113 Fun Facts About Scream

Which hit sitcom was Courteney Cox starring in when she was cast as Gale Weathers in Scream?

Friends had typecast Courteney Cox as the likeable Monica, so she lobbied hard for the part of ruthless Gale to prove she could play against type.

Who has voiced the Ghostface caller in every *Scream* film?

Roger L. Jackson has voiced the Ghostface caller since the 1996 original; he performs the calls live on set by phone rather than dubbing them in afterward.

What is Casey Becker making on the stove when the killer calls in Scream's opening scene?

Popcorn: the caller asks what the noise is, and when Casey says she is getting ready to watch a video, he steers the chat to her favorite horror films.

What was the working title for the original 1996 *Scream* film?

Scary Movie was the working title until late in production, when the Weinsteins renamed the film Scream; their studio, Dimension, then reused the discarded title for its 2000 slasher spoof.

Which actress played Casey Becker, the teenager killed in the opening scene of Scream?

Drew Barrymore was first signed to play Sidney but took the smaller part of Casey instead, and the filmmakers embraced it: killing their best-known star so early would show that nobody was safe.

What is Gale Weathers' profession in the Scream films, which keeps putting her in Ghostface's path?

Investigative journalist is the job; Courteney Cox's Gale is so ruthless about getting the story that she wrote a book about Sidney's mother's murder.

Where does horror-film expert Randy Meeks work in the original Scream?

A video store: while reshelving tapes, Randy insists the police would crack the case faster if they watched Prom Night, because the genre follows a formula.

Which character was revealed as one of the Ghostface killers in the original 1996 Scream?

Stu Macher is unmasked alongside Sidney's boyfriend at his own house party; asked for his motive, all he offers is 'peer pressure'.

In Scream 2, Randy's first rule of horror sequels is that what is always bigger?

The body count is always bigger, Randy explains; rule two demands more elaborate death scenes, and he is interrupted before he can finish the third.

Which actor plays Dewey Riley, deputy and later sheriff, in the Scream films?

David Arquette was called in to read for the boyfriend, Billy, but asked to play Dewey instead and got his wish.

Who played Tatum Riley, Sidney's best friend and Dewey's sister, in the first Scream film?

Rose McGowan dyed her dark hair blonde to play Tatum, so that the film would not have two dark-haired female leads.

The first Scream's director cameos as a school janitor dressed as which horror villain?

Freddy Krueger: the director created him for A Nightmare on Elm Street, so he turns up as Fred the janitor in Freddy's striped sweater and hat.

How does Ghostface kill Tatum Riley at the house party in the first Scream?

Crushes her in a garage door: Tatum tries to escape through the pet flap as the door rises, and the actress slipped through it so easily that the crew nailed her shirt to the frame.

Which 'Happy Days' actor had a cameo as Principal Himbry in the first Scream film?

Henry Winkler went uncredited as the foul-mouthed principal because the producers feared audiences would see only the Fonz and be distracted from the young cast.

Which actress plays the moviegoer stabbed to death during a sneak preview in Scream 2's opening scene?

Jada Pinkett Smith, then billed as Jada Pinkett, plays Maureen Evans, who staggers onto the stage below the screen while the crowd takes her dying for a publicity stunt.

Kevin Williamson, who wrote Scream, went on to create which teen television drama?

Dawson's Creek grew out of a meeting he took after selling Scream: he pitched his own boyhood by a North Carolina creek, with film-obsessed Dawson as his stand-in.

Which real-life killings inspired the screenplay for the first Scream film?

The Gainesville Ripper murders: Danny Rolling killed five Florida college students in August 1990, and a TV documentary on the case so unsettled the house-sitting writer that he started the script.

In Scream's opening scene, Casey Becker gets a trivia question wrong about which horror film, costing Steve his life?

Friday the 13th trips her up: she names Jason as the killer, but in the first film it was his mother, Mrs. Voorhees.

Which man was convicted of murdering Sidney's mother a year before the events of the first Scream?

Cotton Weary was sent to death row on Sidney's testimony; Gale Weathers' book argued he was innocent, and the real killers finally admit they framed him.

In Scream's climax, Billy quotes the line 'We all go a little mad sometimes' from which film?

