12 Movies That Cast MAJOR Actors (Just To Die)

The classic slasher movies that were sent up in Scream were cast largely with unknowns. That way the audience would never know who would be next. Scream itself did things a little differently.

In fact, it was catching the attention of established star Drew Barrymore that really made Kevin Williamson's self-aware slasher script - then still titled Scary Movie - into something that people wanted to make.

Horror legend Wes Craven had no real interest in the movie, feeling the genre that made him was no longer able to do anything fresh by the mid-90s. But if this was a movie that real movie stars wanted to do then maybe there was something to it. So, as soon as Barrymore signed on to play final girl lead Sidney Prescott, so did Craven to direct.

Of course, as anyone who has actually seen Scream could tell you, Barrymore never did play Sidney. Her real role was about as far from a final girl as can be.

When other commitments made it impossible for Barrymore to play the lead, she shifted instead to the part of Casey Becker, a lesser time commitment. Much lesser in fact, because Casey is Ghostface's very first victim in the film's opening sequence.

Barrymore's unavailability to play the lead proved a blessing in disguise for Scream, allowing Craven to conjure up his own Janet Leigh moment by killing off the movie's biggest star before the story really got going. Doing this really did establish that nobody was safe from the killer and gave the original Scream an edge that its sequels lacked.

It might not work every time, then, but Scream is proof positive that casting a star name just to kill them can be the path to turning a script nobody wants into a franchise that lasts for years.