Scream (1996 film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore. Set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, the plot follows high school student Sidney Prescott and her friends, who, on the anniversary of her mother's murder, become the targets of a costumed serial killer.
Williamson, who was struggling to get his projects off the ground, was inspired by reports of a series of murders by the Gainesville Ripper as he wrote a screenplay that satirized the clichés of the slasher genre popularized in films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Craven's own A Nightmare on Elm Street. Developed under the title Scary Movie, Williamson's script became the subject of an intense bidding war from multiple studios before Miramax Films purchased the rights for its Dimension Films label. Craven, despite turning down the opportunity multiple times, agreed to direct the film after he had read the script as he was determined to re-establish himself after several career setbacks. The involvement of Barrymore and Cox helped secure more support from the studio. Principal photography took place from April to June 1996 in California on a budget of $15million. Craven trimmed down the violence in the film after being involved in a tense conflict with the Motion Picture Association of America over the desired R rating.
Released on December 20, Scream was not expected to perform well due to concerns over releasing a slasher film in a time normally reserved for holiday entertainment. However, it went on to gross approximately $173million worldwide through the strength of word of mouth, becoming an unexpected success and one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Contemporary reviews were positive, with praise going to the performances of its cast and its unique meta humor, but criticism was directed at its excessive violence and lack of suspense in favor of that humor. Scream revitalized both Craven's and Barrymore's careers and helped bolster the careers of its young cast.
In the years since its release, Screams reception has continued to be positive. It has been credited with rekindling interest in the horror genre during the 1990s following a decline in the genre's popularity and has been credited for shifting the genre towards younger audiences and casting established actors. The film's opening sequence, in which Barrymore's character is killed by Ghostface, is considered one of the most shocking and subversive in cinematic history. The success of the film launched a multimedia franchise, which comprises the sequels Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Scream, Scream VI, and Scream 7, as well as an anthology television series.
Plot
In the small town of Woodsboro, California, high school student Casey Becker is home alone when she receives a phone call from an unknown person. They discuss horror films until the caller turns sadistic, threatening her life and revealing that her boyfriend, Steve Orth, is tied up on her patio. The caller demands she answer questions about horror films to save his life, but Casey gives an incorrect answer about Friday the 13th, resulting in Steve's death. Casey attempts to escape, but is stabbed to death by someone wearing a "Ghostface" costume, and her disemboweled corpse is found hanging from a tree by her parents.The next morning, the news media descend on the town as a police investigation ensues. Casey's classmate, Sidney Prescott, struggles with the impending first anniversary of the rape and murder of her mother Maureen by Cotton Weary. The trauma has made her unable to consummate her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy Loomis. As her father Neil is traveling for work, Sidney waits at home alone for her best friend, Tatum Riley. She receives a call taunting her about Maureen's death and is attacked by Ghostface, who disappears just before Billy climbs through her window. Sidney immediately grows suspicious when he drops a cell phone, and Billy is arrested by Deputy Sheriff Dewey, Tatum's brother. Outside the police station, Sidney gets into a physical altercation with investigative journalist Gale Weathers. Gale had written a book claiming that Maureen had multiple extramarital affairs, including one with Cotton, who Gale believes was falsely accused of Maureen's homicide. Sidney stays at Tatum's home but receives another taunting call from the killer. The calls are traced to Neil's phone, but the police are unable to locate him.
Following his release, Billy encounters Sidney at school and further upsets her by comparing his absent mother to Maureen's death. After suspending classes in the wake of the murders, Principal Himbry is killed in his office. To celebrate the school's closure, Stu Macher, Tatum's boyfriend, hosts a party at his secluded home. Dewey and Gale keep watch on the party in case the killer strikes again. Tatum is isolated in the garage by Ghostface, who crushes her neck in the garage door. As fellow high schooler Randy Meeks details the rules of surviving a horror film, news arrives of Himbry's murder. Most partygoers leave to see his body, nearly running over Dewey and Gale while inadvertently leading them to Neil's hidden car. Billy arrives at the house to reconcile with Sidney, and they finally have sex. Afterward, they are attacked by Ghostface, and Billy is stabbed. Sidney evades Ghostface, who kills Gale's cameraman Kenny and stabs Dewey when he returns. Gale, attempting to flee in her van, crashes and is knocked unconscious. Sidney seeks refuge inside the house, locking Stu and Randy outside as they accuse each other of being the killer.
