2011-12-30

Stab series




Scream (film series)

Scream

DVD box set containing the first three films
Directed by Wes Craven
Produced by Cathy Konrad
Cary Woods
Wes Craven
Marianne Maddalena
Kevin Williamson
Iya Labunka
Written by Scream, 2, 4
Kevin Williamson
Scream 3
Ehren Kruger
Starring David Arquette
Neve Campbell
Courteney Cox
Roger L. Jackson
Jamie Kennedy
Liev Schreiber
Music by Marco Beltrami
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release date(s) Scream
December 20, 1996
Scream 2
December 12, 1997
Scream 3
February 4, 2000
Scream 4
April 15, 2011
Running time Total (4 films)
458 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget Total (4 films)
US$119 million
Box office Total (4 films)
US$604,281,850

Scream is a series of American horror slasher films created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven. The films star Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. The series has grossed over $600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures. The first series entry, Scream, was released on December 20, 1996 and is currently the highest grossing slasher film in the United States. The second entry Scream 2 was released on December 12, 1997 followed by a third installment, Scream 3, released February 4, 2000. Scream 4 was released eleven years after the previous, on April 15, 2011. The films follow the character of Sidney Prescott (Campbell) who becomes the target of a succession of murderers who adopt the guise of Ghostface to stalk and torment their victims. Sidney receives support in the films from town deputy Dewey Riley (Arquette), reporter Gale Weathers (Cox), and film-geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy).

Williamson's original script was bought by Miramax and developed under the Dimension Films label by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who recruited Craven to direct, who in turn recruited composer Marco Beltrami to score the film. This team went on to be involved in each film in the series though Williamson was forced to take a smaller role for Scream 3, writing only a brief plot outline due to his commitments to other projects, with Ehren Kruger replacing him as screenwriter. The series' violence resulted in conflicts with the Motion Picture Association of America and news media concerning censorship resulting in a reduction of violence and gore in Scream 3 when the Columbine incident brought increased focus on the media's influence on society. Scream became notable for its use of established and recognizable actors which was uncommon for horror films at the time, yet has since become common in part due to Scream's success.

The series has received significant critical acclaim, Scream being credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the late 90s by combining a traditional slasher film with humor, awareness of horror film cliché and a clever plot. Scream was one of the highest grossing films of 1996 and became, and remains, the highest grossing slasher film in the world. Its success was matched by Scream 2 which not only broke box-office records of the time but which some critics argued was actually superior to the original. Scream 3 fared worse than its predecessors, both critically and financially, with critics commenting that it had become the type of horror film it originally parodied in Scream. It did however receive some positive response with claims that it was the perfect end to the trilogy. The film series has been the recipient of several awards including a Saturn Award for Best Actress and MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance for Campbell and Best Horror Film for Scream.

Films

Scream (1996)

Scream 2 (1997)

Scream 3 (2000)

Scream 4 (2011)

Future

In an interview, Craven confirmed that he was contracted to work on a fifth and sixth installment of the Scream franchise, to be made if the fourth film achieves a successful release and reception. Following difficulties with script rewrites on Scream 2, Scream 3 and Scream 4, often with pages only being ready on the day of filming, and the related stress of the situation, Craven stated that he would need to see a finalized version of a script for Scream 5 before committing to the production. In a separate interview, writer Williamson also confirmed his contractual obligation for Scream 4 and Scream 5, having submitted concepts for three films leading up to Scream 6, though his contract for the sixth film had not yet been finalized. Williamson indicated that if a Scream 5 were to be made, it would be a continuation of the story of the characters who lived through Scream 4 but that Scream 4 would not include any cliffhangers that led into the potential sequel. Actor David Arquette also added his support to the potential future of the franchise, stating "It [the ending] definitely leaves it open," before adding that he would welcome the opportunity to play the character of Dewey in future installments. In May 2011, executive producer Harvey Weinstein, confirmed that a sequel was possible, saying that despite Scream 4 performing below The Weinstein Company's financial expectations, he was still happy with the gross it had accrued.

