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Find Out What's Reel about Scream


Scream was released in 1996, exactly 21 years ago today, and was credited in reviving the slasher genre. Filled with meta references to the horror genre, it created a great spin that had not really been done before. Here are some things you may not have known about the film;

1. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson was inspired by a story of a Florida serial killer “the Gainesville Ripper” as well as Halloween. Kevin wrote the first draft of the script in 3 days. The original title for the movie was “Scary Movie”.

2. The Ghostface mask was found by chance while location scouting by producer Marianne Maddalena and went through 7 different versions before the final product was completed. Quick edits needed to be made to prove to Bob Weinstein of Miramax that the Ghostface mask was going to be scary. Editors put together 13 minutes of the opening scene with Drew Barrymore to give him and the executives an idea of what to expect.

3. Close to the time of shooting, the Santa Rosa School Board pulled the contract for shooting at the high school because they did not want their school involved with glorifying violence against children. A town hall meeting with the community was held and decided that shooting should not be allowed. “No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa City School District Governing Board” was added to the end credits. Scream ultimately shot in the neighbouring town of Sonoma, California.

4. Drew Barrymore was originally brought on board to be Sidney but changed her mind. This change almost caused Wes Craven to quit the film. Drew came up with the idea that she should be just in the opening scene instead. This helped give the feeling that no character was safe.

5. Rose McGowan had to be nailed to the garage door during her death scene so that she wouldn’t fall. Rose McGowan found out she could actually fit through the dog door, “That’s my takeaway from Scream: I know I can fit in dog doors. You have to jimmy your body in a certain position and really hope you’re not wearing something super fancy.”

6. The climatic house party scene named Scene 118: People Live, People Die was shot over 21 nights and was dubbed the “longest Night in Horror History” by the cast and crew. T-shirts were made that said “I Survived Scene 118”.

7. David Arquette’s character Dewey was originally supposed to die but because of his portrayal, the filmmakers decided to have him live and added the scene of him being wheeled into the ambulance on the last day of shooting.

8. Wes did a cameo as a janitor dressed in Freddy Krueger’s costume.

9. MPAA forced some cuts to the movie to avoid an NC-17 rating. Parts of cameraman Kenny’s, the boyfriend Steve’s, and Tatum‘s death scene were cut as well as a shot of Stu’s hand dripping with blood. Bob Weinstein ended up speaking to the MPAA and explaining the satirical context of the movie to help the movie achieve an R rating.

10. Scream made over 100 million dollars and stayed in theatres 31 weeks. This was a profit of approximately 84 million dollars. It was the highest grossing horror movie, the 13th highest grossing across all ratings/genres and 6th in R rated movies in 1996.

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