50 Behind-The-Scenes Facts From Every Single "Scream" Movie

According to the Detroit Free Press, Williamson was housesitting when he caught the TV special. Later that night, he discovered a window in the house he was positive had been shut was now open. He spent the rest of the evening searching the house, butcher knife in hand, while talking to a friend on the phone. It wasn’t long before the conversation turned to scary movies.

In an oral history conducted by The Ringer, executive producer Marianne Maddalena said that at that time, Craven wasn’t interested in returning to the slasher genre.

It wasn’t until his assistant at the time, Julie Plec, got him to read the script and then told him the studio was having trouble finding a director that he said they should make him an offer he couldn’t refuse — which they ultimately did.

He played Fred the Janitor in the original Scream, a doctor in Scream 2, a member of the studio tour in Scream 3, and a coroner in Scream 4 (in a deleted scene).

Not only did Kevin Williamson create Dawson’s Creek, but Joshua Jackson, who played Pacey, appears as a film student in Scream 2. Dawson’s Creek guest-star Scott Foley also starred as Roman Bridger in Scream 3.

Plus, Jenna Ortega’s character Tara can be seen watching the Scream parody episode of Dawson’s Creek in the new movie.

Even Scary Movie, which primarily spoofs the Scream and Scream 2, got in on the action, featuring a cameo from James Van Der Beek and using the Dawson’s Creek theme song.

If you include Maureen Prescott (who died before the events of the original Scream); Trudie, Sherrie, and Rachel (who died in the Stab 6 and 7 openings at the beginning of Scream 4); and Stu Macher (whose death is still widely disputed) the death toll is 50.

Even if you don’t include the Stab 6 and 7 deaths, Scream 4 still comes in first with 11 deaths. Scream 2 and 3 each have 10, the new Scream has eight, and the original Scream has seven (not including Maureen Prescott).

Producer Bob Weinstein told Vanity Fair: “I thought the mask was goofy. I thought people would laugh at it. I thought Wes was crazy.”

Obviously, Wes Craven and co. won that battle, leaving us with the now-iconic Ghostface mask.

It was her idea to play Casey Becker instead, because it would throw the audience off and make them feel like none of the characters were safe.

Kevin Williamson was 100% onboard, telling The Ringer: “I wanted it to be this big, huge Janet Leigh [in Psycho] moment. And then when she dies, you’re like, ‘Wait a second. Wasn’t she on the poster? Wait. What’s going to happen next?'”

Wes Craven (who only directed one of the Nightmare sequels) revealed on the DVD commentary that he thought it “would make [him] look like an egomaniac” but was convinced to leave it in.

In the 2011 documentary Still Screaming, he explained: “We’re in the middle of a take, and the phone starts ringing, and we’re like, ‘What’s going on? Why is the phone ringing?’ And it’s the police asking what the hell we’re doing, and why do we keep calling them?”

Cox, who’d been starring as Monica Geller on Friends for two years, told Entertainment Tonight: “I wrote a letter to Wes – I think I was always known as being so sweet – and I said, ‘I really can be a bitch!'”

After reading the script, the Santa Rosa school board, who’d thought the movie was a comedy, pulled out at the last minute because of the violence. As a result, Wes Craven added the following message to the Special Thanks section of the credits:

“NO THANKS WHATSOEVER TO THE SANTA ROSA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT GOVERNING BOARD.”

He told Entertainment Weekly: “I auditioned, and they said, ‘You’re not the right guy to make out with Neve Campbell the entire time; why don’t you come back and come in for the best friend?'”

Once they were done, the crew had “I SURVIVED SCENE 118” t-shirts made.

He was such a hit with test audiences, though, that Wes Craven brought him back to film a shot of Dewey being rolled into an ambulance, alive.

Scream hit theaters on December 20, 1996, and Scream 2 came out on December 12, 1997.

Kevin Williamson told Dread Central: “The Hallie and Derek ending was a dummy draft. At the time the script was written, the studio was determined to keep the plot details under wraps.

“They were worried the killer’s identity would be leaked, so we wrote several endings. Three in all, if memory serves, and when actors and potential crew members asked to read the script, we would send the script with the dummy ending.”

On an episode of PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing, she said she told Wes Craven: “I want it to be long and excruciating.”

Rodriguez would go on to direct The Faculty, which was also written by Kevin Williamson.

Additionally, the mansion at the end of Scream 3 was used as the private school in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

His hair was bleached blonde at the time.

They would later star in Cruel Intentions together.

While most actors found him intimidating and formidable, Sarah Michelle Gellar — perhaps channeling Buffy Summers — would mess with him.

He revealed to Splinter News: “When [she] was on the other end of the phone between takes, she would go, ‘So. You’re the scary voice man, huh? Why do you do that? Do you like scaring people? You like scaring people? Why? Why? What is it about you that wants to scare other people?’ And I’d go, ‘I think you better save it, Sarah.'”

He told the Pop My Culture podcast: “The idea was to have me…[with a burned-up face] orchestrating mayhem from prison — people attacking high schools.”

