In the interim, Gale, sensing the potential for a major scoop, hides a camera inside the house. She then goes outside and begins searching for anything suspicious, with the help of officer Dewey. Meanwhile, at the party, Billy shows up and is confronted by Sidney; they eventually head upstairs and Sidney loses her virginity to Billy. The partygoers soon receive word of the principal's death, and head to the school football field to find his corpse. A bunch of drunken teens drive by Dewey and Gale, forcing the pair to jump from the roadside, at which point they find Sidney's father's car.

Back at the house, Billy is stabbed by the killer while getting dressed, forcing Sidney to run out of the room to escape the killer. She falls off the top of the roof and sees Tatum's lifeless body hanging from the garage. Randy, watching television, narrowly avoids death when the killer walks up to him only to be interrupted by Sidney's screams. The killer leaves Randy and chases after Sidney instead. Inside Gale's news van, her cameraman Kenny (W. Earl Brown) witnesses the killer's attempts to murder Randy and then lets a running Sidney inside. Kenny steps outside the van to try and warn Randy, but remembers the camera's on a 30-second delay. Kenny then has his throat slashed by the killer, leaving Sidney to run away in search of help. Gale arrives at the news van and notices she is standing in a pool of blood. As she is getting ready to drive off, Randy appears, only to be hit in the head with a phone by the on-edge news reporter. She turns on the windshield wipers to clear the van's windshield of a liquid which turns out to be blood. As she pulls away, Kenny's body falls off the roof onto the windshield, and Gale speeds away. Her reckless driving leads her to wreck the van near Sidney, who runs back up towards the house, and spots Dewey.

Dewey is coming out of the door, squinting and says, "Sidney?" Then he falls down to reveal a knife in his back. Sidney climbs into a car and looks around for its keys, managing to roll up the windows before the killer shows her that he has the keys to the ignition. The killer, undeterred, enters through the trunk, forcing Sidney to run back to the house where she is greeted by Randy and Stu, who are presented as the only remaining suspects. When they both accuse each other of being the killer, Sidney doesn't know who to trust, and she slams the door in their faces.

Billy comes falling down the stairs, not dead, but seriously injured. Sidney helps him up and gives him a gun for safety. Billy walks to the door, and a scared Randy comes stumbling in, saying, "Stu's gone mad." Suddenly, Billy turns quoting Norman Bates, "We all go a little mad sometimes," and shoots Randy. Billy shows the blood on his chest is corn syrup (as used in the production of Carrie.). Sidney turns and finds Stu, who unveils the voice-changing box with "Surprise, Sidney." Finally, the horrifying truth is revealed: The murders were planned and carried out by Billy and Stu (which is how the murders continued after Billy was arrested). Sidney is saved by Gale, however briefly, (she forgot about the gun's safety) until she is again knocked unconscious. After being told Billy and Stu's plan (which involves stabbing each other in non-vital places to make it seem like they were victims as well), Sidney manages to escape while they're dealing with Gale, and Sidney kills Stu in self defense. Randy is revived (quipping, "I never thought I'd be so glad to be a virgin", in reference to the rules). However, Billy manages to pin Sidney down and with a knife raised high over his head, he is shot by an extremely banged up Gale. Billy comes back for one more scare. However, Sid shoots him in the head, killing him once and for all. Sid is reunited with her father. Deputy Dewey is shown being carried away in a stretcher, alive. The film ends at daybreak, with Gale making an impromptu report on the events of the previous night as the authorities finally arrive on the scene.

[edit] Cast

• David Arquette as Deputy Dwight 'Dewey' Riley
• Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
• Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers
• Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis
• Rose McGowan as Tatum Riley
• Matthew Lillard as Stuart Macher
• Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks
• Henry Winkler as Principal Himbry
• W. Earl Brown as Kenneth Jones
• Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker
• Joseph Whipp as Sheriff Burke
• Lawrence Hecht as Neil Prescott
• Roger L. Jackson as Phone Voice (voice)
• David Booth as Mr. Becker
• Carla Hatley as Mrs. Becker
• Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary
• Kevin Patrick Walls as Steven Orth
• Linda Blair as Obnoxious newsreporter (uncredited cameo)

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main Characters

• Sidney Prescott, the main character and protaganist of the film (as well as the rest of the trilogy). Sidney is going through a rough time throughout the film, dealing with problems such as her mother, Maureen's murder anniversary as well as her boyfriend wanting to lose their virginity to each other. She has a rivalry with the obnoxious news-reporter, Gale Weathers due to her writing a book filled with lies and rumors about her mother's murder trial. Along with Gale, Sidney manages to defeat the killer at the end of the film. Sidney was portrayed by Neve Campbell.

