From the first name in suspense comes the last word in fear - SCREAM.
Audiences have come to expect no less than a thrilling, terrifying ride
from Wes Craven. Now, the creator of such chilling films as "A Nightmare
on Elm Street" and "The Serpent and the Rainbow" is moving
into a new genre the thriller. With SCREAM, Craven and screenwriter Kevin
Williamson have ambitiously crafted their own personal valentine to suspense,
taking the classic elements of the genre they know inside and out and reinventing
them with new substance and a clever, smart, sophisticated spin.
Sidney (NEVE CAMPBELL of "The Craft" and TV's "Party of Five")
has more than her share of teenage angst to cope with. Her mom was murdered
a year ago, her dad is perpetually away on business, and her boyfriend Billy
(SKEET ULRICH, "The Craft") is pressuring her to go all the way.
As if that weren't enough, a brilliant serial killer has begun to terrorize
Sidney's quiet hometown, including her high school classmate Casey Becker
(DREW BARRYMORE). With the calculated genius of a perfect predator, the
killer is using his love of scary movies to turn the town upside down -
taking everything he knows about the genre to trick his victims, outwit
the police and throw his pursuers off base. Now, no one is safe - and everyone
is a suspect.
Sidney's best friend Tatum (ROSE MC GOWAN, "The Doom Generation"),
Tatum's boyfriend Stu (MATTHEW LILLARD, "Hackers") and class clown
Randy (JAMIE KENNEDY, "Romeo and Juliet") see the mayhem as just
another excuse to party and rent scary movies. But Sidney is further disturbed
by the arrival of relentless TV tabloid reporter Gale Weathers (COURTENEY
COX), who cashed in on her mother's murder by writing a tellall book. The
local deputy, Tatum's naive older brother Dewey (DAVID ARQUETTE, "Beautiful
Girls") sets out to investigate the crimes, but can't help being a
little distracted by the alluring Weathers. It'll be up to Sidney to stop
the killer from killing again. Solving this mystery is going to be murder.
Directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, SCREAM is produced
by Cary Woods, Cathy Konrad and Marianne Maddalena. The film will be released
by Dimension Films on December 20, 1996.
"I make movies about fear," Craven says. "But SCREAM confirms
my long-standing belief that thrillers can also be great character pieces
that can get deep under the skin of human psychology. Scary movies have
such a strange elegance to them, because they confront our very real, primal
fears. SCREAM works on that level, but also examines the questions of loyalty
and perception of truth. That makes SCREAM a scary movie, but a scary movie
of real substance and ambition."
The odyssey of SCREAM began long ago in the young mind of its writer, Kevin
Williamson. "I can remember seeing 'Halloween' over and over again
when I was ten years old," Williamson recalls. "It scared the
living hell out of me. When I saw Wes Craven's 'Nightmare on Elm Street,'
I was so scared my leg got a cramp, and I couldn't leave the theater until
the movie ended."
Williamson's love for such classic genre films as "When A Stranger
Calls," "Prom Night" and "Terror Train" continued
into adulthood, when he decided to set his love for the genre down on paper
- the beginnings of the script for SCREAM. Using all he had learned, Williamson
set about crafting his own vision - a thriller populated by clever, intelligent
characters that would stand as his own smart, original take on the suspense
genre.
Once the completed script was circulated around, the writer's enthusiasm
spread to just about every studio in Hollywood. Most of the major studios
went after the script with relish; movie heavyweights from Oliver Stone
to Sharon Stone entered into the SCREAM derby. Dimension Films and director
Wes Craven ultimately walked away with the prize.
"The script was hot," says Craven. "It was just one of those
scripts that you read and say 'My God! This is really shocking!"
"The first thirty pages of the script were probably the most exciting
thirty pages that I'd ever read," says Cox. "It was just so action-packed,
and there was so mu& stuff gong on. I just thought it was really, really
good."
Rising young actor Skeet Ulrich agreed, describing SCREAM as "the first
suspense movie script I've ever read that had really well-drawn characters
rather than just a lot of blood and guts."
The SCREAM production, which began filming in northern California in spring
of 1996, chose a number of Sonoma County locations to create innocent, familiar
backdrops for the film's most terrifying moments. A house in the isolated
mountains of Sonoma served as the scene of the edgeof-your-seat opening
sequence with Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) that thrusts the audience into
the heart of SCREAM's madness. The small town of Healdsburg was, likewise,
the center of much SCREAM activity. The town's police station made the ideal
setting for the fictional Woodsboro lockup, while the Healdsburg town square
became the embattled teens' afterschool hangout.
An abandoned mansion in the picturesque town of Tomales - where, rumor had
it, actual deaths had taken place earlier in the year - became the scene
of the final, thrilling confrontation that moves from the redecorated main
house out onto much of the surrounding 200-acre ranch.
As filming progressed, both director Craven and his actors had formulated
their gut impressions about the project, as well as each other.
"Until I met Wes Craven, I was scared of him" says David Arquette.
"Wes Craven was the only reason I had a night light on in my room at
all times. And he's personally responsible for a lot of therapy and sleepless
nights. But once I got on the set, he was great to work with, and very easygoing
and professional in his approach. Once I got to work with him, I saw he
wasn't the monster I had imagined him to be."
Skeet Ulrich found Craven's attention to detail amazing. "He works
very deep and very specific. He knows what we want out of these characters,
and he's quick to do and say things that will help get that out of us."
Craven, at the other end of the camera, has universal praise for his charges,
and offers particularly high marks to Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox. "Neve
is the kind of girl you would have been lucky to grow up with. She has tremendous
discipline as an actress, and is able to sustain very difficult and emotional
moods in a flawless manner. Courteney (owing perhaps to her background in
such FX heavy adventures as "The Misfits of Science," "Masters
of the Universe" and "Cocoon: The Return") was real good
at playing off the special effects. She was outstanding when it came to
reacting to the killer's work. She could scream, believably, at the top
of her lungs as if she were looking at dead bodies while she was, in fact,
only looking into a camera."
Craven's cinematic dreams and nightmares have always done more than scare.
They've been primers on the human psyche. And, ultimately, Courteney Cox
feels SCREAM is the latest in the creator's growing lexicon of fear.
"There are places where people go with their emotions," she says.
"Being frightened is one of the best emotions you can have. So is laughing.
Getting all wrapped up in those emotions and going nuts is such a rush.
SCREAM is that kind of rush."
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