Psycho: Billy credits the line aloud to Anthony Perkins, and his own surname points the same way, since Sam Loomis is Marion Crane's lover in the Hitchcock film.

To whose cellular phone do police trace the killer's calls in the first Scream?

Sidney's father Neil was the killers' chosen scapegoat: they had kidnapped him and planned to pin every murder on him while posing as the wounded survivors.

Whose murder was added to Scream's script after Bob Weinstein felt too long passed without a death?

Principal Himbry's death was added at Bob Weinstein's request to break a long stretch without a kill; it also gave the partygoers a reason to leave Stu's house, rushing off to see the body on the goalpost.

Scream leads Skeet Ulrich and Neve Campbell had just appeared together in which 1996 film?

The Craft cast Campbell as teenage witch Bonnie and Ulrich as Chris, the jock a vengeful Nancy throws from a window; it reached cinemas in May 1996, while Scream was still shooting.

In which California wine-country county was most of the first Scream filmed?

Sonoma County won out after North Carolina and other sites were rejected for lacking suitable houses, so the shoot settled in and around Santa Rosa.

Scream's end credits offer 'no thanks whatsoever' to which group that turned the production away?

A local school board: Santa Rosa's refused to let its high school play Woodsboro High, so the scenes moved to a community centre at extra cost and the credits took revenge.

The Ghostface mask was an existing shop-bought costume mask made by which novelty company?

Fun World had been selling the mask as a cheap costume novelty since the early 1990s when the filmmakers spotted one in a house they were scouting as a location.

Which Scream sequence took 21 nights to film?

The party finale runs over 40 minutes and is set entirely at night, so filming at the hilltop house had to stop at each daybreak, stretching the work across three weeks.

Which rating did the MPAA first hand Scream?

NC-17 was the MPAA's first verdict; after cut upon cut, an R came only once the studio persuaded the board that the film was a satire of slashers rather than a straight one.

Which then-unknown composer won the job of scoring the first Scream with a test cue for its opening?

Marco Beltrami had never scored a horror film, so he treated Scream partly as a western, giving Deputy Dewey a twanging guitar theme in the style of Ennio Morricone.

Scream took its final title from a 1995 hit single by which pop superstar?

Michael Jackson's 1995 duet with his sister Janet, 'Scream', prompted the Weinsteins to drop the working title; Sony then sued, saying the name was too close to its film Screamers, and settled out of court.

Scream reached US cinemas just before which holiday, a slot many insiders thought would sink a horror film?

Christmas: Bob Weinstein opened it on December 20, 1996 as counter-programming, betting that teenagers had nothing to see among the family films, while many of its makers expected a flop.

Made for about $15 million, Scream went on to gross roughly how much worldwide?

$173 million worldwide, about $103 million of it in North America; unusually, its weekend takings rose in both its second and third weekends as word of mouth spread.

Scream held the record as the highest-grossing slasher film until which release?

Halloween (2018) ended a reign of more than two decades for a film that had opened in fourth place with about $6 million and been written off as a flop.

At the 1997 Saturn Awards, Scream won for horror film, writing and which acting category?

Actress: Neve Campbell won as Sidney, a part the writer had wanted for Molly Ringwald, who thought herself too old to play a high-school student.

Which film is Randy watching in Scream when he drunkenly urges Jamie Lee Curtis to look behind her?

Halloween plays on while Ghostface creeps up behind Randy himself, and a TV cameraman watching on a hidden camera's thirty-second delay shouts the very same warning at him.

In Scream, Randy's rules for surviving a horror film forbid a character from ever saying which phrase?

"I'll be right back" is the third and last rule because you won't be; party host Stu promptly shouts it as a joke on his way to fetch a beer, and the whole room jeers.

At which fictional Ohio campus is Scream 2 set?

Windsor College is where Sidney and Randy have enrolled, and the copycat killer strikes first at a preview screening of the film made about their ordeal.

In Scream 2, drama student Sidney rehearses a Greek tragedy in the role of which doomed heroine?

Cassandra: shaken by the murders, Sidney tells her drama teacher she can't go on, but he talks her round by calling her a fighter, then admits he has no understudy and is desperate.

Scream 2 opened one week before which 1997 blockbuster and beat its opening-weekend takings?

