Where to watch Scream (1996)
Scream is available to stream in CA on Paramount Plus, Crave and Hoopla. It can also be rented or bought from AppleTV and Amazon.
A year after her mother’s murder, a teenager and her friends are terrorized by a masked killer who turns horror-movie knowledge into a deadly game. As fear spreads through their community, they must navigate chilling threats, tense encounters, and the rules of the slasher films they know so well.
Cast: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Jamie Kennedy, Drew Barrymore, W. Earl Brown, Joseph Whipp, Liev Schreiber, Roger L. Jackson
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Trivia & production notes
- Kevin Williamson wrote the original screenplay in just three days while listening to the Halloween score for inspiration, after a Danny Rolling documentary and a subsequent home invasion scare sparked the idea.
- The opening murder was designed to eliminate a recognizable star early, inspired by Janet Leigh's death in Psycho, to shock audiences and make them uncertain about character survival.
- Williamson refused to remove explicit gore descriptions from the screenplay despite his agent's advice, believing the visceral language distinguished it from similar films.
- Multiple major directors including Quentin Tarantino, Sam Raimi, and Danny Boyle were considered before Wes Craven took the job, as many interpreted the script as broad comedy rather than horror satire.
- The film's title was changed from Scary Movie to Scream late in production because the studio feared audiences would mistake it for a comedy rather than horror.
- Wes Craven was initially reluctant to direct because he wanted to move away from graphic content and was discouraged by negative perceptions of his previous work, but returned after his horror comedy Vampire in Brooklyn flopped.
- Drew Barrymore originally auditioned for the lead role of Sidney Prescott but requested the smaller part of Casey Becker instead, allowing the filmmakers to kill their most famous actor in the opening sequence.
- Neve Campbell was filmed for her screen test before competing actresses to give her a strategic advantage, and she emerged as the crew's swift favorite for Sidney Prescott.
- Courteney Cox initially doubted by Craven for the role of manipulative reporter Gale Weathers, responded by writing him a letter asserting that playing a bitch would not be a stretch for her.
- Rose McGowan nearly lost the role of Tatum when her agent demanded $250,000 instead of the offered $50,000, forcing her to audition twice before securing the part.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article Scream (1996 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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