10 Horror Movie Secrets You Didn’t Know
1. Scream - The Film’s Original Title (And Star)
Wes Craven's Scream series is one of the slasher genre's finest hours, a witty deconstruction of the sub genre which also manages to be a brutally effective example of it at the same time, not to mention a twisty whodunit mystery to boot.
Featuring a stellar cast including then unknowns such as Scooby Doo's Matthew Lillard, Riverdale's Skeet Ulrich, and Charmed star Rose McGowan, the 1996 original remains the series high point and was a massive success upon release.
However, it went through a few changes between script and screen.
Written by Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson over the course of a few days, the original screenplay was titled "Scary Movie", with the name Scream being suggested by the film's producers the Weinstein brothers (always unfortunate how much Hollywood history that name appears in).
The movie was also originally intended to star the then-uber famous Drew Barrymore as the resourceful heroine Sidney Prescott, only for the actor to read the script and report back to the filmmakers that she'd love the part... Of the opening sequence's first victim, tragic teen Casey Becker.