Cast and characters

Production

Writing

Scream (1996) was conceived under the title Scary Movie by screenwriter Kevin Williamson as an 18-page script inspired by a series of murders by the Gainesville Ripper that Williamson had seen in a news story and his own experience alone in a friends house after discovering an open window he had not previously noticed. The treatment covered what would become the opening scene of Scream featuring Drew Barrymore. Williamson began to expand this script into what ultimately became Scream because his previous script, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, was in development hell, writing it in only three days in Palm Springs and bringing it to his agent in June 1995 to put it up for sale. Accompanying the script were two 5-page outlines for potential sequels to the film, Williamson hoping to provide added incentive to buy the script by providing potential for a franchise. Williamson would later claim he wrote the screenplay partly because it was a film he wanted to watch and "nobody else is making it". The script was self-referential, featuring characters who watched horror films and were aware of the conventions of the genre and featured numerous homages to many preceding horror films which Williamson would claim inspired him, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Prom Night.

Williamson was told early on by his agent, Rob Paris, that the saturation of violence and gore in his script would make it "impossible" to sell and following its purchase by Miramax he was required to remove much of the gorier scenes. However, once Craven was confirmed to direct, he was able to bring much of the excised content back. Williamson intended to remove a scene in the film that took place inside the fictional school's bathroom, feeling it was awkward but Craven salvaged it believing it had potential. Williamson later confirmed that he was glad Craven did so. The death of the character Principal Himbry was added at the request of producer Bob Weinstein who noted that there was thirty pages (thirty on-screen minutes) without a murder occurring. This later aided Williamson who was struggling to find motivation for characters to leave a party in the films finale, now able to use the discovered corpse of the Himbry character. When writing the finale, Williamson was unsure what to cite as a motivation for the killers or whether to give them one at all. Opinions were split between staff on the picture, some who felt that a motive was necessary for the audience to be given resolution while others felt it was scarier without one. Ultimately Williamson decided to do both, giving the character Billy Loomis the motive of maternal abandonment while not giving the character of Stu Macher one, instead having the character jokingly suggest "peer pressure".

Following the release of Scream, Williamson confirmed that he had considered a concept for a sequel where the character Sidney Prescott attends college and a copycat killer begins stalking her. Dimension Films agreed to pursue a sequel in March 1997, by which point Williamson had already written 42 pages of the new script. By July 1997, filming began on Scream 2, but his completed script was leaked on the Internet revealing much of the plot including the finale and the identity of the films killers. As a result, the production was forced to continue filming with only a partial script as Williamson conducted rewrites, changing much of the finale, the killers victims and the killers identity. To preserve the identity of the killer or important plot points being revealed again, the actors were not given the last pages of the script until weeks before shooting and the pages that revealed the killers identity were only provided on the day the scene was shot. The short production schedule on Scream 2 and his work on other projects meant that Williamson's final script used for the film was detailed in some areas but lacking in others, the intention being for Craven to fill out these scenes on set.

"Look, there was a bumpy period when things shifted over from Kevin to Ehren. I signed up to do a script by Kevin and unfortunately that didn't go all the way through the shooting. But it certainly is Kevin's script and concept and characters and themes"
— Director Wes Craven on controversial rewrites to the Scream 4 script.

Williamson was approached by the Bob and Harvey Weinstein in early 1999 to pen a script for Scream 3 but at the time he was involved with the writing and directing of his original script Teaching Mrs. Tingle and developing the short-lived TV series Wasteland. Unable to write a full script, Williamson provided a draft outline for the film that involved the filming of the film within a film "Stab 3", based on the previous films in-universe murders, that took place in the fictional town of Woodsboro from the original Scream. Arlington Road scribe Ehren Kruger was brought into the production by the Weinstein brothers to develop a script using Williamson's notes, though Kruger admitted that without having been involved with the characters in the previous two films he struggled to write them true to character. Early scripts by Kruger had the character of Sidney Prescott much like "Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2" at which point Craven would intervene to bring the character closer to previous iterations. Kruger admits that Craven had a hand in writing the script though he remained uncredited for it. Kruger's script would differ in many ways from Williamson's original including the removal of one of the killers and the inclusion of the death of Cotton Weary who was originally absent from the film. Additionally, the films location changed from Woodsboro to Hollywood as Kruger believed that the characters should be moving to bigger places from high school, to college to Hollywood. However, there were also considerations that creating a film containing acts of murder in and around the fictional Woodsboro school would receive negative attention following the Columbine High School massacre that occurred less than a year before the films eventual release. The film was given a greater emphasis on humor over violence and fared worse than previous installments both financially and critically.