Titanic opened to $28.6 million a week after Scream 2's $32.9 million, though it then stayed at number one for fifteen straight weekends.

Which actress plays Sidney in the film-within-a-film shown in Scream 2?

Tori Spelling was cast to pay off a joke: in the first film Sidney groans that with her luck, any movie about her life would star Tori Spelling.

Who plays sorority sister and film fan Cici Cooper in Scream 2?

Sarah Michelle Gellar squeezed the part in between shoots for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and admitted she had signed on without reading the script, on the strength of the first film.

Which Scream 2 character is unmasked as a killer seeking revenge for Billy Loomis's death?

Debbie Salt, the local reporter, is really Billy's mother; she recruited a film student as her accomplice, then shoots him so that he alone will take the blame.

Which actress plays reporter Debbie Salt in Scream 2?

Laurie Metcalf, fresh from nine years as Jackie on Roseanne, plays a local-paper reporter who buttonholes Gale Weathers on campus to gush that she is a huge fan and could not put her book down.

Which character, played by Timothy Olyphant, is unmasked as Ghostface at the theater climax of Scream 2?

Mickey Altieri planned to blame the movies for his murders and become famous at his trial, until his own accomplice shot him.

In Scream 2, Gale realises the copycat killer is choosing targets on what basis?

Their names match earlier victims: Maureen Evans, Phil Stevens and Cici, short for Casey, echo Maureen Prescott, Steve Orth and Casey Becker from the first killings.

Where is Randy Meeks killed in Scream 2?

Inside a news van: Ghostface drags Randy into the camera crew's parked van in broad daylight, on a busy campus, while Gale and Dewey are a few yards away hunting for the caller.

Which composer wrote the choral aria for Sidney's stage-play scene in Scream 2?

Danny Elfman supplied the choral piece as a late guest contribution; elsewhere a guitar cue from Hans Zimmer's Broken Arrow, meant as a placeholder, tested so well that it displaced Dewey's own theme.

What did the ratings board do when Wes Craven sent it a gorier cut of Scream 2 as a bargaining ploy?

Passed it with an R: he had padded the cut with extra gore he expected to trade away, but the board approved the lot, saying the film's message justified the violence.

Which actor plays Derek, Sidney's college boyfriend, in Scream 2?

Jerry O'Connell had to audition with the scene in which Derek serenades Sidney in a crowded cafeteria, singing 'I Think I Love You'.

What modern twist do Scream 4's killers add to their murders?

Filming them: the pair record their kills and plan to upload the footage so that it traces back to Jill's ex-boyfriend, framing him as Ghostface.

In Scream 4, killer Jill tells Sidney she doesn't need friends, she needs what?

Fans: Jill envies the celebrity her cousin won by surviving, so she plans to walk out of her own massacre as its lone survivor and let the cameras turn to her.

In Scream 4, Sidney returns to Woodsboro to promote what?

A self-help book, Out of Darkness, ends its tour in Woodsboro; Sidney fires publicist Rebecca Walters at the hospital after learning Rebecca wants the new murders to boost sales.

Who plays Sidney's teenage cousin Jill in Scream 4?

Emma Roberts plays Jill Roberts, Sidney's cousin, who turns out to be the killer, murdering out of jealousy of Sidney's fame.

Who plays Sidney's ambitious publicist, Rebecca Walters, in Scream 4?

Alison Brie's Rebecca is sacked for hoping the murders will lift sales, then killed in a parking garage, a scene she returned to reshoot months later after test screenings.

Jill's accomplice in Scream 4, whom she double-crosses, is which member of the school Cinema Club?

Charlie Walker, played by Rory Culkin, runs the Cinema Club with Robbie and lays out the rules of horror remakes; Jill stabs him so he can be posed as the accomplice.

Where is Scream 4's Stab-a-thon film marathon held?

A barn hosts the teenagers' marathon of all seven Stab films; Gale sneaks in to investigate, sure the killer will strike there, and is stabbed in the shoulder for her trouble.

How does Sidney finally kill Jill at the end of Scream 4?

Electrocutes her, then shoots her: Sidney presses defibrillator paddles to Jill's head, then fires as Jill lunges with a glass shard; Jill had injured herself to pose as the sole survivor.

