Scream
Character: Gale Weathers
Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Kevin Williamson
Cast Members: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard
Release date: December 20, 1996
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Duration: 1h 51m
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game.
Taglines:
- Don’t Answer The Phone. Don’t Open The Door. Don’t Try To Escape.
- Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far. Solving this mystery is going to be murder.
- Someone’s Taken Their Love Of Scary Movies One Step Too Far!
- Make Your Last Breath Count.
- Now someone is victim and someone is a suspect.
- From The First Name In Suspense Comes The Last Word In Fear
- Don’t Answer The Door, Don’t Leave The House, Don’t Answer The Phone, But Most Of All, Don’t SCREAM.
- Now everybody is a victim and everybody is a suspect!
Filming Locations:
Bradley Video, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Calistoga Road, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Glen Ellen, California, USA
Healdsburg, California, USA
Santa Rosa, California, USA
Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma, California, USA
Sonoma Mountain Road, Glen Ellen, California, USA
Tomales Bay, Tomales, California, USA
Town & Country Market, Santa Rosa, California, USA
Town Square, Healdsburg, California, USA
Memorable Quotes
Gale: Jesus, the camera, hurry!
Kenny: My name isn’t Jesus.
Gale: If I’m right about this, I could save a man’s life. Do you know what that would do for my book sales?
[last lines]
Gale: Okay I think it’s going to go something like this, just stay with me. Hi, this is Gale Weathers with an exclusive eyewitness account of this amazing breaking story. Several more local teens are dead, bringing to an end the harrowing mystery of the masked killings that has terrified this peaceful community like the plot of some scary movie. It all began with the scream of a 911, and ended in a bloodbath that has rocked the town of Woodsboro. All played out here in this peaceful farmhouse, far from the crimes and the sirens of the larger cities that its residents have fled. Okay, let’s take it back to one. Come on, move it! This is my big shot. Let’s go.
Gale: Oh, God, Kenny, I’m sorry, but get off my f*cking windshield!
Gale: Guess I remembered the safety that time, bastard.
Gale: Looks like we’ve got a serial killer on our hands!
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: Well, a “serial killer” is not really accurate. Gotta knock off a couple more to get that title.
Gale: Well, we can help, can’t we? I mean, we certainly don’t have any leads. Have you located Sidney’s father yet?
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: No, not yet.
Gale: Well, he’s not a suspect, is he?
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: We haven’t ruled him out as a possibility.
[He becomes aware that he is gazing too long at her eyes]
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: If you’ll excuse me.
[Dewey turns away, but Gale pursues and grabs his arm]
Gale: I’m sorry, am I keeping you?
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: [Turning back to her, he removes his hat] If I may say so, Miss Weathers, you are much prettier in person.
[He gives her a flirty smile and turns away again to run up the school steps]
Gale: [delighted] So you do watch the show!
[Dewey stops and turns back]
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: I’m 25. I was 24 for a whole year.
[Gale runs across the school campus to Dewey]
Gale: Is there a problem on campus?
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: No. Everything’s under control.
Gale: [seductively] Well, of course. You’re here.
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: You’re not supposed to be here.
Gale: I know. I should be in New York covering the Sharon Stone stalker, but who knew?
Gale: You look awfully young to be a police officer.
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: I’m 25 years old.
Gale: You know, in a demographic study, I proved to be most popular amongst males 11 to 24. I guess I just missed you.
Gale: Of course, you don’t look a day over 12. Except in that…
[She looks him up and down, admiringly]
Gale: … upper torso area. Does the force require you to work out?
Deputy Dwight “Dewey” Riley: [Charmed, despite his common sense:] No, ma’am. ‘Cause of my boyish good looks, muscle mass has increased my acceptance as a serious police officer.
[They smile at each other]
Trivia
- When Sidney comes out of the closet and stabs Billy with an umbrella, the stunt man was supposed to hit a pad on Skeet Ulrich’s chest. The first hit got the pad but the second one slipped and hit him in the chest (you can see it in his reaction). Wes Craven kept it in because of its authenticity.
- Wes Craven found the mask in a store while location-scouting in California.
- When the killer smashes his head through a window and Casey hits him in the face with the phone, Wes Craven is actually wearing the costume and was really hit in the face.
- The film was originally to be shot at a high school in Santa Rosa, CA, but after the school board read the script they objected to the violent nature and production was moved to Healdsburg, CA.
- The special effects artists used about 50 gallons of blood.
- A poster of Jamie Lee Curtis (known as the ‘Scream Queen’ after Halloween (1978)) for the film Mother’s Boys (1994) is shown prominently at the video store. Another film of hers, Trading Places (1983) is mentioned.
- On “The Directors” (2007), David Arquette revealed that he presumptuously turned down the role of “Billy” in favor for playing “Dewey”, which was originally written as a hunky, leading man part.
- As revealed on “The Directors” (2007), Wes Craven originally turned down “Scream” because it was too violent, but reconsidered making one more gory movie for the hungry fans who continually told him that he last best movie was The Hills Have Eyes (1977).
- The school janitor Fred (played by Wes Craven) can be seen wearing Freddy Krueger’s outfit from A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
- The mask is based on the painting “Scream” by Edvard Munch.
- Matthew Lillard (Stu) add-libbed the line “Ah… Houston, we have a problem” when he discovered that the gun was gone.
- David Arquette’s sister Patricia Arquette starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) written and produced by director Wes Craven.
- These are the horror film rules as stated in the movie: – 1. You will not survive if you have sex – 2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs – 3. You will not survive if you say “I’ll be right back” – 4. Everyone is a suspect. – Two additional rules come from the killer: – 5. You will not survive if you ask “Who’s there?” – 6. You will not survive if you go out to investigate a strange noise.
- Kevin Williamson’s screenplay caused a bidding war in Hollywood.
- The scene where the killer is sneaking up behind Randy is the only one where the person in the costume is actually one of the actors rather than a stunt man. Skeet Ulrich has specifically asked if he could wear the costume for once scene.
- All the killer’s phone calls were really done by Roger Jackson on set with a cell phone. At one point, the crew were contacted by the police demanding to know who they were because they thought there was a real killer making the phone calls.
- Stu’s line “I always had a thing for ya, Sid!” and Sidney’s response “In your dreams!” were ad-libbed by Matthew Lillard and Neve Campbell.
- Courteney Cox and David Arquette met and fell in love on the set of this movie. They eventually married.
- Freddie Prinze Jr. auditioned for the role of Stu.
- When the phone slips out of Billy’s hand and hits Stu’s head, it was completely unintentional. Wes Craven kept it in because of Stu’s realistic reaction.
- Dewey (David Arquette) was supposed to die from the stab wound to the back. Director Wes Craven filmed the scene at the end of the film, where Dewey is alive and being taken to the hospital, just in case he changed his mind about killing Dewey. The screen-test audience loved the character Dewey so much that Craven decided to add his survival scene in the final cut. If you watch closely during the part where Gale (Courtney Cox) is knocked out by Billy (Skeet Ulrich), you can see that Dewey is not breathing when Gale lands on him because Dewey was intended to be dead. Every time Dewey is shown after he is stabbed before the final scene is intended to be his dead body, not him lying unconscious.
