Scream is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore. Set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, the plot follows high school student Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her friends as they become the targets of a costumed serial killer on the anniversary of her mother's murder.
Williamson, who was struggling to get his projects off the ground, was inspired by reports of the Gainesville Ripper murders to write a screenplay that satirized the clichés of the slasher genre popularized by films such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and Craven's own A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Developed under the title Scary Movie, the script became the subject of an intense bidding war among multiple studios before Miramax Films purchased the rights for its Dimension Films label. Although Craven initially declined the project several times, he agreed to direct after reading the script, hoping to re-establish himself following a series of career setbacks. The involvement of the well-known Barrymore and Cox helped secure additional studio support. Principal photography took place in California from April to June 1996 on a budget of $15million. Craven also trimmed the film's violence following a dispute with the Motion Picture Association of America over securing an R rating.
Released on December 20, Scream was not expected to perform well because of concerns about releasing a slasher film during the Christmas season. However, strong word of mouth helped it gross approximately $173million worldwide, making it an unexpected success and one of the year's highest-grossing films. Contemporary reviews were positive, with praise directed toward the film's self-aware humor and effectiveness as a slasher film, although some felt its meta approach was overly irreverent.
In the years since its release, Scream has been regarded as a cultural touchstone and one of the most influential horror films of the 1990s. It has been credited with revitalizing the slasher genre and popularizing a self-aware, metatextual approach to horror that influenced numerous later works. Its opening sequence, in which Barrymore's character is unexpectedly killed, became particularly noted for its tension and subversion of audience expectations. The film's success launched a franchise, which includes the sequels Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), Scream 4 (2011), Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023), and Scream 7 (2026), as well as an anthology television series.
Plot
In the small town of Woodsboro, California, high school student Casey Becker is home alone when she receives a phone call from an unknown person. Their conversation about horror films turns sadistic when the caller reveals that her boyfriend, Steve Orth, is tied up on the patio. He forces Casey to answer horror trivia to save Steve's life, but after she incorrectly answers a question about Friday the 13th, Steve is murdered. Casey attempts to escape, but is fatally stabbed by someone wearing a "Ghostface" costume, and her disemboweled corpse is then discovered hanging from a tree by her parents.
The following morning, the media descend on Woodsboro as police investigate the murders. Casey's classmate Sidney Prescott is struggling with the approaching first anniversary of the rape and murder of her mother, Maureen, for which Cotton Weary was convicted. The trauma has also prevented Sidney from consummating her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy Loomis. With her father, Neil, traveling for work, Sidney waits at home alone for her friend Tatum Riley. Sidney receives a taunting phone call referencing Maureen's death before Ghostface attacks her. The killer flees moments before Billy climbs through her bedroom window, but Sidney becomes suspicious after he drops a cellular phone. Billy is arrested by Deputy Sheriff Dewey, Tatum's older brother.
Outside the police station, Sidney confronts investigative journalist Gale Weathers, whose book claims Maureen had several extramarital affairs, including one with Cotton, whom Gale believes was misidentified as the killer by Sidney. Later, while staying at Tatum's house, Sidney receives another call from the killer, mocking her for incorrectly accusing Cotton and Billy. Police trace the calls to Neil's cellular phone, but are unable to locate him.
Following his release, Billy further alienates Sidney by comparing his mother's abandonment to Maureen's death. After classes are suspended in response to the murders, Principal Himbry is killed in his office. To celebrate the school's closure, Stu Macher, Tatum's boyfriend, invites her and Sidney to a party at his secluded home while Dewey and Gale monitor the gathering in case the killer appears. Ghostface isolates Tatum in the garage and crushes her neck in the automatic garage door. As fellow student Randy Meeks explains the "rules" of surviving a horror film, news arrives of Himbry's murder, prompting most of the partygoers to leave to see his hanging body. They nearly run over Dewey and Gale, inadvertently leading them to Neil's hidden car.
Billy arrives to reconcile with Sidney, and the two have sex. Shortly afterward, Ghostface attacks and apparently stabs Billy. Sidney escapes the house while the killer murders Gale's cameraman, Kenny, and stabs Dewey. Attempting to flee in her news van, Gale crashes and is knocked unconscious. Sidney locks herself inside the house, trapping Stu and Randy outside as they accuse each other of being the killer.
