Franchise star Neve Campbell says that while working on the first Scream movie, she didn't know it would become an iconic horror hit. The first movie in the enduring horror franchise was released in 1996 and made Campbell, best known for appearing in the TV drama Party of Five, a household name. She, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette have since anchored the franchise, starring in all the sequels, including the currently in production Scream 5, which will be the first not to be directed by Wes Craven, due to his passing in 2015.
But the original was seen as something of a gamble when it was first conceived. Craven's iconic slasher series, Nightmare on Elm Street, had fallen out of popularity, and the slasher genre as a whole was considered to be on its last legs. As such, many thought Scream wouldn't make much of an impact, but its imaginative writing, which included having characters in the movie actively deconstructing the genre as the very same things were happening on the screen, made it a fresh and interesting take on the genre. The rest is history - three sequels followed in the next 15 years, and Scream 5 takes the franchise into its fourth decade.
Now, in a video interview with Variety alongside fellow horror queen Jamie Lee Curtis from the Halloween franchise, Campbell admits that at the time of filming the original, she didn't realize it would become such an iconic horror series. Campbell relates a story about sitting around a bonfire and wondering if the Ghostface costume from the film would ever be a Halloween costume and dismissing the idea. You can read her full comments below:
The first [Scream], none of us were anybody. Courteney Cox was [only] in the first year of Friends. I was in the first year of Party of Five. Matthew Lillard, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan. All of us got these careers afterward. We were just young and innocent. I remember sitting around a bonfire and thinking, "Do you think if people see this movie that there might be a Halloween costume? Nah!"
Clearly, Campbell was wrong, with the Scream franchise going on to stand alongside the likes of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th as iconic horror franchises that will likely keep making sequels and reboots for decades to come. Campbell obviously doesn't believe the franchise is dead yet, having signed on for Scream 5, but it is fascinating to think what she would have said all those years ago if someone had told her she'd be as iconic a scream queen as Curtis.
Whatever the merits of the sequels in the franchise, and those can be debated all day long, there's no doubt that the original Scream is an undisputed classic of the genre. And yes, the Ghostface costume became so popular on Halloween that it's considered something of a cliche to wear it now, proving that Campbell was incredibly naive about the movie's chances of success while working on it.
Source: Variety