‘Scream’: These Two Cast Members Got Married in Real Life (and Other Trivia for Halloween)
Spooooky Halloween! The movie Scream came out over two decades ago, but it still lives on in the hearts and nightmares of us all. The film, directed by Wes Craven, became a box office hit and spun out several sequels–through Scream 4. The legendary and frequently parodied movie honored scream queens of the past like Jamie Lee Curtis and introduced us to new ones: Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, and Drew Barrymore. It also started a celeb romance. For Halloween, feast on these fun facts about Scream, the film with the mask to haunt all masks.
The house party in the last scene was so long the crew made T-shirts
According to IMDb, the slasher-movie climax scene at Stu’s party takes up 42 minutes in the final cut of the film. It took the crew 21 days to shoot, working from sunset to sunrise each night. The crew made T-shirts celebrating their survival of the brutal film schedule that read, “I SURVIVED SCENE 118.” Cast and crew referred to that iconic terrifying scene’s production schedule as “the longest night in horror history.”
Courteney Cox and David Arquette met on the set of ‘Scream’
Just like Gale Weathers (honestly, why didn’t she go into meteorology?) and Deputy Dewey fall in love in Scream, the actors who portrayed them did, too. The chemistry behind the fictional journalist and the police officer was 100% legit: Courteney Cox and David Arquette became a classic celebrity couple, marrying in 1999. Sadly the couple split up in 2013.
‘Scream’ is riddled with iconic horror film references
The characters don’t just talk about them incessantly. They don’t just feel like they’re in one. The classic scary movie name drops and sly references are constant in Scream.
After Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker and the killer converse about their favorite horror films on the phone, the masked man brutally murders her. When her parents arrive home, barely missing her tragic end, Mr. Becker tells Mrs. Becker to go to the McKenzies. This is the same line Jamie Lee Curtis’s character says to her children in the 1978 horror classic Halloween.
Later, when the school principal, played by Henry Winkler, waves out to the janitor in the hallway, he is a spitting image of the iconic Nightmare on Elm Street killer, Freddy Krueger.
“Sorry, Fred,” Principal Himbry says. The Freddy-janitor waves back nonchalantly.
Bonus fun fact: Henry Winkler went uncredited in Scream in order to give more attention to the younger actors.
An actor named Roger Jackson voiced the movie’s masked man
The story behind the creepy voice on the phone: rather than having actors Skeet Urlich and Matthew Lillard, who played the killers, talk into a voice modulator, it was a whole other actor named Roger Jackson. Jackson has multiple voice acting credits under his belt, including the Powerpuff Girls series and movies.
According to IMDb, Drew Barrymore and Neve Campbell never met Roger Jackson before the end of filming. Also, any time we see them talking on the phone, they are literally talking to Jackson over the phone. The actor was calling from a cell phone somewhere else on set.
This caused real-life problems, as it freaked out local cops. The police department called the set because they were worried a real criminal was placing the spooky calls.
Many of the casts’ lines in ‘Scream’ were improvised
Director Wes Craven let comedian Jamie Kennedy improvise several lines that added humor to the film.
Also, Matthew Lillard as Stu ad-libbed, “Ah… Houston, we have a problem” upon noticing the gun was missing. He also made up the hilarious line, “My mom and dad are going to be so mad at me.” Craven liked it so much he kept it in the scene.
Both Stu’s line of “I always had a thing for ya, Sid!” and Neve Campbell’s response of, “In your dreams!” were improvised in the moment.
The movie ‘Scream’ was first seen as a box office flop
Scream debuted in theaters five days before Christmas 1996 and was very different from most of the family-friendly movies released around the holidays. The film made just $6.4 million its first weekend, ranking at number four in the box office, which made studio executives believe it was a failure.
But word of mouth saved the day; so many people loved Scream that the movie made more than $100 million at the box office in the end.