Billy suddenly reappears, seemingly wounded, and lets Randy inside before shooting him, revealing himself as the killer alongside Stu. Billy explains that they murdered Maureen after discovering her affair with his father, which caused Billy's mother to abandon the family. The pair kidnapped Neil to frame him for the murders, and proceed to stab each other to make themselves appear to be the sole survivors. However, Gale unexpectedly returns and distracts them, allowing Sidney to incapacitate Billy and kill Stu by dropping a television set on his head. Billy attacks Sidney one final time, but Gale shoots him. After Randy warns that horror film killers always return for one last scare, Billy lunges at them, and Sidney shoots him in the head, killing him. As dawn breaks, Neil is rescued, Dewey is taken away by ambulance, and Gale reports on the night's events.
Cast
David Arquette as Dewey Riley: The goofy and hapless, but caring deputy sheriff Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott: A high school student traumatized by her mother's murder Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers: A ruthless and ambitious investigative journalist Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher: The eccentric and clumsy boyfriend of Tatum, and Billy's best friend Rose McGowan as Tatum Riley: Sidney's spunky best friend and Dewey's younger sister Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis: Sidney's boyfriend, who has a passion for horror films Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks: A horror film enthusiast W. Earl Brown as Kenny: Gale's cameraman Joseph Whipp as Burke: The town sheriff Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary: The man convicted of killing Sidney's mother Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker: A high school student
Scream also features Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Ghostface, and Kevin Patrick Walls as Steve Orth, Casey's boyfriend. Lawrence Hecht and Lynn McRee portray Sidney's parents, Neil and Maureen. C.W. Morgan appears as Billy's father Hank Loomis, Frances Lee McCain portrays Dewey and Tatum's mother Mrs. Riley, and David Booth and Carla Hatley appear as Casey's father and mother. Leonora Scelfo portrays a "bitchy" cheerleader in the school bathroom. Scream features several cameo appearances, including Henry Winkler as principal Arthur Himbry, Linda Blair as obnoxious reporter, casting director Lisa Beach as a reporter, and director Wes Craven as Fred the janitor, an homage to iconic horror character Freddy Krueger.
Production Writing
In 1994, Kevin Williamson was a financially struggling novice screenwriter who had recently sold his first script, Killing Mrs. Tingle (1999). While house-sitting, he watched a Turning Point documentary about serial killer Danny Rolling, which left him unsettled. Later that night, Williamson noticed an open window, armed himself with a knife, and called a friend for reassurance. During the conversation, the pair discussed horror villains who had resonated with them, including Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. The following morning, Williamson awoke from a nightmare and used the experience as inspiration for the opening home invasion sequence of Scream. He also drew from a one-act play he had written in college about an unknown caller tormenting a young woman.
Over the next three days, Williamson wrote a slasher screenplay titled Scary Movie while listening to the score to Halloween for inspiration. He also drafted two five-page outlines for potential sequels. Much of the script was developed around the line, "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative", which Williamson described as his response to contemporary concerns about the influence of cinematic violence on audiences, and he just "thought it was a great line." The script drew heavily from his favorite horror films, including Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th, Prom Night (both 1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). At the time, the successful slasher films of previous decades had largely fallen out of favor because of the declining reception to increasingly formulaic sequels in long-running horror franchises.
The characters in Scary Movie were intentionally written as knowledgeable about horror films and their conventions, allowing Williamson to create a killer who both understood and exploited genre clichés. Explaining his approach, he said, "I thought if you could expose the rules and play with them, then the audience doesn't know what they're going to get. Suddenly, they're on edge. I started playing with the tropes, and the 'rules' were part of that." The opening sequence depicting Casey Becker's death was inspired by the killing of Janet Leigh's character in Psycho (1960), eliminating an apparent main character early in the story. Williamson believed this would hook studio executives and leave audiences uncertain about how the narrative would progress. He set the script in his hometown of Bayboro, North Carolina, believing its quiet atmosphere would sharply contrast with the violence of a serial killer.
Williamson pursued Scary Movie because it resembled the type of horror film he had enjoyed as a child but believed were no longer being made. Even so, he doubted studios would produce it and instead hoped it would attract attention and lead to other work. His agent advised him to tone down the gore, removing descriptions such as "the insides are slowly rolling down her leg", because it would make the script more difficult to sell. Williamson refused to remove any dialogue, believing it distinguished the screenplay from similar films.
Development