Which actress plays the horror buff who answers Ghostface's remake trivia by phone in Scream 4?

Hayden Panettiere plays the film-savvy teen, who rattles off every horror remake she can think of to win the quiz, only to be stabbed and left for dead.

In Scream 4's film-within-a-film opening, which actress suddenly stabs Anna Paquin's character?

Kristen Bell plays Chloe in a horror movie inside the movie: her knife attack turns out to be on a screen that two real teenagers are watching.

Scream 4 holds what distinction for the filmmaker behind the series' first four films?

His final film as director: he died in 2015, and when the series resumed in 2022 the fifth film, titled simply Scream, was dedicated to him.

Who wrote Scream 3 after the series' original screenwriter was too busy to deliver a full script?

Ehren Kruger, the writer of Arlington Road, took over, but filming began without a finished script and pages were often rewritten on the day they were shot.

Scream 3's killer Roman Bridger turns out to be what relation to Sidney?

Her half-brother: Roman is the son Maureen Prescott gave up for adoption, and he claims he showed Billy the film of his father with Maureen that set off the original murders.

What job does Roman Bridger hold on the film-within-a-film in Scream 3?

Director: Scott Foley's Roman is directing the third film based on the Ghostface murders when production shuts down as its cast starts getting killed.

Under what stage name did Sidney's mother Maureen act in 1970s Hollywood, as Scream 3 reveals?

Rina Reynolds was the name Maureen used as a young actress; Gale and Jennifer dig it out of the studio's files, which leads them to horror producer John Milton.

Which real-life event led the studio to tone down Scream 3's violence and move it to Hollywood?

The Columbine shooting of April 1999 made the studio skittish about teen violence; at one point it asked for no on-screen blood, and the director pushed back, insisting a Scream film had to meet certain standards.

Which actress cameos in Scream 3 as a studio worker who says she lost the role of Princess Leia?

Carrie Fisher helped write the part herself: her character says she was up for Princess Leia but lost out to 'the one who sleeps with George Lucas'.

How does Randy Meeks, killed in Scream 2, appear in Scream 3?

In a pre-recorded video message: Randy's sister Martha delivers a tape he made before his death, warning that in a trilogy's final chapter the old rules lapse and anyone can die.

Which actress plays Jennifer Jolie, the star cast as Gale Weathers in Scream 3's film-within-a-film?

Parker Posey plays Jennifer, who decides the safest place in Hollywood is beside the real Gale, tells her 'I go where you go' and joins her investigation.

Which two characters from Kevin Smith's Clerks films cameo on the studio lot in Scream 3?

Jay and Silent Bob stroll the studio lot as tourists, played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith; Smith later gave the Scream director a cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Which original Scream actor says he had signed to return in Scream 3 as the killer, running murders from prison?

Matthew Lillard has said his character was to have survived the first film and directed new attacks on high-school students from his cell, before the script was rewritten.

In Scream 3, the killer taunts Sidney by phone using a voice changer that mimics whom?

Her late mother: Roman's voice changer can imitate anyone, and he uses Maureen Prescott's voice to lure Sidney out of the seclusion where she works as a crisis counselor under an alias.

Which future Grey's Anatomy star plays LAPD detective Mark Kincaid in Scream 3?

Patrick Dempsey plays Kincaid, the detective who follows Sidney to the mansion and is knocked out by Ghostface, yet ends the film watching a movie with the survivors.

Which pair directed Scream VI, as they had the 2022 film?

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, the Radio Silence duo behind the 2022 film, also hid in Scream VI's subway crowd: one dressed as Kurt Cobain, the other with a fake knife through his head.

Which actor plays Detective Wayne Bailey, the father unmasked as Scream VI's mastermind Ghostface?

Dermot Mulroney plays Bailey, who investigates the very killings he is secretly directing, with his own children Ethan and Quinn as fellow Ghostfaces.

How does Quinn Bailey escape suspicion in Scream VI?

She fakes her own death: Danny watches from his window as Ghostface seems to stab Quinn, and her detective father then swaps in a decoy body so she can go on killing.

The Bailey family's motive in Scream VI is revenge for Sam's killing of which previous Ghostface?

Richie Kirsch was Wayne Bailey's son and brother to Quinn and Ethan, which is why the family wants Sam dead; Jack Quaid returns in an uncredited video cameo.

