Wes Craven’s Scream is quickly approaching its 25th anniversary, and its popularity only seems to grow with time. The iconic fan-favorite will be released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and in a newly remastered Blu-ray on October 19, 2021, packed with special features that examine the smash hit and its legacy. Ahead of its release, Bloody Disgusting chatted with actors Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, the duo behind Scream’s unforgettable killers. True to their characters, the pair even argued about Stu and Billy’s survival.
Among all the horror icons, Ghostface stands out as the clumsiest among them. The trait seems to owe a debt to Stu, the comedic relief that stunned audiences with the surprise killer reveal. Ulrich confirms by teasing Lillard, “Wes would watch Matt walk, and he’d typically bump into shit and fall down randomly. It led him to make Ghostface a little more clumsy. You could tell which people Stu killed.”
Speaking of Craven, Lillard thoughtfully and candidly reflected on working with the horror master and how it shaped Scream’s legacy, “I don’t think anyone gave Scream a lot of credence. I mean, I don’t think anyone gave us a chance because we were coming in with a director that wasn’t necessarily young and hot. And we were coming with two television actors. And I think that we had a version of him that was humbled and happy to be there. I think that the cast, we all had an experience within that. Because we were all young, and we were all cohesive. We were like this little family for two months.
“I think that [Craven] loved that. I believe that he enjoyed that. There was no pressure on that movie to be something special. It ended up being something iconic, but at the moment, there wasn’t the pressure. I think the other three movies, certainly four now, must’ve felt it during the production, which is interesting. Right? I mean, he went from sort of this carefree moment to, by the end, I think he was miserable. I don’t think it was a secret. He was really miserable by the time he did four, in terms of the pressure to produce an iconic film.”
Scream existed before the advent of social media and smartphones, where word of the film’s quality spread slower. When asked if they’re surprised anymore by the film’s enduring fandom, Ulrich explains, “I mean, it’s a tough thing to gauge because those barometers have changed so much since the making of it. In that day, you didn’t know your popularity, if you will, as an actor. You had a gauge of it by how many garbage bags of handwritten fan mail arrived or what your box office was. Other than that, there wasn’t any measure of all that. Now, we see it at conventions and stuff. You’re right. It’s gone generation by generation. It’s found more and more people who are drawn to it, which speaks to something Wes was onto, and Kevin, in terms of human psychology. I mean, the number of people that come up to us at cons and talk about how the movie got them through a hard childhood. It has stood the test of time for whatever reason. And it’s an honor to be a part of a film that can do that. For sure.”
Because horror movies bend the rules often for death, it begs an obvious final question: Would either actor return to the franchise? It turns out that Lillard has strong feelings about that.
“Yes! I’m alive! Stu is alive! You need to support me in this,” Lillard vehemently exclaims before adding, “Skeet’s Dead! He’s Dead!”
Ulrich shoots back, “No! That was a glancing blow. I turned really quick like that, at the last second.”
The chat ends with Lillard making one final plea to the fans, “I’m alive. And I want you to know something. We need to start a writing campaign. We need to petition this.”
Is this the start of a #StuLives campaign? The new Scream 4K Ultra HD, Limited-Edition 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, and Blu-ray hits shelves on October 19, 2021.
