10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Scream Franchise – Screen Rant

Wes Craven's Scream franchise is one of the most successful horror properties of all time. Not only did the film revive the horror master's directorial career, but the first film in the franchise pumped new life into a moribund horror genre hampered by harsh MPAA strictures and direct-to-video oversaturation.

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Moreover, Scream reinvented the slasher genre by incorporating two mysterious killers working in tandem to slaughter a town full of unsuspecting teenagers. As a result of three more sequels, the four-film franchise amassed more than $600 million in worldwide grosses. Looking back, here are 10 behind-the-scenes tidbits about the making of the Scream franchise.

The 11-year gap between Scream 3 and Scream 4 was by far the longest in the franchise. At the time, Wes Craven claimed he'd never return to the franchise unless the script for Part 4 was as good as the original.

Scream creator Kevin Williamson delivered a script worthy of Craven's involvement, and he agreed to direct Scream 4. However, as was the case throughout the franchise, Bob Weinstein of Dimension tinkered with the script by hiring Ehren Kruger to pen rewrites. This alienated Williamson and altered the trajectory of the script Craven agreed to make.

The fate of nearly every murder victim and survivor in the Scream franchise has been clearly defined on-screen or through dialog. The only character who's fate is left up in the air is that of Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) in Scream 4.

However, in the DVD commentary for the film, Craven admits that Kirby in fact survived her brutal Ghostface attack in the film. An original scene was scripted at the end of the film that revealed Kirby's survival, but the scene was nixed before it was filmed. Craven noted how Kirby is still slightly writhing in pain in her final scene.

Neve Campbell's contract for Scream 3 stipulated her attendance on set for just 20 days of filming. This is why her central character of Sidney Prescott has such little screen-time, leaving the other supporting characters to take center stage in her wake.

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Campbell was also still obligated to her TV series Party of Five, which she was concurrently filming with Scream 3 and Drowning Mona. Since her character in the latter required long hair, Campbell wore a wig as Sidney in Scream 3, which took two hours to apply each day.

In keeping with the long-running theme of keeping his cast in the dark as a way to avoid spoilers, Craven filmed three different endings for Scream 3. He never told the cast which one he planned to use in the final cut.

When Craven chose the ending seen in the finished film with Roman as the killer, reshoots had to be done three months after principal photography wrapped. The original version was deemed too tame, with Sidney easily defeating Roman. As such, a much longer fight sequence between Sidney and Roman were filmed before his ultimate demise.

The opening sequence in Scream 2 was directly lifted from a little-known 1980 slasher movie called He Knows You're Alone, starring a young Tom Hanks.

The scene entails a masked slasher disguised in a crowded movie theater. As rabid fans howl at the screen in anticipation, the killer brazenly stabs a victim inside the theater and leaves them to bleed out in front of the audience as if it were a scene from the movie they're attending.

To maintain the utmost secrecy surrounding the killer's identity, the cast of Scream 2 was not told who the killer was until the final day of principal photography. Moreover, the cast had to sign confidentiality clauses to legally protect the final ten pages of the script from being leaked.

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In the original draft that had to be altered once a copy leaked online, three killers were going to be identified in the film. Rather than Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) as seen in the final version, the killers were going to be Sidney's roommate Haille (Elise Neal), boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell), and Mrs. Loomis.

The original ending of Scream 2 featured a shot of the university campus bell-tower, revealing a third Ghostface killer looking over the edge at the mayhem below. Many speculated this was the killer from Scream 3.

However, a hint to the identity of Mickey as one of the killers comes early in the film. During the sorority party, Matthew Lillard (who played Stu, one of the killers from the original Scream film) can be seen in the background. He gives a hug to another male who has his back to the camera, who turns out to be Mickey when facing the camera.

One of the most iconic aspects of the entire Scream franchise is the Ghostface mask that the killers wear throughout. However, if it was left up to Dimension's Bob Weinstein, the mask personally found by Craven would have never been chosen.

After seeing daily rushes of the opening sequence in which Casey (Drew Barrymore) is stalked and slashed, Weinstein complained that the mask looked "idiotic," and asked producers to reshoot the scene using seven different masks of his choosing. The producers balked and threatened to shut down production until Weinstein saw the completed scene. He never had another complaint on set again.

Due to the graphic carnage depicted in Scream, at least nine edits of the final version were submitted to the MPAA to avoid an NC-17 rating. With each submission, Craven would snip a little more graphic gore from the film.

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Eventually, Bob Weinstein intervened on behalf of Craven and was able to get an R-rating from the MPAA. When Craven asked how this was achieved, Weinstein said he simply told the MPAA to view the film as a comedy rather than a horror movie, and the R-rating was granted.

Scream opened on December 20, 1996. The Christmastime release date was deliberately chosen to give horror fans an antidote to typical holiday family fare. But when the film opened at #4 at the box-office with just $6 million in tickets sold against a $14 million budget, producers began to think the film was going to be a flop.

However, due to strong word of mouth, the film continuously increased (or maintained) its ticket sales from the week prior, ultimately leading to a domestic gross of $103 million. The first film grossed $173 million worldwide, the second $172 million, the third $161, and the fourth $97 million.

NEXT: The 10 Best Quotes From Scream

Next The Ten Strangest Sequels Ever Made

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10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Scream Franchise - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero