Scream (franchise)

Scream
Directed by	Wes Craven
Written by	Kevin Williamson Ehren Kruger
Starring	David Arquette Neve Campbell Courteney Cox-Arquette Jamie Kennedy Liev Schreiber
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Distributed by	Dimension Films The Weinstein Company
Release date	1996–present
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$507,244,240

The Scream film series is a series of horror films directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson and Ehren Kruger. The main plot involves a psychopathic serial killer wearing a Halloween costume attempting to kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and various other characters involved in her life. Each film begins with the gory murder of a couple before showing the wherabouts of Sidney. It takes off from there leading to the revelation of the killer's identity and the final battle between Sidney and the killer. They revitalized the slasher film genre in the mid 1990s, in a similar way to Halloween (1978) in the 1970s, by using a standard concept with a tongue-in-cheek approach that successfully combined straightforward scares with dialogue that satirized slasher film conventions. The first film became a major commercial success upon its release, and was one of the highest grossing films of 1996. It was also highly acclaimed by many critics worldwide, who appreciated the film's tongue-in-cheek approach. It received an 83% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The combined average of the three films' ratings is a 'fresh' 67%. In November 2009, Wes Craven along with the rest of the writers and directors confirmed Scream 4, 5, and 6 officially. It has also been stated that Courtney Cox, David Arquettte, and Neve Campbell will return for the next three movies.

Plot summary

Thoughout the series (specifically the first and third film), parts of a back story were uncovered that occurred before the first film's timescale. It is revealed that Maureen Roberts (Lynn McRee) spent time in Los Angeles trying to become an actress. She appeared in three horror films using the pseudonym of Rina Reynolds. At a Hollywood party, she was gang raped by movie insiders and became pregnant with Roman Bridger (Scott Foley). After giving birth, Maureen gave her son up for adoption and left Los Angeles. She then went back home to Woodsboro, where she met and married Neil Prescott (Lawrence Hecht). They went on to have a daughter named Sidney (Campbell). Neither Neil nor Sidney were told of the existence of Maureen's son. Meanwhile, Roman grew up wondering what had happened to his mother.

When Sidney was about 16 years old, Roman found Maureen (Rina) and went to her hoping to spend some time with her only to find out Rina Reynolds no longer existed and that she had a new life, with no interest in digging up old secrets, telling Roman that he was Rina's son, not hers, and she wanted nothing to do with him. The rejection enraged Roman who followed her incessantly, (sometimes recording her activities) learning that she wasn't the perfect wife and mother she pretended to be. She was engaged in several affairs with local men, including Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) and Hank Loomis (C.W. Morgan), father of Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis. Roman later revealed the affair to Billy (Skeet Ulrich) which enraged him and, using his creativity as a director, Roman persuaded him to kill Maureen and frame Cotton. With the help of Billy's best friend, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), Billy does as instructed, and together they murder Maureen. Sidney, having witnessed someone wearing Cotton Weary's jacket, testifies that she saw Weary leave the house and Cotton is subsequently convicted of the crime and sentenced to death.

As the first film begins, Billy and Stu continue their murderous rampage, stalking other people who they feel have wronged them such as Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) who previously dumped Stu for another guy. They begin killing Sidney's friends as part of a game whereby their actions mimic the cliche "rules" of horror movies, and although they intend to isolate Sidney and kill her as well, they are discovered by reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) who manages to help Sidney thwart and kill her attackers in a showdown at the Macher house. In the second film, Billy's mother (Laurie Metcalf) is the killer, seeking revenge on Sidney and Gale, and she coerces one of Sidney's film student friends, Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), who was secretly an insane serial killer planning to reveal himself in the media in hopes of gaining a celebrity status as Loomis and Macher did, into helping her. The events are mimicking the plot of a newly released film Stab depicting the events of the first Scream film. In the end, both Mrs. Loomis and Mickey are killed by Sidney. In the third film, while filming of the latest Stab movie commences in Hollywood, Roman, who also happens to be the director of the film, is dissatisfied that Sidney is still alive, and begins slaughtering members of the film crew in order to draw Sidney out of hiding, and seeks retribution for the life that he believes should have been his. Sidney mortally wounds him, and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) finally ends his life by shooting him in the head. With the last of the original masked killers dead, Sidney apparently have found the strength to move on with her life.

Main cast and characters

Main article: List of Scream film trilogy characters

List indicator(s)

• A light grey cell indicates the characters did appear in the film.
• A dark grey cell indicates the character did not appear in the film.
• A red cell indicates the character did appear in the film by archive footage.

Character	Film
	Scream	Scream 2	Scream 3
Deputy Dwight "Dewey" Riley	David Arquette
Sidney Prescott	Neve Campbell
Gale Weathers	Courteney Cox Arquette
Randy Meeks	Jamie Kennedy
Cotton Weary	Liev Schreiber
Ghostface	See main article
Neil Prescott	Lawrence Hencht		Lawrence Hencht
Hank Loomis	C. W. Morgan		C. W. Morgan
Maureen Roberts-Prescott	Lynn McRee	Lynn McRee	Lynn McRee
Stuart "Stu" Macher	Matthew Lillard		Matthew Lillard
Billy Loomis	Skeet Ulrich		Skeet Ulrich
Debbie Salt (Mrs. Loomis)		Laurie Metcalf
Mickey Altieri		Timothy Olyphant
Detective Mark Kincaid			Patrick Dempsey
Roman Bridger Prescott			Scott Foley

scream 4

Films

Scream (1996)

Main article: Scream (film)

Scream 2 (1997)

Main article: Scream 2

Scream 3 (2000)

Main article: Scream 3

Scream 4 (2010)

A fourth movie was announced by the Weinstein Company in July 2008. Wes Craven said that he wouldn't mind directing this film, but it would take a very good script to get him back. Craven also went on to say, "It would take it being really as good a script as the first one was, and the pay day reflect what I've done for that company." Writer Kevin Williamson is writing the fourth film and has said that it is part of a new trilogy.