Almost ten years after the last installment, in late 2009, Williamson formulated a concept for a new installment and approached Bob Weinstein who, after hearing his pitch, told Williamson to begin writing a script for what would become Scream 4. Campbell initially refused to return to the series for Scream 4 forcing early script drafts to be written in consideration of her characters absence with Cox and Arquette's characters becoming the focus. Early versions of the script involved Campbell's character being attacked and killed in the opening, a key point of contention for Weinstein who had it removed, while another version had Cox and Arquette's character as parents, but this too was removed as it was believed that them having a child would be unworkable in the context of the film. After Williamson was forced to leave the production due to contractual commitments to The Vampire Diaries, under threat of legal action, controversy arose in July, 2010 when Scream 3 writer Ehren Kruger was brought in by Weinstein to perform re-writes on Williamson's script, about which Craven was outspoken on "losing control" of the story. He would later explain that despite rewrites it was still Williamson's characters and script. Weinstein clarified that Kruger was brought in to "punch up" the films dialog but his involvement with the writing was not to the same extent as with Scream 3. To preserve the secrecy of the script and the identity of the films killer, the cast were only provided with 75 pages of the 140 page-long script. Like the two previous installments in the series, the script underwent rewrites often with pages sometimes only ready on the day of shooting.

Development

Filming

Filming for Scream began on April 15, 1996 and finished on June 8, 1996. Filming was intended to take place on North Carolina but the location was deemed unsuitable, with scouts unable to find useful locations that would not require extensive building or modification to make fit the requirements of the film. The production instead turned to Vancouver, Washington and Los Angeles before discovering Sonoma county, California and the areas within, Santa Rosa, Healdsburg and Tomales Bay. The house used by Barrymore's character is situated on Sonoma Mountain Road opposite the house used in the horror film Cujo (1983). Before filming began, the production approached Santa Rosa High School about using it as Woodsboro High School. The school board insisted on seeing the script and objected to the content of the film's dialog and the foul-mouthed, aggressive character of Principal Himbry. The matter reached local newspapers who also raised criticism but there the production received support from students of the school and local residents who supported the economical benefits of the films presence and others who defended its First Amendment rights. Opposition to the film came from those who deplored its content of violence against children (teenagers), as the area had suffered the tragic kidnap and murder of Polly Klaas three years prior. The matter resulted in a three-hour debate on the topic scheduled for the 16th of April, one day after filming was to begin. Unwilling to be delayed, Craven began filming as scheduled on the 15th with the opening scene of the film featuring Barrymore which took five days to complete. The result of the Santa Rosa debate was that permission be denied and the production was forced to find another location for the school, ultimately being offered the Santa Rosa community center which appears as Woodsboro High School in Scream.

"I'm a director who can do something very well but am not allowed to put it on screen. And they ultimately get you, as they did on this one, on intensity. They say, 'it's not a specific shot, it's not blood, it's just too intense'."
— Director Wes Craven on his conflict with MPAA censorship during production of Scream

For the films killer, Williamson's script had provided Craven only with the description "masked killer" forcing him and his design team to create the Ghostface costume from scratch to conceal the killers identity. While awaiting permission from Fun World, creators of the Ghostface mask design, Craven had the design team KNB Effects create an alternative that was used in two scenes before being replaced by the original Fun World design once permission was granted. Bob Weinstein disliked the Ghostface mask believing it was not "scary" and the studio, upon reviewing the dailies footage of the opening scene, were concerned that it was progressing in a direction they did not want and there was consideration that Craven could ultimately be replaced. To assuage their concerns, the first thirteen minutes of the opening scene were compiled as a workprint, a rough version of the finished film, and upon seeing it, the studio were content to let Craven continue and Weinstein was satisfied that the mask could be scary. The third and final act of the film, set at a house party, was over forty minutes long and shot at a vacant property in Tomales over twenty-one nights. The scene was considered the most difficult to shoot as it took place entirely in one location yet featured the individual stories and deaths of multiple characters and as it was set at night, meant that production had to halt at daybreak.

After filming completed in June, Craven spent two months editing the final product, encountering repeated conflicts with the film rating body MPAA concerning the content of scenes, being forced to tone down or obscure the more intense scenes and violence to avoid an NC-17. Though Dimension Films had previously released NC-17 films, the rating made those films difficult to market and attract an audience and thus they were desperate for a less restrictive R-rating. For an early scene involving the death of the character Casey Becker, Craven lied to the MPAA by claiming he had only one take of the scene and could not replace it with something less intense, in order to keep it in the film. In interviews, Craven indicated that the conflict was enough that, at the time, he was considering leaving the horror genre. In total, Craven sent eight different cuts of the film to the MPAA before before Bob Weinstein intervened and personally contacted the MPAA, believing they misunderstood to which genre Scream belonged. Weinstein explained to the organisation that although he agreed it was intense, it also had comedic elements and satirized its content and was not just a horror film glorifying violence. The MPAA reviewed their decision and granted the film an R-rating.

Production of a sequel, Scream 2 was greenlit in March 1997, with filming beginning on July 16, 1997 with a budget of $24 million and wrapping on August 28, 1997. Filming took place largely in Atlanta, Georgia over four weeks before moving to Los Angeles. Agnes Scott College in Atlanta and UCLA in Los Angeles were used to represent the fictional Windsor College which appears in the film. The opening scene featuring the premiere of the fictional "Stab" film was filmed over three days in the Vista theater on Sunset Drive, Hollywood, the exterior represented by the Rialto theater in South Pasadena. Due to the large number of extras present in the scene, its details were leaked onto the Internet shortly after filming completed which Craven cited as the productions first experience of a major plot leak. After his interactions with the MPAA in Scream, Craven sent them a copy of the film that was intentionally much more graphically violent than they were planning to release, featuring Omar Epps' character being stabbed in the ear three times and an extended scene of Randy Meeks death. Their idea was that the MPAA would force them to remove the content the production already did not want while keeping the content they did. However, the MPAA gave them an R-Rating for the more violent cut, stating that they felt the message of the film was significant. Following a script leak early into filming, security around the production was significantly increased with a focus on closed filmsets and strict restriction on what personnel could be present during filming and have access to the script with all present required to sign non-disclosure agreements. The script itself was reprinted on specialty paper to prevent photocopying and was often destroyed after use.

Filming for Scream 3 began on July 6, 1999 in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, in the areas of San Fernando Valley, Macarthur Park, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills and Silverlake, with a $40 million budget and wrapped on September 29, 1999. The isolated home of Campbell's character is situated in Topanga Canyon and Cox's character is introduced in a classroom at UCLA. A scene where Campbell's character is pursued through movie set replicas of locations from Scream was not scripted but the sets were built because Craven knew he wanted to revisit the original film in some way, after which they wrote the scene around the set. Due to the constantly changing script used for the film, which would often be usable on the day of filming, the production filmed large amounts of footage of different variations of the same scenes in order that, should the script again change, they would ideally have a scene they could use without having to film new ones at a later date. In particular, the opening scene had three variants and the three-minute scene featuring the character of Randy Meeks had two-hours of filmed footage. The ending too was refilmed in January 2000, three months after principal photography finished, adding in the character of Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) and having Campbell's character beaten and then shot by Ghostface after it was decided she defeated him too easily. So in flux was the script that the final scene of the movie was filmed with three variants of Dempsey's character, one with him absent, one with his arm in bandages and one with him in a normal condition as they were unsure of what his fate would be.

