After recently taking a look back at the movie Scream, I thought it would only be right to now take a look at the 3 sequels that followed the original movie. I won’t give away too much though, in case you haven’t watched any of them yet but I will give you a brief storyline and share with you some cool facts about each one.

Scream 2

“Someone has taken their love for sequels one step too far!”

Scream 2 takes place two years after the infamous and shocking events that took place in Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott and her longtime friend Randy Meeks are both now attending college in Cincinnati. Elsewhere, Gale Weathers best-selling book “The Woodsboro Murders” about Sidney’s life, has just been made into a film.

During a viewing of the movie “Stab”  in a theatre near Sidney’s college, two students are murdered. The murderer was wearing the same costume that Billy and Stu used during their murder spree.

The murders bring both Gale and Dewey into town and together they start to do some investigating. Soon more students end up dead and it is discovered that someone is trying to recreate what happened in Woodsboro and is set on finishing off Sidney. This may not be Sidney’s first time dealing with a killer but this time, someone wiser is behind the mask, and they want to show her some good old fashion revenge.

Scream 2 facts:

• The first 40 pages of the script to Scream 2 was leaked on the internet. Many scenes had to be changed and the characters were rewritten. The new screenplay was guarded and restricted to only certain people. None of the cast even knew how the movie ended since the last 10 pages were withheld from them until it was time to film those scenes. Also, all of the cast members contracts had them sign confidentiality clauses that required them not to discuss the outcome of the story and the killer’s identity.
•  Sarah Michelle Gellar signed up for the movie before reading the script.
•  Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert rarely gave good reviews to horror/slasher movies and Siskel slammed the original Scream movie. However, both men loved this one.
•  Kevin Williamson was writing the script for Scream 2 while Scream 1 was still filming. Scream 2 went into production 6 months after the first one and was released less than a year later.
• The original script for Scream 2 had the movie ending with Cotton killing Gale, Cotton and Sidney both fight to their deaths and it is presumed that Dewey also dies due to his wounds from a fight in the projection room.
• This was Tim Olyphant’s first leading role in a feature film.
• Selma Blair, Kevin Williamson, Wes Craven and Matthew Lillard all make cameos. Matthew Lillard’s cameo is around 35 mins in. He is seen in the background at a sorority party giving a hug to a guy who has his back to the camera.  
• The movies Tomorrow Never Dies and Titanic, both blockbusters shifted their dates so they would not be competing with Scream 2.

Scream 3

“The most terrifying scream is always the last!”

In Scream 3, Sidney Prescott is now living pretty much off the grid. She has a new name and a job with California’s Women Crisis Counseling service that allows her to work from her home. To keep her company she has a golden retriever and to keep people away, she has a heavy-duty security system around the entire property where she lives and around her house. Sidney is enjoying a calm and peaceful life until one day she is watching TV and learns that Cotton Weary was targeted and killed in his home. His murder also happened during the production of Stab 3: Return to Woodsborough which he was slated to have a part in.

Gail Weathers now works for Total Entertainment and Dewey is a technical advisor for the actor who plays him in the Stab 3 movie. Before long there is another murder, this time on the set of Stab 3 and once again it seems to be related to the Woodsboro case.

While this is all going on, Sidney receives a call from Ghostface who lets her know about the recent murder and tells her that the whole thing is far from over. This causes Sidney to go to Hollywood where she meets up with Gale and Dewey and helps the detectives on the case as best she can. While there she also learns more about her mother’s death and puts together the final pieces of the Scream mystery.

Scream 3 facts:

•  Wes Craven filmed 3 different endings and didn’t tell the cast which one he was going to use. They had to wait until they saw the movie. It also didn’t have a public test screening due to the fear of spoilers being leaked on the Internet.
• Neve Campbell was also filming in the movie Drowning Mona, where her character had long streaked hair. So she had to wear a wig while filming Scream 3 that took 2 hours to apply each time.
• A big twist was planned for the killings to be caused by insane fans of the Stab movies. The twist would come where Sidney visited a house where all the teenagers had been killed, only for the bodies to get up and reveal themselves as the killers.
•  The role of Bianca Brunette was offered to Jamie Lee Curtis but she turned it down.
•  Despite being in all 3 Scream movies, Jamie Kennedy has never appeared on any of the movie posters.
• Kate Hudson was cast but then replaced prior to the start of principal photography. Scream 3 is actually listed as one of Hudson’s credits on the back of the VSH copy of the movie Desert Blue even though she wasn’t even in it.
• Scream 3 used the least fake blood out of the 3 movies. It used 10 gallons, Scream 2 used 30 gallons and Scream used 50 gallons. Combined, that’s a lot of blood!
• Matthew Lillard said in a 2009 interview that he was contacted to play the role of the killer again. It would turn out that he had survived his death in the first one and was now in prison where he was organizing the deaths of high school students and also arranging Sidney’s death as well. This plot idea was tossed and the script was rewritten without his character or without any violence towards high school students. This was done because right before production began, the Columbine school shootings happened and writers wanted to avoid making a film associated with murder and a high school setting.

Scream 4

“New decade, new rules!”

In the most recent Scream, it’s been 10 years since “The Woodsboro Massacre”. Sidney is on a book tour promoting a self-help book she wrote and Woodsboro is the last stop on the tour. Once there she learns that Dewey and Gale are now married and Dewey is the town sheriff.

Before Sidney’s arrival, two girls were murdered by someone wearing the now famous Ghostface mask and costume. So everyone is shocked when a cell phone traced back to the murders is found in the trunk of Sidney’s rental car. Dewey knows that Sidney has nothing to do with the murders but is worried about her safety while she is there.

Sidney planned on staying at her Aunt Kate and her cousin Jill’s house while back for the book tour. This still happens but Dewey assigns a police detail to patrol the house. Like he always does, Ghostface shows up and Sidney’s life is put in danger and this also puts Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger.

Scream 4 facts:

• Like in the 3 movies before, Wes Craven once again made it so that none of the actors met the man who does the voice of Ghostface before filming their scene that involved him.
•  The roles of Chloe and Rachael were written with Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan in mind.
• Out of all the 4 Scream movies this one has the highest kill count at 15.
• Ashely Greene and Selena Gomez were considered for the role of Jill but Emma Roberts was cast.
•  It was the last movie directed by Wes Craven before he sadly passed away.
• A CGI-added knife was used because Wes Craven wanted to avoid using prop knives that are rubber, cardboard and collapsible.
•  In an early draft of the script, Dewey and Gale had a baby but it was changed after it was decided that having a baby on set would make shooting very difficult.

 

Well, there you have it! Hopefully, you are now all caught up in the Scream franchise as much as you can get and if you haven’t been able to watch any of them that this now inspires you to do so. They’re 4 great movies and ones that will not be forgotten.

Once again Thank you so much for reading. If you have any comments or questions please leave them below.