Scream (1996)

## Overview

High school student Casey Becker is home alone when she receives a flirty phone call from an unknown person, during which they discuss horror films. However, the caller turns sadistic and threatens her life. He reveals that her boyfriend Steve Orth is bound and gagged outside on her patio and demands she answer questions about horror films. After Casey answers a question about *Friday the 13th* incorrectly, Steve is murdered in front of her. Casey is then stabbed and murdered by a person wearing a black robe and a ghost mask, and her parents find her disemboweled corpse hanging from a tree.

After the murders, news media descend on the town and a police investigation begins. As Sidney Prescott struggles with the first anniversary of her mother's rape and murder, a news reporter, Gale Weathers, who Sidney dislikes, arrives. Gale was responsible for spreading rumors and conspiracy theories about Maureen's death, insinuating that the imprisoned Cotton Weary, who had been tried and convicted of Maureen's rape and murder, was not responsible for her assault and killing.

In the evening while waiting at home for her best friend Tatum Riley to arrive, Sidney gets a taunting phone call and is attacked by the killer. Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis arrives shortly after. When he drops his cell phone, Sidney suspects him of making the call and flees. Billy is arrested and questioned, but later, at Tatum's house, Sidney receives another ominous call. The next day, Billy is released and suspicion shifts to Sidney's father Neil Prescott, as the calls have been traced to his phone. As school is suspended in wake of the murders, the killer stabs Principal Himbry to death. Tatum's boyfriend and Billy's best friend, Stu Macher, throws a party to celebrate the school's closure. Gale attends uninvited, as she expects the killer will strike again. Tatum's older brother, Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, also looks out for the murderer at the party. The killer then murders Tatum by crushing her neck with the garage door. Many other party attendees are drawn away after hearing of Himbry's death, leaving only Sidney, Billy, their friend Randy, Stu, and Gale's cameraman Kenny at the house.

After having sex, Sidney and Billy are confronted by the killer. Sidney escapes from the house and seeks help from Kenny, but the killer slashes his throat. Gale tries to escape in her van but crashes. Meanwhile, Dewey is stabbed in the back while investigating in the house, and Sidney takes his gun for protection. Randy and Stu show up and accuse each other of being the killer, but Sidney, not knowing who to trust, retreats back into the house where she finds Billy wounded. After they let Randy back inside, Sidney gives Billy the gun, but Billy quickly shoots Randy, revealing himself to be the killer, and Stu reveals himself to be Billy's accomplice by talking into a voice changer.

Billy and Stu corner Sidney in the kitchen and discuss their plan to kill her and pin the murder spree on her father, whom they have taken hostage. They also reveal that they murdered her mother and framed Cotton for it, as she was having an affair with Billy's father, which drove his mother away. Gale intervenes, and the intervention allows Sidney to escape and turn the tables on the stunned killers, taunting them with a phone call and donning the killer's costume, before knocking Billy out and dropping a television set on Stu's head, killing him. An enraged Billy awakens and attacks Sidney, but Gale shoots him. Randy is revealed to be wounded but alive, and remarks that the killer always resurfaces for one last scare. As Billy starts to rise, Sidney shoots Billy in the head, killing him for good. As police arrive, Dewey, badly injured, is taken away by ambulance and Gale makes an impromptu news report about the night's events, describing the murder spree as being similar to the "plot of some scary movie".

## Cast

* David Arquette as Dewey Riley
* Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
* Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers
* Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher
* Rose McGowan as Tatum Riley
* Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis
* Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks
* W. Earl Brown as Kenny Jones
* Joseph Whipp as Sheriff Burke
* Liev Schreiber as Cotton Weary
* Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker
* Roger L. Jackson as the voice of Ghostface
* Henry Winkler as Arthur Himbry (uncredited)
* Frances Lee McCain as Mrs. Riley
* Kevin Patrick Walls as Steve Orth
* Lawrence Hecht as Neil Prescott
* Lynn McRee as Maureen Prescott
* David Booth as Mr. Becker
* Carla Hatley as Mrs. Becker
* Linda Blair as news reporter
* Wes Craven as Fred the school janitor

## Villains

* Billy Loomis
* Stu Macher