Principal photography for Scream 4 began on June 28, 2010 with a budget of $40 million and concluded on September 24, 2010. Filming took place in Michigan in the areas of Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Livonia and Northville. In January 2011, the film underwent an additional four days of filming to reshoot two scenes, following a test screening - the opening scene and a later scene that took place in a parking garage with Alison Brie. Amidst criticism that the reshoots meant the film was in trouble and the result of a negative response from the test audience, director Craven countered,

They’re not reshoots, we had a couple test screenings and we saw two scenes where they had moments you could add to and we just saw a spectacular opportunity...The two scenes were really good, but we saw how they could be spectacular, so we thought, let’s just go for it. They were key moments of the script, so we just decided to go back and go for the grand slam on them.


Craven also complimented the films ending, labeling it "kick-ass" and stated that it remained untouched as part of the reshoot process. In an interview, Craven also highlighted that the script was so long they had filmed many scenes which had to be cut from the final film to reduce its running time.

Music

The score for the Scream series was provided by Marco Beltrami, starting with Scream in what was his feature film debut. Beltrami was brought onto the production of Scream after Craven's assistant Julie Pleck requested input on the now defunct site "Hollywood Cafe", asking for opinions on was "new", "fresh" and "wonderful" and was provided with Beltrami's name by several people. Craven sent for samples of Beltrami's work and was impressed by what he heard, bringing him to the set to view the first thirteen minutes of the film featuring the introduction and murder of the character Casey Becker. Craven had Beltrami produce music based on this scene and then demonstrate it, impressing Craven enough to hire him. For Scream (1996), the decision was made to intentionally use music to raise the tension in scenes where it was unnecessary when the characters were entering a situation where the audience may expect a killer to suddenly appear, only to not deliver on that expectation, part of the film's theme of playing with horror conventions. Craven and editor Patrick Lussier provided Beltrami with advice on how best to deliver the music during scary and tense scenes as Beltrami had no prior experience in developing a horror score. Beltrami intentionally avoided conventional horror score styles and approached the film as a western, taking influence from Ennio Morricone, prolific composer of many western films, in the creation of Scream's music. When scoring a theme for the character of Dewey, Beltrami approached him as a sheriff but also as a "quirky" character, using a Morricone-style guitar accompaniment to maintain the Western approach. An acoustic cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" plays softly in the background to Sidney and Billy's discussion of their relationship, which analyst Jeff Smith describes as

An ironic comment on the brutality we have just seen in the opening sequence. More importantly, however, the allusion to the Blue Öyster Cult classic recasts the song's title by literalizing its meaning. While the title itself invokes the Reaper as a popular symbol for death, the film presents us with an actual person, who not only dresses as the Grim Reaper but also unleashes homicidal vengeance on the other characters of the film. The irony here, of course, is that Billy himself proves to be one of the film's dual slashers and is, in fact, the "Reaper" to be feared.


Release

Box office

The Scream series, when compared to the other high-grossing American horror franchises - A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, Friday the 13th, the Hannibal Lecter series, Psycho, Saw, Halloween, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — with figures adjusted for 2011 inflation, is the sixth highest grossing horror franchise in the domestic United States at $442.9 million. This list is topped by Friday the 13th at $687.1 million, followed by the Nightmare on Elm Street series with $592.8 million. The Hannibal Lecter film series with $588.7 million, Halloween with $557.5 million, the Saw series with $457.4 million, the Scream series which is followed by Psycho with $376.3 million, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $304.6 million, and the Child's Play film series with approximately $203 million.

