Scream is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich and Drew Barrymore. Set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, Scream's plot follows high school student Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her friends, who, on the anniversary of her mother's murder, become the targets of a costumed serial killer known as Ghostface.
Theatrical release poster
Screenwriter Kevin Williamson (pictured in 2012)
Director Wes Craven (pictured in 2010)
Drew Barrymore (pictured in 2014) was considered for Sidney Prescott before she was cast as Casey Becker. Critics praised her performance.
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic term for any horror film involving murder, film analysts cite an established set of characteristics which set slasher films apart from other horror subgenres, such as monster movies, splatter films, supernatural and psychological horror films.
A scene from the Grand Guignol, a format some critics have cited as an influence on the slasher film
Dorothy McGuire in The Spiral Staircase (1946)
A scene from Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood (1971), which was notably imitated in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)