A seemingly wounded Billy emerges and allows Randy inside before shooting him in the shoulder, revealing himself as the killer and Stu as his accomplice. Billy confesses they killed Maureen because the discovery of her affair with his father led to his mother's abandonment. The pair abducted Neil to frame him for their crimes and proceed to stab each other to depict themselves as the last survivors. However, they are distracted by Gale's return, allowing Sidney to incapacitate Billy and kill Stu by dropping a television set on his head. Billy nearly stabs Sidney but is shot by Gale. After Randy remarks that horror film killers revive for a final scare, Billy lunges for them, but Sidney shoots him in the head, killing him. As dawn breaks, Neil is rescued, Dewey is taken away by ambulance, and Gale provides an impromptu news report about the night's events.
Cast
- David Arquette as Dewey Riley: The goofy and hapless, but caring deputy sheriff
- Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott: A strong and resilient high-schooler traumatized by the murder of her mother
- Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers: A snarky and ruthless investigative journalist
- Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher: The eccentric and clumsy boyfriend of Tatum, and Billy's best friend
- Rose McGowan as Tatum Riley: Sidney's spunky best friend and Dewey's younger sister
- Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis: Sidney's boyfriend, who has a passion for horror films
- Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks: A horror film fanatic
- W. Earl Brown as Kenny: Gale's cameraman
- Joseph Whipp as Burke: The town sheriff
- Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary: The man convicted of killing Sidney's mother
- Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker: A high-schooler
Production
Writing
In 1994, Kevin Williamson was a novice and financially struggling screenwriter, having recently sold his first script, Killing Mrs. Tingle. While house-sitting, Williamson watched a Turning Point documentary about serial killer Danny Rolling which he said left him unsettled. Williamson later noticed an open window, armed himself with a knife, and called his friend for support. The pair began discussing horror characters that had resonated with them such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. The following morning, Williamson was woken by a nightmare and used the experience as inspiration for the opening home invasion of Scream. He was also influenced by a one-act play he wrote in college about an unknown caller taunting a young girl.Williamson spent the next three days writing a script for a slasher film he called Scary Movie while listening to the score to Halloween for further inspiration. He also drafted two five-page outlines for possible sequels. He developed much of the script around a single line of dialogue, "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative". This was his response to contemporary concerns about the influence of cinematic violence on audience, and he "thought it was a great line". Williamson's script drew upon many of his favorite horror films, such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, Prom Night, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. At the time, the successful slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s had fallen out of favor, in part because of increasingly poorly received sequels to long-running horror franchises.
His characters were intentionally designed to be knowledgeable about these horror films and their typical elements, with the intention of creating a unique killer who was not only aware of horror film clichés but also exploited them for his own advantage. Williamson expressed his approach, "I thought if you could expose the rules and play with them, then the audience doesn't know what they're going to get. Suddenly they're on edge. I started playing with the tropes, and the 'rules' were part of that." The opening scene depicting Casey Becker's death emulates that of Janet Leigh's character in Psycho by killing off a possible main character early on. Williamson believed it would hook studio executives and leave audiences unsure how the plot would progress. Williamson set the script in his hometown of Bayboro, North Carolina, believing its quiet atmosphere would provide a strong contrast with a serial killer's actions.
Williamson pursued Scary Movie because it was the type of horror film he enjoyed as a child but believed were no longer being made. Even so, he did not believe studios would develop and intended to use it to garner attention and secure other work. Williamson's agent had him scale back the gore, removing descriptions such as "the insides are slowly rolling down her leg", because it would make it difficult to sell the script. Williamson refused to cut any dialogue, however, believing it set it apart from similar films.