• Gale Weathers, an obnoxious news-reporter that will do almost anything to get a story. She has a rivalry with Sidney Prescott due to Gale writing a book about Sidney's mother's murder trial that is presumably filled with lies and rumors. Gale also has a love interest with Dwight "Dewey" Riley. She bosses her camera-man, Kenny around an awful lot and doesn't even care about him, especially after he is murdered by the killer, his corpse laid out across her van windshield and her simply shoving him off it. At the film's ending she proves not to be too heartless helping Sidney defeat the killer. Gale was portrayed by Courtney Cox.

• Dwight "Dewey" Riley, a kind, yet dopey police officer who is the older brother of Sidney's best friend, Tatum Riley. He helps Sidney sort her life out and has a love interest with the news-reporter, Gale Weathers. Dewey was portrayed by David Arquette.

• Billy Loomis, Sidney's boyfriend and one of the two actual killers of the film. Billy keeps implying the fact that he wants Sidney and himself to lose their virginity to each other. It is shown in the film that Billy can easily project fear into people such as with Sidney many times, with Stu during lunch at school the following day of Casey Becker and Steven Orth's murders and with Randy at the video store. Billy's motive for being one of the killers is because Sidney's mother seduced and slept with his father causing his parents to divorce which drove him insane. Wanting revenge, he murdered Sidney's mother, Maureen and framed Cotton Weary, another man Maureen was having an affair with. At the film's ending, he is killed, being shot twice by both Sidney and Gale Weathers. Billy was portrayed by Skeet Ulrich.

• Tatum Riley, Sidney's best friend, Stu Macher's girlfriend and younger sister of Officer Dewey Riley. Tatum appears to be the complete opposite of Sidney, being stronger-minded and an "easy-going" type person. Despite this, Tatum looks after Sidney and helps her through her troubled times. Tatum is of a strong anti-sexist as well as being better than her fellow friends and family such as overpowering her boyfriend Stu and her brother, Dewey who is a police officer. It is notable that she drives and is also into pornographic material, wanting to see the movie "All the Right Moves" purposely just to see Tom Cruise's penis. She is later killed off during Stu and Randy's party, having her head crushed with an automatic garage door after attempting to escape from the killer when getting beer from the garage. Tatum was portrayed by Rose McGowan.

• Stuart "Stu" Macher, Tatum's boyfriend and Billy's best friend. Stu is one of the two killers of the film, but unlike Billy, he is not insane but pathetic, weak-willed and somewhat mentally retarded, the combination of these three leading him to be easily persuaded to help Billy murder people. He is also overpowered by his girlfriend, Tatum. He is later killed by Sidney after she pushes a television screen on top of him causing serious electricution in a form of self-defense. Stu was portrayed by Matthew Lillard.

• Randy Meeks, Randy appears to be a friend of Sidney, Tatum, Stu and possibly Billy. He is a big horror movie buff and even works in a video store. He is the only one out of Sidney's "gang" not to be dating anyone which he appears to be happy with. It is shown that Randy wants to date Sidney and is notable that he survives the film. Randy was portrayed by Jamie Kennedy.

[edit] Other Characters

• Casey Becker & Steven Orth, Casey appears in the opening scene of the film being alone in her house. While making popcorn and getting ready for her boyfriend Steven Orth to arrive to watch a horror film, Casey gets phone calls from a mysterious stranger who first starts off nice conversation ends with a taunting and threatening one. Casey is forced to play a trivia game in which she must answer questions correctly to keep her boyfriend alive who is strapped to one of her outside patio chairs. Casey witnesses her boyfriend being disembowled and is then pursued by the killer herself. She is stabbed numerous times and her parents are horrified to see her bloody corpse hanging from a big oak tree across the road. Casey was portrayed by Drew Barrymore and Steven was portrayed by Kevin Patrick Walls.