The original Scream has remained the most successful of the series accruing a US$173,046,663 gross worldwide and receiving a largely positive critical reception, closely followed by Scream 2 with less than $1 million separating their respective box-office takings. Scream 3 suffered significantly worse domestically and critically than its predecessors, taking only $89.1 million compared to Scream and Scream 2 with $103 million and $101.1 million respectively. All three installments takings remained relatively equal in foreign territories with less than $2 million separating them, however Scream 3 remains the lowest financially performing series entry to date. Scream is currently the 518th highest grossing movie worldwide, followed by Scream 2 at 520 and Scream 3 at 616. As of 2011, Scream remains the highest grossing film in the slasher genre, followed by Scream 2 and Scream 3 at #2 and #3 respectively.

Despite competition from other big name films during its release, including Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire and Tim Burton's Mars Attacks!, its release date of December 20, during the Christmas season, and Variety labeling it "D.O.A." before it was even released, Scream became the surprise hit of the year and continued to show in cinemas for nearly eight months. By late 1997, Scream 2 was considered such a potential box office success that the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and James Cameron's future hit Titanic were moved from their release date of December 12 to December 19 so as to not face the film as competition. With $33 million, Scream 2 broke December opening weekend records for its box-office takings in 1997 and held the record until December 15, 2000, being replaced by What Women Want (2000).

Critical reaction

The Scream series has received a largely positive critical response since the release of the first film in 1996 with Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times calling Scream "a bravura, provocative sendup of horror pictures" while Empire's Adam Smith called it "Clever, quick and bloody funny.". Other reviews appreciated the shift from the teen slasher films of the 1980s and their "endless series of laborious, half-baked sequels." Williamson's script received praise for its "fiendishly clever, complicated plot" which "deftly mixes irony, self-reference and wry social commentary with chills and blood spills." Janet Maslin of The New York Times was less complimentary saying "[Craven] wants things both ways, capitalizing on lurid material while undermining it with mocking humor. Not even horror fans who can answer all this film's knowing trivia questions may be fully comfortable with such an exploitative mix".

Scream went on to rank #32 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the '50 Best High School Movies and #13 on Bravo's 'The 100 Scariest Movie Movements'. In 2008, Entertainment Weekly would add additional praise to the film, listing it as #60 on their list of the '100 Best Films of the Last 13 years'. The film ranked #482 on Empire's 2008 list of 'The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time'. Scream received several awards in 1996 including the Saturn Award's Best Actress for Campbell, Best Writing for Kevin Williamson and Best Horror Film plus nominations for Best Director for Wes Craven and Best Supporting Actor for both Ulrich and Barrymore. The film was also awarded the 1997 Best Movie by the MTV Movie Awards.

Scream 2 received equally positive critical response with some critics arguing that the film surpassed the original in scares and humor. Both Gene Siskel and the New York Times' Janet Maslin gave the sequel positive reviews despite their negative response to Scream. The film failed to achieve the same success as the original in terms of awards however, winning only the 1998 MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance for Campbell plus Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Horror Film for Campbell, Cox and Scream 2 respectively.

Scream 3 received mixed to negative reviews earning on a 38% average score on review-site Rotten Tomatoes compared to Scream's 82% and Scream 2's 81% with general consensus that "Scream 3 became what the series originally started out spoofing" and concluded that the series "lost its freshness and originality by falling back on the old horror formulas and clichés". Of the characters, Roger Ebert said "[the characters] are so thin, they're transparent" but praised Campbell's appearance saying "The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tribute". However, not all reviews were negative with the Los Angeles Times calling it "Genuinely scary and also highly amusing" and the BBC stating that "as the conclusion to the trilogy it works more effectively than anyone had a right to expect".