Which Scream 4 survivor returns in Scream VI as an FBI special agent?

Kirby Reed was left for dead in Scream 4; a blink-and-miss video thumbnail in the 2022 film confirmed she had survived, a year before she returned as an FBI agent.

Where does Gale lead the group in Scream VI to find a shrine to the previous Ghostface killers?

An abandoned theater: Gale leads them to a disused cinema laid out as a shrine, with costumes and evidence from every earlier killing spree on display; the finale is fought there.

How does a survivor finish off Ethan at Scream VI's climax?

Smashes a television set over his head: the group's FBI ally uses the very TV that killed one of the original 1996 killers, kept in the shrine as a museum piece.

What does Sam put on before she kills Wayne Bailey in Scream VI?

Her father's Ghostface costume: Sam confronts Bailey in the old mask and robe and stabs him repeatedly, then casts the mask aside as the film ends.

Where do Tara Carpenter and the Meeks-Martin twins study in Scream VI?

Blackmore University in New York City; its film professor Laura Crane is the opening victim, catfished by her student Jason Carvey.

Which pop star released "Still Alive" as the lead single from the Scream VI soundtrack?

Demi Lovato co-wrote 'Still Alive' with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda; in its video Ghostface attacks Lovato and friends at a Scream VI screening, and she ends up the last one standing.

Why is Ghostface so hard to pick out on the subway in Scream VI?

Riders are in Halloween costumes: the packed train is full of masked New Yorkers, several of them as Ghostface, so the real killer can stab Mindy and step off unnoticed at the next stop.

Which Scream VI star won Best Fight at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards for a battle with Ghostface?

Courteney Cox won for Gale's apartment fight with Ghostface, and Scream VI was named Best Movie; the show aired pre-taped without a host after writers went on strike.

What happens in the brief extra scene after Scream VI's credits?

Mindy says not every film needs one: the tag cuts back to her franchise-rules speech for a single extra line, so viewers who sat through the credits for a hint of the next film get teased themselves.

Which company was reported in November 2019 to be developing a new Scream film?

Spyglass Media Group, relaunched that March as the home of the collapsed Weinstein Company's library, was reported to be planning the film that became the 2022 Scream.

Which actress plays high-schooler Amber Freeman in the 2022 Scream?

Mikey Madison plays Amber, whose family has bought the very house where the original film's killing spree reached its climax; the 2022 finale returns there.

What medical condition does Tara Carpenter have that the killers exploit in the 2022 Scream?

Asthma: when Tara's inhaler goes missing as the sisters flee town, the detour to fetch a spare leads them straight into the killers' trap.

Which character is attacked in the 2022 Scream's opening scene and survives?

Tara Carpenter, played by Jenna Ortega, is stabbed repeatedly in the opening but lives, the first opening-scene target in the series to survive; the attack draws her sister Sam back to town.

Who plays Vince Schneider, Liv's ex-boyfriend, in the 2022 Scream?

Kyle Gallner plays Vince Schneider, Liv's volatile ex, knifed in the neck outside a bar after a brawl gets everyone thrown out; he is the first to die in the 2022 film.

Which legacy character is killed in the 2022 Scream while trying to finish off Ghostface?

Dewey Riley dies trying to finish off Ghostface; Gale decides to write a tribute to him rather than a book about the new murders.

The 2022 Scream knocked which superhero blockbuster off the top of the US box office?

Spider-Man: No Way Home had ruled the chart since mid-December until Scream opened at number one in January 2022; within weeks a sixth film was given the go-ahead.

What term does Mindy first use in the 2022 Scream for a film that is part reboot, part sequel?

Requel is Mindy's word for what the killer is staging: a new cast is targeted while the legacy survivors are lured back in. She adds that some fans say 'legacyquel' instead.

Which Community star plays Sidney's husband, police chief Mark Evans, in Scream 7?

Joel McHale plays Mark, the small-town police chief Sidney has married; Ghostface knocks him out in their home and later ambushes and stabs him there.

Which actress plays Sidney's daughter Tatum in Scream 7?

Isabel May, known for 1883, plays Tatum, named after Sidney's late best friend Tatum Riley; the film follows Sidney as her daughter becomes a new Ghostface's target.