• Kenneth "Kenny" Jones, Gale Weather's gullible camera-man. It is shown that Gale is both a bully and a friend to him. However she doesn't care too much about him after he has his throat slashed by the killer and his corpse spread out on her van windshield, simply shoving him off it for him to land in a nearby field. Kenny was portrayed by W. Earl Brown.

• Principal Arthur Himbry, The school principal, he is very distraught over the deaths of Casey Becker and Steven Orth and appears very serious when it comes to bad-behaving students. He is later stabbed to death in his office by the killer for an unknown reason. Himbry was portrayed by Henry Winkler.

• Sherrif Burke, the police sheriff who is continuously trying to track down the killer. He is shown to have a friendship with Dewey Riley. Burke was portrayed by Joseph Whipp.

• Neil Prescott, Sidney's father. He is away on business and the suspicion of the killings are being heavily suspected upon him. The real killers, Billy and Stu abduct him and show him to Sidney during the film's near ending. Neil was portrayed by Lawrence Hecht.

[edit] The Rules

A signature device, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was the typical "rules" for that type of horror movie being stated by the characters. In Scream, those rules (as described by Randy) are:

• You may not survive the movie if you have sex. (Hence, Randy's quip.)
• You may not survive the movie if you drink or do drugs.
• You may not survive the movie if you say "I'll be right back."

Additional rules (according to the killer):

• You may not survive the movie if you ask "Who's there?"
• You may not survive the movie if you go out to investigate a strange noise.

[edit] References to other horrors

The film features numerous in-jokes and references to other horror projects. The victims in Scream are quite self-aware: they each make clear their familiarity with, and poke fun at, teen slasher and horror flicks, which sets up their fairly ironic responses to the film's situations.

A Nightmare on Elm Street reference can be seen in the high school janitor, played by Director Wes Craven who is wearing an outfit resembling that of Freddy Krueger's.

A less-recognized reference is in Skeet Ulrich's resemblance to a young Johnny Depp. The scene in Scream in which Billy climbs into Sidney's window directly mirrors the scene in Nightmare on Elm Street in which Depp climbs into his girlfriend's window.

Originally, Craven took out the line where Casey Becker says the first A Nightmare on Elm Street was good but the rest sucked, as he thought it would make him seem egotistical, on reflection however he retained the line as he had co-written the third film and also wrote and directed the seventh.

Tatum tells Sidney that she is "sounding like a Wes Carpenter flick". The name Wes Carpenter was created from the names Wes Craven (the film's director) and John Carpenter (co-producer of the first three installments in the Halloween film series, co-writer of the first two, and director of the first).

Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasence's character in Halloween (1978), which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho (1960).

Like the film Psycho in which one of the main stars dies in the film, Drew Barrymore, a notable actress, dies within the first few minutes of the film.

During the party scene, Randy Meeks, Stu Macher and the other party goers are watching the horror film Halloween. They watch many famous scenes such as Michael Myers murdering Bob, as well as Laurie Strode discovering her friend's dead bodies scattered in the bedroom.

When Casey's parents come home and see that something is wrong, her father says to her mother, "Go down the street to the Mackenzies' house..." which is a quote from Halloween (1978).

The list of movies that are seen or mentioned throughout the film include:

• Halloween
• A Nightmare On Elm Street
• Friday the 13th
• The Exorcist
• Basic Instinct
• All the Right Moves
• Candyman
• Frankenstein
• The Howling
• Prom Night
• Everybody's All-American
• The Town That Dreaded Sundown
• Evil Dead
• Hellraiser
• The Fog
• Terror Train
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• The Silence of the Lambs
• Trading Places
• Psycho
• Carrie
• I Spit On Your Grave aka Day Of The Woman

[edit] Reaction

[edit] Box office performance

The film opened in 1,413 theaters, taking $6,354,586 in its opening weekend. It went on to gain a domestic gross of $103,046,663, with, as of 2007, a worldwide lifetime gross of $173,046,663.^[1]

[edit] Critical reception

The reaction to Scream was generally very positive amongst film reviewers, who appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels."^[2] Williamson's script was praised as containing a "fiendishly clever, complicated plot" which "deftly mixes irony, self-reference and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills."^[3]