Home media

Scream was released in US territories on VHS on December 2, 1997, followed by Scream 2 on December 1, 1998 and Scream 3 on October 24, 2000. All releases were conducted by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3's release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

The Scream films were released on DVD for the first time on December 3, 1997 starting with Scream. with a Collector's Edition of the film released on December 8, 1998, containing the film as well as deleted scenes, outtakes, the films theatrical trailer, cast interviews, directors commentary and behind the scenes information. Scream 2 was released in the US on July 22, 1998 with a Collector's Edition following on August 7, 2001. The Collector's Edition featured additional material including outtakes, deleted scenes, the films theatrical trailer, music videos of songs featured in the film and directors' commentary. Scream 3 was released in the US on July 4, 2000 only as a Collector's Edition featuring deleted scenes, outtakes, audio commentary, music videos of songs featured in the film, trailers for the film and biographies on the cast and crew involved in the films production. In 2001, the Scream 3 release was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Home Video Release, losing to Princess Mononoke (1997). All of the US releases were undertaken by Buena Vista Home Entertainment which, by the time of Scream 3's release, had become known as Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

Following the release of, then series finale, Scream 3, the three films were collected in "The Ultimate Scream Collection" by Dimension Films on September 26, 2000, in a boxset containing Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 plus "Behind the Scream" a short documentary about the production of the three films and additional material including screentests of actors involved in the films, outtakes and deleted scenes.

Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 remained unreleased in foreign territories including Europe and Japan until 2001 where they were simultaneously released on February 26 by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Each film contained the additional content found in the Collector's Edition version of their US release including deleted scenes, outtakes, theatrical trailers, music videos and commentary from each respective films crew. Additionally, the three films were collected together in a single pack, again released on February 26 and released as "Scream Trilogy".

The three original films were released individually and in a collection in Blu-ray Disc format on March 29, 2011, two weeks prior to the release of Scream 4, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, hosting the films in 1080p high definition. In addition to the films, each release contained audio commentary, theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes footage for each respective film.

Soundtrack

Scream

The Scream original soundtrack, released December 17, 1996 by the label TVT Records, features 12 songs by various artists including the original piece "Trouble In Woodsboro"/"Sidney's Lament" from the films score by Marco Beltrami, most of which appeared in various scenes in the film. The piece "School's Out" by Alice Cooper appeared in the film but was replaced with a cover version of the song by The Last Hard Men on the album. The album was given 3 out of 5 stars by Allmusic though it was considered a failure and never charted on the Billboard 200 despite the success of the film.

The Scream score by Marco Beltrami would be his first time scoring a major film release and the ensuing exposure allowed him to go on to score other blockbuster films such as I, Robot and Live Free or Die Hard. The score would not be released commercially until July 14, 1998 by Varèse Sarabande in a dual-pack with the Scream 2 score. However it was found to lack several pieces from the films, with a runtime of only 12 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores due to the high reuse fees involved in obtaining the rights to commercially release the music. Beltrami was considered to have taken inspiration from the synthetic styles of Éric Serra and other successful scores, the references becoming more pronounced in his score to Scream 2. The theme for the central character Sidney Prescott, "Sidney's Lament" incorporated a "haunting" female solo vocal that would be utilized in other tracks throughout the entire film series. The score to Scream received generally positive reviews with Mikael Carlsson labeling it as some of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years while Filmtracks claimed the scores had "cult status".

Scream 2

The Scream 2 original soundtrack was released November 18, 1997 by Capitol Records featuring 15 songs in the R&B, Rap and Rock genres by various artists, some of which are represented in the film. The album spent ten weeks on the Billboard 200, rising as high as #50 but received a lower score than its predecessor from the music guide AllMusic, gaining only 2 out of 5. Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic opined that the soundtrack was an attempt to compensate for the previous films lack of a hit soundtrack, but failed to do, creating an "uneven" album of songs not "good enough to make [the artists'] own albums".

The Scream 2 score was, as in Scream, developed by Marco Beltrami and was released on July 14, 1998 in a dual-pack with the score to Scream by Varèse Sarabande. The commercially released score was found to be lacking several pieces used in the film, with a runtime of only 17 minutes compared to the more common 30–45 minutes normally found in original scores. Included in the missing pieces was the track "Cassandra Aria" created by Danny Elfman, described by soundtrack-review site Filmtracks as "a frenzied, choral-enhanced three minutes" that remains unreleased as of March, 2011. The length of the released score was considered disappointing and blamed on the fees required to be paid to musicians in order to release their music. The influence of several other famous composers could be heard in the score including Hans Zimmer, Elliot Goldenthal, Ennio Morricone and Christopher Young. In particular excerpts of the Hans Zimmer's score to Broken Arrow, featuring guitar by Duane Eddy, would become a component of the theme tune of the character Dewey Riley.