Which star was fired from Scream 7 in late 2023, triggering a creative overhaul of the film?

Melissa Barrera was dropped in November 2023 over her social-media posts about the Gaza war; Jenna Ortega and director Christopher Landon departed soon afterwards.

Which network premiered the Scream television series on June 30, 2015?

MTV premiered Scream: The TV Series on June 30, 2015 and ran two seasons plus a Halloween special; the third season, Resurrection, moved to VH1 in 2019.

The first two seasons of the Scream TV series are set in which fictional town?

Lakewood is haunted by the Brandon James killings; heroine Emma Duval learns that her own mother, the town's medical examiner, has been hiding a past with him.

The Scream TV series' third season is set in which Southern city, where it was also filmed?

Atlanta: the third season, Resurrection, follows football star Deion Elliot and brought back the films' Ghostface mask, which the first two seasons had replaced with a new design.

The Ghostface mask is often likened to The Scream, a painting by which artist?

Edvard Munch's The Scream is the usual comparison; yet the mask wasn't designed for the film at all: it was a shop-bought Halloween mask a producer found while scouting locations.

By what name was the Ghostface mask first known as a novelty Halloween product in the early 1990s?

The Peanut-Eyed Ghost: the film's makers first tried a custom lookalike because they didn't own the rights, but the director disliked it and the shop-bought original was licensed.

What name is printed on the Ghostface costume's packaging in the original Scream?

Father Death is the label on the costume's packaging; the police note it is sold at every five-and-dime in the state, so the buyer can't be traced.

Besides Ghostface, the killer's long-time voice actor plays which Powerpuff Girls villain?

Mojo Jojo is the same actor's other signature role: the mad-scientist chimp was once the Professor's lab helper, whose shove caused the accident that created the girls.

What is the title of Gale Weathers' hit book about the killings in the original Scream?

The Woodsboro Murders made Gale a successful author; the movie based on it is opening in cinemas when the killings begin again in Scream 2.

Which actress plays Sidney's roommate Hallie McDaniel in Scream 2?

Elise Neal plays Hallie McDaniel, Sidney's roommate, who survives the crashed police cruiser only to be stabbed moments later when Sidney goes back to unmask the unconscious killer.

Who directed the 2000 parody Scary Movie, which lampooned Scream?

Keenen Ivory Wayans directed, with brothers Marlon and Shawn co-writing and starring as Shorty and Ray; Dimension Films, the studio behind Scream, released this spoof of its own hit.

Which 1972 shocker was the directing debut of the man behind the first four Scream films?

The Last House on the Left was his first feature: a former college teacher, he modelled its revenge plot on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring.

In the 2022 Scream, Gale's ex-husband, the former sheriff, is living as a recluse in what kind of home?

A trailer: divorced and retired, he lives alone and only lets Sam in after she reveals who her father was.

Which Mystery Inc. member did one of the original Scream's teen stars go on to play in two live-action films?

Shaggy Rogers became Matthew Lillard's second career: after the 2002 and 2004 live-action Scooby-Doo films he took over as the character's animated voice when Casey Kasem retired.

Randy Meeks actor Jamie Kennedy headlined which 2003 comedy about a wannabe rapper from the suburbs?

Malibu's Most Wanted starred Kennedy as B-Rad, a politician's son who raps as if he grew up in the hood; his father's campaign hires two actors to pose as gangsters and scare him out of it.

Scream's Liev Schreiber won a Tony for playing Richard Roma in which David Mamet play?

Glengarry Glen Ross won Schreiber the 2005 Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play as salesman Richard Roma, beating two of his own castmates, Alan Alda and Gordon Clapp.

Before playing Sam Carpenter, Melissa Barrera broke through as Lyn Hernandez on which Starz series?

Vida, the Starz drama about two sisters inheriting their mother's East LA bar, made Barrera's name as Lyn; she then co-starred in In the Heights and reunited with the Scream directors for Abigail.

Jenna Ortega, a Scream star since 2022, led which Disney Channel sitcom as inventor Harley Diaz?

Stuck in the Middle is a literal title: Ortega's Harley is the middle of seven Diaz children, inventing gadgets to cope with life in a crowded house.