Roger Ebert appreciated "the in-jokes and the self-aware characters", but was confused over whether the level of violence was "defused by the ironic way the film uses it and comments on it?"^[4]

[edit] Awards

The film won several awards, including Best Movie at the MTV Movie Awards 1997, and Saturn Awards for Best Actress (Neve Campbell), Best Writer and Best Horror Film. Craven was awarded the Grand Prize at the Gérardmer Film Festival.^[5]

[edit] Cultural impact

The film inspired a revival of interest in the genre. Two sequels were produced (Scream 2 and Scream 3), with Williamson's I Know What You Did Last Summer following in 1997.

It was also the inspiration for several parody films such as the Scary Movie series and Shriek if You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth. "Scary Movie" had been Scream's working title.

Scream ranked number 32 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies and number 13 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

[edit] Soundtrack

When Billy comes into Sidney's room at the beginning of the movie a cover of Blue Öyster Cult's song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" performed by Gus Black is played. This song is played in the first Halloween film when Annie and Laurie are on their way to baby-sit.

The theme song for all three movies is "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

An alternate version of the music video "Drop Dead Gorgeous" by Republica featuring clips from the film was shown on music networks such as MTV. Although the song can be heard in the film, it does not show up on the soundtrack album. The song was also used in one of the TV promo spots for the film.

The soundtrack album was released on December 17, 1996 featuring songs from the film. A CD featuring Marco Beltrami's orchestral music for Scream and Scream 2 was released on the Varèse Sarabande label in 1997.^[6]

[edit] Track listing

1. Youth of America - Birdbrain
2. Whisper - Catherine
3. Red Right Hand - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
4. (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Gus
5. Artificial World [Interdimensional Mix] - Julee Cruise
6. Better Than Me - Sister Machine Gun
7. Whisper to a Scream (Birds Fly) - Soho
8. First Cool Hive - Moby
9. Bitter Pill - The Connells
10. School's Out - The Last Hard Men
11. Trouble In Woodsboro/Sidney's Lament - Marco Beltrami

[edit] VHS and DVD releases

• The original, gorier version of the film was released on VHS in 1997. The box covers classified the film as rated "R" even though it was actually the unrated version. The unrated cut was only available on video when the film was released for sale to the general public while the rental version, released earlier that year, still contained the theatrical cut. The unrated version was officially released as "The Director's Cut" on laser disc but has yet to be released on DVD. Differences in the film include: A shot of Steve's entrails falling out of his stomache; a longer, slower version of the shot where Casey's body is shown hanging from a tree; Tatum's head getting crushed by the garage door; More blood can be seen pouring down Kenny's chest after getting his throat slashed; A more graphic version of the scene where Stu and Billy cut each other.

• When the film was released for sale on VHS in 1997 it was available in several different forms including three collectible covers with one featuring Drew Barrymore's face, one had Neve Campbell's face and the other had Courtney Cox's face. There was also a collector's set which came with the wide screen version of the film on one tape and another tape featuring the movie with audio commentary by Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson. The set also featured a special Scream phone card with 10 minutes of talk time and three large collector's cards with the faces of Drew, Neve and Courtney (the same images used on the special VHS covers).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Scream at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.scream-movie.net
• http://www.Ghostface.co.uk
• Scream Review
• David Arquette interview
• Still Screaming

v • d • e The Scream trilogy
Films:	Scream • Scream 2 • Scream 3
Characters:	Dwight 'Dewey' Riley • Sidney Prescott • Gale Weathers • Randy Meeks • Ghostface
Cast:	David Arquette • Drew Barrymore • Neve Campbell • Courteney Cox • Patrick Dempsey • Omar Epps • Scott Foley • Sarah Michelle Gellar • Jamie Kennedy • Matthew Lillard • Rose McGowan • Laurie Metcalf • Jenny McCarthy • Emily Mortimer • Jerry O'Connell • Timothy Olyphant • Parker Posey • Deon Richmond • Liev Schreiber • Jada Pinkett Smith • Skeet Ulrich
Crew:	Wes Craven • Kevin Williamson • Ehren Kruger