Scream 3

The Scream 3 original soundtrack was released on January 25, 2000 by Wind-up Records featuring 18 songs consisting largely of the metal genre by artists such as System of a Down and Powerman 5000, some of which are represented in the film. The album fared better than its predecessors, spending fourteen weeks on the Billboard 200 and reaching a top rank of #32. and scoring a 2.5 out of 5 from music guide AllMusic. Reviewer Steve Huey claims that the "high pedigree" of the albums contributors had produced a "pretty listenable album".

The Scream 3 score was again helmed by Marco Beltrami who employed seven orchestrators and experimented with the recording of instruments in unusual circumstances such as physically and electronically altering the traditional sound of a piano while continuing to include a heavy vocal orchestra in his tracks There was consideration that Beltrami was forced to hire multiple orchestrators to complete the score to meet the films deadline. Like previous scores in the series, the Scream 3 score was released by Varèse Sarabande on February 29, 2000 with a total length of 33 minutes of music, though the album was again found to be missing certain sections of the score utilized within the film. Beltrami took inspiration from other composers for the score, again incorporating excerpts of the score to Broken Arrow by Hans Zimmer in the track "Sid Wears a Dress". Music guide AllMusic awarded the Scream 3 score 2.5 out of 5.

Controversies

Amidst the series' success, it has also been tinged with controversy with claims of real-world copycat crime inspirations and inducing violence.

In January 1998, 16-year-old Mario Padilla and his 14-year-old cousin, Samuel Ramirez stabbed Mario's mother, Gina Castillo, 45 times, killing her. The case became known as the "Scream murder" and fell under intense media scrutiny after the boys claimed they were inspired by Scream and Scream 2. They would also admit to needing the money acquired from Gina's murder to fund a killing spree and purchase two Ghostface costumes and a voice-changer used by the character in the film. During their trial, psychologist, Madeline Levine, who studied the effect of violence on children, stated

There were a whole bunch of reasons why they acted out that way. But did the movie provide a blueprint? Absolutely.


The case was expected to highlight the effect of violent films on teenagers but the presiding judge, John Cheroske, ordered that evidence pertaining to Scream be barred and that the case not be referred to as the "Scream murder", refusing media access to the courtroom, intending that the case was tried as murder and nothing else.

On January 17, 1999, 13-year-old Ashley Murray was stabbed multiple times in the head and back before being left for dead by his then-friends Daniel Gill, 14, and Robert Fuller, 15; he was later found and saved by an elderly man walking his dog. The pair were dubbed the "Scream attackers" after it emerged that they had watched Scream shortly before the attack and drawings of the Ghostface mask were found amongst their possessions, though their actions were additionally blamed on physical abuse, drugs and exposure to black magic in their home life. Murray, who later testified against the pair, himself stated that he believed the film may have influenced the pair to attack him.

On May 4, 1999, following the Columbine incident and increasing news media scrutiny on the effects on society of violence in films, games and other media, the United States Senate Commerce committee held a hearing about Hollywood's marketing of films to youths and the horror genre of films in particular, using the opening scene of Scream featuring the murder of Casey Becker, as an example of negative media which may be viewed by children.

In November, 2001, Belgian Thierry Jaradin, 24, garbed in a Ghostface mask and costume murdered 15-year-old Alisson Cambier after she rejected his romantic advances. Jaradin later claimed to police that the murder was premeditated and inspired by the Scream film trilogy. The following year a seventeen-year-old French youth, identified only as Julien, following prior failed attempts with other girls, lured a fellow pupil to a secluded spot and stabbed her to death after showing her his Ghostface mask. French authorities of the time claimed the murder as the third Scream related killing since 2000.

References

External links

1980s 1990s 2000s
2010s


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