when the first scream came out during the holiday season of '96, it was anyone's guess that a slasher with a meager budget would become such a monster. it literally is the little movie that could.
i still remember when it hit theaters. it had been an awful decade for horror; everything had seemingly been done to death (pun intended) and producers were growing less and less likely to invest in a dying genre.
originally entitled scary movie, the first scream was penned by gay (natch) screenwriter kevin williamson, after being inspired by the heinous case of the gainesville ripper. the draft went up for sale in june of '95, which brought about an intense bidding war.
after finding a home with dimension (then a part of miramax,) the film was retitled scream and quickly went into production with a seasoned genre director at the helm, wes craven.
drew barrymore liked the script enough to agree to sign on for the lead role of sidney prescott. with a big name actress attached, scream finally started to gain momentum as casting began. when schedule conflicts would prevent barrymore from the lead role, she instead opted for a smaller but equally important part. other notable stars from popular sitcoms at the time rounded out the cast and cameras started rolling. a few months later, the film was released to rave reviews.
in essence, scream is a simple bare bones slasher about a person in a mask terrorizing a group of teenagers in a small town. what sets it apart from the other droves of guttural garbage (and this is coming from a horror fan,) is that scream reinvented the genre by breaking the fourth wall and defining the rules of survival.
scream starts off with what is undoubtedly one of the finest opening sequences of modern cinema and from then on it is a guessing game up until the blood-drenched finale. if you've yet to see it, there's a decent chance you're not originally from this planet.
i still remember when it hit theaters. it had been an awful decade for horror; everything had seemingly been done to death (pun intended) and producers were growing less and less likely to invest in a dying genre.
originally entitled scary movie, the first scream was penned by gay (natch) screenwriter kevin williamson, after being inspired by the heinous case of the gainesville ripper. the draft went up for sale in june of '95, which brought about an intense bidding war.
after finding a home with dimension (then a part of miramax,) the film was retitled scream and quickly went into production with a seasoned genre director at the helm, wes craven.
drew barrymore liked the script enough to agree to sign on for the lead role of sidney prescott. with a big name actress attached, scream finally started to gain momentum as casting began. when schedule conflicts would prevent barrymore from the lead role, she instead opted for a smaller but equally important part. other notable stars from popular sitcoms at the time rounded out the cast and cameras started rolling. a few months later, the film was released to rave reviews.
in essence, scream is a simple bare bones slasher about a person in a mask terrorizing a group of teenagers in a small town. what sets it apart from the other droves of guttural garbage (and this is coming from a horror fan,) is that scream reinvented the genre by breaking the fourth wall and defining the rules of survival.
scream starts off with what is undoubtedly one of the finest opening sequences of modern cinema and from then on it is a guessing game up until the blood-drenched finale. if you've yet to see it, there's a decent chance you're not originally from this planet.
Wowzur fuckin-roo, I was beyond unaware that Drew was set to play Sid. If anytang, this allowed Drew's opening scene of popcorn scrambling in the house horror-cinema gold, because it's that small screen-time that really freaks you the fuck out as the audience is introduced to "Scream" for the first time and made America (and the world?) fear engaging in phone-convos with raspy voices.
ReplyDeleteyeah, i'm an uber nerd about this sort of stuff but in hindsight i find it kind of fascinating. another interesting tidbit is that both brooke shields and janeane garofalo auditioned for gale weathers but courtney cox kept lobbying for the role so that she could play a bitchy character.
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