Neve Campbell confirmed that Wes Craven is back onboard to direct and that filming starts Mid-April of 2010.

Reception

Box office performance

Film	Release date	Box office revenue			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference
		United States	Outside US	Worldwide	All time US	All time worldwide
Scream	December 20, 1996	$103,046,663	$70,000,000	$173,046,663	#400		$15,000,000
Scream 2	December 12, 1997	$101,363,301	$71,000,000	$172,363,301	#416		$24,000,000
Scream 3	February 4, 2000	$89,143,175	$72,700,000	$161,843,175	#499		$40,000,000
Total		$293,553,139	$213,700,000	$507,253,139			$79,000,000

Critical reaction

Film	Rotten Tomatoes		Metacritic	Yahoo! Movies
	Overall	Cream of the Crop
Scream	83% (52 reviews)	69% (13 reviews)	65% (25 reviews)	B (11 reviews)
Scream 2	79% (67 reviews)	94% (17 reviews)	63% (22 reviews)	B- (12 reviews)
Scream 3	38% (95 reviews)	39% (23 reviews)	56% (32 reviews)

Common elements

The three movies in the series share several elements in their structure and plot. Every movie begins with the death of a couple. In the first and third movies, the actual killer is suspected and even taken into custody, only to be cleared due to a loophole. At the end of every movie, Sidney's romantic interest is shot (and killed in the first two movies). The killer or killers always suddenly return when they seem dead (except for Stu), and, all but one time, the killer is finally vanquished with a head injury, usually a gunshot. Furthermore in every movie the killer is connected to Sidney in one form one or another, and the main reason behind each main killer is because of the actions of Sidneys mother Maureen Prescott, and the second killer is usually a sociopathic patsy who helps the main one after being manipulated somehow. In the first movie the main killer was Billy Loomis, Sidneys boyfriend who tried to kill her because her mother had an affair with his father causing his parents to divorce. The killer in the second movie was Billy's mother herself getting revenge for Sidney's part in her sons death and for Maureen having caused her marriage to be destroyed. Finally, in the third movie the killer was revealed to be Sidneys older half brother Roman Bridger who Maureen had given up for adoption as a baby. He was getting revenge on Sidney for having the life he never had. It is also revealed that is was Roman who first discovered Maureen's affair with Billy's father and convinced Billy to go on his killing spree to get his revenge on her for having shunned him when he found her, telling him he was from another life and she didn't consider him her son. It is noteworthy that according to Wes Craven's commentary, another character Angelina Tyler (played by Emily Mortimer) was planned to be the second killer, and Roman's girlfriend meaning that the movie would have had the same structure as the first two, but this plot point was dropped at the request of the producers.

Rules

A signature device of the series, started in Scream and continued in Scream 2 and Scream 3, was to deliver the typical "rules" for the slasher subgenre of horror movies, always recited by the movie-buff character Randy Meeks.

Rules of a horror movie (Scream)

1. You can never have sex.
2. You can never drink or do drugs. (The "sin factor, an extension of number one".)
3. Never, ever, EVER, under any circumstances say "I'll be right back", 'cause you won't be back.

Randy also elaborates further during another scene, claiming that one should not assume the most likely person is always the killer and that "Everyone is a suspect." This, however, is not one of the "official" rules.

In addition to the films rules, a similar set of "rules" were used for the film's trailer:

• Don't answer the phone
• Don't open the door
• Don't try to hide (on the video/DVD/Bluray edition, it's "Don't try to escape")
• But most of all, don't scream

Rules of a horror movie sequel (Scream 2)

1. The body count is always bigger.
2. The death scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore.
3. Randy starts to describe the third rule: "If you want your films to become a successful franchise, never, ever...' before being interrupted by Dewey. However, the film's original teaser trailer featured an extended version of the rules scene which reveals that originally the third rule was supposed to be "Never, ever, under any circumstances assume the killer is dead." This referenced Randy's last line in the first Scream which stated that a killer always comes back to life for one last scare.

The lack of a third rule in the film's final cut was a deliberate in-joke by the crew referencing the fact that it is impossible to ensure that a horror franchise will be successful.

Rules of a horror movie trilogy (Scream 3)

Despite his death in the second film, Randy makes a special appearance in a video tape the character made during the events of Scream 2. In it he states that if the third movie is just another sequel, then the standard rules for a sequel apply. However, "If you find yourself dealing with an unexpected back story, and a preponderance of exposition, then the sequel rules do not apply. Because you are not dealing with a sequel, you are dealing with the concluding chapter of a trilogy." The rules for the final concluding chapter of a trilogy are different:

1. "You've got a killer who’s gonna be superhuman. Stabbing him won’t work, shooting him won’t work. Basically in the third one, you gotta cryogenically freeze his head, decapitate him, or blow him up."
2. "Anyone, including the main character, can die."
3. "The past will come back to bite you in the ass. Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest! Any sins you think were committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you."

In closing Randy goes on to say good luck, godsspeed, and that he will see some of the people soon because according to the rules, some of them weren't going to make it.

Although, in the first few drafts, there was a fourth rule: "Never be alone" but was taken out because Gale immediately goes off alone afterwards.

External links

• Scream at IMDb
• Scream 2 at IMDb
• Scream 3 at IMDb
• Scream 4 at IMDb