Kevin Williamson wanted to get a lead name to be Casey Becker so it would be more shocking.
All the glass in the house was supposed to symbolize Casey Becker being in a safe house looking out at the big world. When the glass shatters, her world also shatters.
The popcorn holder acts as a clock. It goes from normal, to out of control as does the scene.
Drew was never aloud to see Roger, they did the calls over a real phone. Around 3 in the morning the police came because they thought someone had been harassing someone.
Wes Craven chose not to have opening credits to make it seem more like you were watching real life.
To get Drew to get to the "point of terror" take after take, Craven would remind Drew of a story about a man that lit his dog on fire.
Skeet had open heart surgery when he was 10 so there is a steel wire in his chest that is very painful it hit. When the stunt woman stabbed Billy with the umbrella, it hit the wire.
The MPAA censored 20 seconds of footage that included Steve's guts coming out. Casey getting stabbed one more time Kenny looking at the killer Casey hanging from the tree
Williamson was at a bar that had a movie trivia night. If you could stump the audience, you got a free drink. Williamson got the drink with the question "Who was the killer in Friday the thirteenth."
The MPAA felt that Scream was just too easy to copy and too intense.
At the first script meeting with Wes they posed the question "How can no one tell who the killer is by just looking at his other clothes?" and Williamson said "Not my problem."
The originally had a white figure but they decided black would be scarier.
In order to leave in the scene where Drew Barrymore is stabbed in the shoulder, Wes told the MPAA that he had only shot that scene one time because Drew was so disturbed by it. Which was a lie.
Craven did not cast Ulrich because he looked like Johnny Depp.
Drew Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney Prescott, but she was worried that the film would bomb and ruin her career. So she talked them into letting her be Casey Becker, and promised to promote the film as if she was the star.
Freddie Prinze Jr. was very close to landing the role of Stu.
Linda Blair (The Exorcist) plays a reporter
Courteney Cox found a piece of gum that was the same color as her dress (the green one) but they didn't stay in shot long enough.
Rose Mcgowan dyed her hair in it to contrast Neve and Courteney.
Neve Campbell was chosen for the role because of her beauty and physical strength.
The school board in Santa Rosa would not let them shoot in the school because of the dialogue.
In the middle of the whole School Board thing, one of the men who said the film was "giving a bad example" was arrested for beating his wife.
Jamie Kennedy came up with doing the Jerry Lewis imitation.
There was a scene in which the killer gets hit in the head with a picture and falls down the stairs. But it was left out because it made him look like a clown.
Sidney's address was 34 Elmstreet.
Williamson wanted to nail Gale with one line. He came up with the "FAT TUB OF LARD ASS NOW!" line. That line completely tells what kind of woman Gale is.
Rose Mcgowan has a great comedic flare (according to Craven) and they looped in some of her jokes.
They called the mask "Father Death" to remind the audience of Sidney's father.
There is a picture of Grant Goodeve in Tatum's room.
Courteney Cox refused to sign a "sequel" clause in her contract. So when time came for "Scream 2", Cox got more money then Neve.
Many people have told Wes how impressed they were with Courteney's performance.
Neve Campbell was pulled away from shooting because of a "family problem" so many different people and objects had to stand in for Sidney during the scene that Billy and Sidney meet right after she accuses him of being the killer.
The cheerleader in the Bathroom scene was Skeet Ulrich's girlfriend.
The Bathroom scene was almost cut because it was so easy to get rid off. But they left it in because it was important to show the emotions of Sidney and what she is going through.
The Bathroom scene was used because it is a cliche in Horror movies, "who is in the stall". The twist was that it wasn't even the killer.
David is a huge fan of Elvis, and that is obvious in some of his mannerisms.
The murder of the Principal happened because there was a 30 minute gap in the action and they needed a reason to get people away from the party.
Wes Craven can be seen as Fred the Janitor in the original Freddy costume.
Many directors saw the film as a comedy, but Bob Weinstein was insisted that it was horror.
Wes Craven was reluctant to do "Scream" because it is such a tricky thing to have a movie that is scary and funny. Wes says "You can't be funny when someone is dying."
Craven threw in the clip of "Frankenstein" to say "Any film can come out today and 20 years later be known as a treasure, so don't trash it too much critics."
Craven thought of Scream as a Millennium film.
The film shows that technology isn't going to always make our lives better, for example the introduction of the cell phone as a demonic tool.
It was hard to stage the film where all the suspects are not accounted for when there was a sighting of the killer.
Scene 118 (the ending scenes) took weeks and weeks to shoot so the crew made TV Shirts that said "I survived scene 118"
Jamie Kennedy told Williamson if he really wanted to break a cliche, he would have made the film entirely set during the day.
Wes Craven pointed out to Neve that she touches her hair and face a lot during the film.
Wes Craven made it a point that one of the killers is always absent, as in the Garage scene. Billy was the one who killed Tatum while Stu was at the Party. "Scream" was a post modern horror film because of the many layers of Reality. Sidney's perception of her mother, the real Maureen Prescott, the cast watches movies but it is a movie, Kenny watches the events in the van, etc.
Neve Campbell was so bothered with the line "With my luck they'd cast Tori Spelling" that she made Wes do different versions including: 'With my luck they'd cast Babe'.
It was obvious to the crew that Courteney and David took an extreme liking to each other.
Skeet Ulrich was in the costume when Randy was warning Jamie Lee Curtis "Behind you!"
James Earl Brown put on 20 pounds for the role of "Kenny".
The shot of Dewey was added just incase the audience loved him so much they wanted him to live.