Scream (film)
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| Scream | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 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 | $15,000,000 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.
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[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 Walls) have been eviscerated and killed. The next night, while at home alone, the killer, who calls his (or her) victims on the phone and taunts them before attacking, invades her house and attempts to kill her. Known as Ghostface, he (or she) 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 (The name Loomis is reminiscent of Samuel Loomis, character names of both the boyfriend of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in "Psycho", the shadowy character Willie Loomis from "Dark Shadows" the classic TV series, and the good doctor in "Halloween.") (played by Skeet Ulrich). She decides to stay at the home of her friend Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) and Tatum's brother Dwight a.k.a. 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, our teenage characters 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 camerman 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, (like in 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"). 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
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| David Arquette | Deputy Dwight 'Dewey' Riley |
| Neve Campbell | Sidney Prescott |
| Courteney Cox | Gale Weathers |
| Skeet Ulrich | Billy Loomis |
| Rose McGowan | Tatum Riley |
| Matthew Lillard | Stuart Macher |
| Jamie Kennedy | Randy Meeks |
| Henry Winkler | Principal Himbry |
| W. Earl Brown | Kenneth Jones |
| Drew Barrymore | Casey Becker |
| Joseph Whipp | Sheriff Burke |
| Lawrence Hecht | Neil Prescott |
| Roger L. Jackson | Phone Voice (voice) |
| David Booth | Mr. Becker |
| Carla Hatley | Mrs. Becker |
| Liev Schreiber | Cotton Weary |
| Kevin Patrick Walls | Steven Orth |
[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. For example: a character declares that the first A Nightmare On Elm Street film was good but "the rest of them sucked"; Scream director Wes Craven directed the first Elm Street film. Also, 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. Another Elm Street reference can be seen in the high school janitor outfit, which clearly is identical to Freddy's hat and striped jumper outfit. It is stated by the principal that his name is Fred. (The actor is actually Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street director Wes Craven).
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. But after realizing he had co-written the third film and also wrote and directed the seventh, he put the line back in the film.
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).
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).
[edit] Legacy
The film opened to critical acclaim ([1], [2], [3], [4]) and financial success and spawned two sequels (Scream 2 and Scream 3) and a series of slasher movies. The film is believed to have single-handedly reignited the teen slasher genre and was praised for its original approach to the oft-clichéd format. Noted films following a similar approach as Scream include:
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (and sequels)
- Urban Legend
- Cherry Falls
- Valentine
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. In fact, the title of the "official" spoof, Scary Movie, was Scream's original working production title.
Scream ranked number 32 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)
[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 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.
[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 laserdisc 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 collectable covers with one featuring Drew Barrymore's face, one had Neve Campbell's face and the other had Courteney Cox's face. There was also a collector's set which came with the widescreen 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 Courteney (the same images used on the special VHS covers).
[edit] External links
- Scream at the Internet Movie Database
- http://www.scream-movie.com
- http://www.scream-movie.net
- Scream re-enacted by bunnies in 30 seconds (parody)
- Scream Review
| The Scream series | |
|---|---|
| Films | Scream | Scream 2 | Scream 3 |
| Characters | Dwight 'Dewey' Riley | Sidney Prescott | Ghostface | Gale Weathers | Cotton Weary | Billy Loomis | Tatum Riley | Stuart Macher | Randy Meeks | Debbie Salt | Mickey Altieri | Det. Mark Kincaid | Jennifer Jolie | Roman Bridger |
| Cast | David Arquette | Neve Campbell | Courteney Cox | Liev Schreiber | Skeet Ulrich | Rose McGowan | Matthew Lillard | Jamie Kennedy | Laurie Metcalf | Timothy Olyphant | Patrick Dempsey | Parker Posey | Scott Foley |
| Crew | Wes Craven | Kevin Williamson | Ehren Kruger |
