Did You Know?

To keep Drew Barrymore looking scared and crying, director Wes Craven kept telling her real life stories about animal cruelty. She is a keen animal lover in real life.

Wes Craven discovered the Ghost Face mask while scouting for filming locations in California. Craven was walking throughout a possible filming-house, and inside one of the rooms he saw the mask hung on a wall. He sent a photo to Dimension Films and they told him to have the prop department make a mask similar to the mask in the bedroom, as they did not own the rights to the mask.

When Bob Weinstein watched parts of the first scenes filmed (rough cuts), he said that the mask used was "idiotic". He asked the producers to film one scene with seven different masks and let him choose the one he liked the most. Producers didn't agree and threatened to shut down production. They told him to wait until the first sequence (Drew Barrymore's) was completed and then he could decide. After watching it, he happily agreed to the mask used and didn't make another complaint for the rest of the filming.

Drew Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney Prescott (eventually played by Neve Campbell). But Drew Barrymore insisted that if she played Casey then it would make the audience think anything could happen.

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.

Tatum's house is right across the street from the house in Santa Rosa, California used in Pollyanna. It is also across the street from the house used in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. The house in the opening scene was next door to the house used in Cujo.

On The Directors in 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.

Being a favorite of the writer Kevin Williamson, Molly Ringwald was offered the role of Sydney Prescott, but turned it down, saying she'd rather not be playing a high school student at the age of 27.

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.

The Jiffy Pop popcorn in the first scene acts as a clock. It goes from normal to out of control as does the scene

Kevin Williamson's screenplay caused a bidding war in Hollywood.

The opening with Drew Barrymore lasts for 12 minutes.

The use of caller ID increased more than threefold after the release of this film.

Rose McGowan dyed her hair blonde in order to contrast her black hair from Neve Campbell's.

The production moved to the Sonoma Community Center in the City of Sonoma for the high school scenes. It was always scheduled to be shot in the Healdsburg area.

Reese Witherspoon turned down the lead role.

Melinda Clarke turned down the role of Tatum Riley.

Charlotte Ayanna was considered for the role of Tatum Riley.

Tatum says that the situation is like a Wes Carpenter film. This is a reference to Wes Craven, who directed the movie, and John Carpenter, who directed Halloween, which is featured in the movie.

Contains spoilers for Friday the 13th.

Freddie Prinze Jr. auditioned for the role of Stu.

Justin Shenkarow loved the screenplay so much that he elected to take a minor behind-the-scenes role. His name appears 25th from the bottom of the credits.

The party scene near the end of the film runs 42 minutes long. It was shot over the course of 21 days from the time the sun set to the time it raised. After it wrapped, the crew had t-shirts made that read " I SURVIVED SCENE 118" (which was the name of the scene during shooting).

The film was sent to the MPAA over nine times for re-consideration, as they were going to slap the movie with a NC-17 rating. With each time the MPAA made Craven cut out more of the films gore heavy shots. Bob Weinstein eventually had to step in, which secured the films R rating. Craven wanted to know what it was Weinstein had said to the MPAA to get them to give the film its R Rating - he told them to view the film as a comedy and not a horror film. This completely changed the MPAA'S view point.

Winner of the 1997 Mtv Movie Award for Best Picture.

At the breakfast table, Tatum can be seen pouring milk from a Lucerne milk carton. Lucerne is a local dairy company located in Sonoma County, CA, where the movie was filmed.

Brooke Shields was nearly cast as Gale Weathers after Janeane Garofalo turned the role down.

It is mentioned near the end of the film that they used Corn Syrup dyed red for the blood in several famous horror movies. During the films climax, the production crew really did use corn syrup dyed red.

David Arquette's character Dewey is specified as being 25 years old, approximately 7 years older than most other lead characters who are in high school. However, Arquette is roughly the same age as most of his costars and is actually slightly younger than Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, and Jamie Kennedy, who all play high schoolers.

Actor W. Earl Brown, who played Gale's assistant Kenny, also appears in Wes Craven's New Nightmare and Vampire in Brooklyn.

The boyfriend in Psycho is named Samuel Loomis. Samuel Loomis was the doctor in Halloween. In Scream, the teens are watching Halloween. In Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the teens are watching Scream 2.

Linda Blair:  the reporter who says, "People want to know, they have a right to know."

Wes Craven:  Fred, the janitor.

Wes Craven:  [Establishing]  Wide, establishing exterior shots of Casey's home.

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.

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 one scene.

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 (Courteney 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.

There are 7 deaths in the movie (8 With Maureen): Maureen Prescott, Steven, Casey, The Principal, Tatum, Kenny, Stu (2nd Killer), Billy (1st Killer).

In Scream 2, the fictional "Stab" movie which is a movie about the events of Scream re-enacts the opening scene with Drew Barrymore. During the scene in the real Scream, the shadow of a crew member is briefly visible for a moment when Drew Barrymore is running. In "Stab", they recreate this goof but the entire silhouette of a person is visible while she is running.

This is the only film in the series in which the opening title card appears before the opening murder.