He added that the script was retooled after the Columbine massacre.

She told TooFab that she “stood in the back of the theater close to the exit door” and “barely watched it” at the premiere. She hasn’t watched it since.

Even so, it sounds like she enjoyed making the film, noting how much she loved working with Carrie Fisher, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox…

Posey said of the scene: “It was four in the morning. I had a feeling she’d really punch me and she did! I didn’t see stars or anything but it was enough for me to go ‘ow’ — and of course, we all thought it was funny.”

He passed away in 2015 at age 76.

It was also the first not to use the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds song “Red Right Hand.” (The song returned in the new Scream.)

The character was killed in the original Scream.

Over the years, there have been some seeming inconsistencies when it comes to the limp Dewey has, resulting in his first Ghostface attack. He has it in Scream 2 (where he explains it’s the result of a severed nerve) and Scream 3, but by Scream 4, it’s gone.

Though never mentioned in any dialogue, in the action for a deleted scene featuring Dewey and Gale, there’s a note that Dewey’s limp “is nearly nonexistent,” due to “years of physical therapy.”

(In the most recent movie, it’s back — Dewey even refers to it as a “fun little limp.” Since he didn’t sustain any injuries in Scream 4 that would lead to another limp, it’s possible it could have returned if he stopped his physical therapy exercises.)

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett sent her a letter that convinced her to sign on. She told Variety that in the letter, they said Craven inspired them to become filmmakers, “expressed to [her] how much it meant to them to be making this film,” and said they “really wanted to do right by Wes and honor his legacy.”

In the opening scene, their texts start out much flirtier before Ghostfaces calls Tara, and at one point Amber refers to Tara as her girlfriend.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin told The Hollywood Reporter: “The conversation as soon as he signed on was, ‘Well we can’t kill Chad. Mason has got to be in the other movies. This guy is the greatest! We’d be crazy to get someone this charismatic and just kill them.’ I went to a screening this weekend to see it with an audience. I heard an audible, cathartic, gasp. You could feel people were so glad that he lived. That includes us.”

In the original Scream, Ulrich wears the Ghostface costume in only one scene: when he’s sneaking up on Jamie Kennedy’s character Randy, who’s on the couch watching Halloween. Tyler Gillett revealed to Bloody Disgusting that Quaid also only donned the costume once in the new movie: when he’s sneaking up on Mindy (Randy’s niece), who’s on the couch watching the aforementioned scene in Stab.

She told The Hollywood Reporter that the attack/fight scenes were filmed with both rubber and real knives, and that during the scene where Sam is first attacked by Ghostface, one of the real knives “flew out of his hand and hit the window right behind [her].” Fortunately, it flew right past her.

Gillet told Variety that the studio requested it, and that they “very begrudgingly got one shot that you could put some voiceover over, like, ‘He woke up from surgery, he’s gonna be fine.'” He added that they had “no intention of ever fucking using it.”

As many Kirby fans know by now, there’s an Easter egg in Scream confirming that the character, played by Hayden Panettiere, did survive the events of Scream 4. Apparently, there was a point when Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett considered having Panettiere film a proper cameo.

Bettinelli-Olpin told Nerdist that they wanted to address Kirby right from the beginning but weren’t sure how, adding: “There was a period during the pre-production where we thought we might be able to even get her in this movie. We had a Zoom with her and she was lovely. And she was like, ‘I love Kirby, I’d love to be in it.'”

By that point, they were “so far down the road” they would have had to “shoehorn” Kirby in and they felt it would be an “injustice” to the character, though from the sound of it, there’s a good chance we’ll see her in a future installment.

“Henry Winkler, Adam Brody, Hayden Panettiere they all are a part of the toast, the “to Wes” toast,” Tyler Gillett told Bloody Disgusting. “Patrick Lussier, Marco Beltrami, Wes’ widow Iya [Labunka]. We got everyone who knows Wes, including Julie Plec. Their voices are all in that big toast at the party at the end.”

In the same interview, Gillett revealed that Lillard is the voice of the flamethrower Ghostface, saying “this shit is lit” in the Stab 8 YouTube trailer and that he also ADR’d the line “Cool house, Freeman” during the party scene.

Meanwhile, Barrymore provides the voice of the principal at the beginning of the movie, just before we see the new cast sitting at the picnic tables.

And Kennedy ADR’d the line “Someone’s goofy-ass dad is kicking us out” when Richie tells all the teens they need to leave.

“Walking onto that set without Wes being present, with a sign hanging across the kitchen that said �?For Wes,’ I burst into tears when I walked in on the first day,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “And from what I understand, Courteney [Cox] and David [Arquette] did as well.”

Campbell said in the same interview that because Sidney represents “a certain amount of strength and lack of victimhood,” she thinks it’s important that she survives.

She added: “I’ve had a lot of people come up to me in the past and just say that she inspired them in some way or helped them in their lives in some way, which is not what you normally expect when you’re performing in a horror film. I certainly would hate to see Sidney fall. I think it would be the wrong message.”