Movie Smarts

Scream Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Rules?

The big scenes are easy to remember. How many of the little details stayed with you?

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Scream: Knowing the Rules Is Not the Same as Being Safe

A masked killer starts terrorizing a small town where the teenagers have seen enough horror movies to think they know what comes next. A young woman trying to live with an earlier tragedy becomes the center of the danger. Friends trade theories while ordinary phone calls become something to dread. The jokes are sharp, but being clever about scary movies does not guarantee anyone a safe night.

You know the rules. Now let's see whether you remember the movie.

1. Who directed Scream?
- John Carpenter
- Sam Raimi
- Wes Craven
- Tobe Hooper
Craven, who made A Nightmare on Elm Street, turned the script down at first and came back to it after other directors passed. He gives himself a cameo as Fred the janitor, dressed in Freddy Krueger's hat and striped sweater.
2. What was the title on Kevin Williamson's script when it went out to studios?
- Woodsboro
- Scary Movie
- Ghostface
- The Final Girl
The script went out as Scary Movie and drew bids from several studios before Miramax's Dimension label won it. The Wayans brothers picked up the discarded title for their 2000 parody, whose main target was this film.
3. Who plays Sidney Prescott?
- Neve Campbell
- Sarah Michelle Gellar
- Jennifer Love Hewitt
- Alicia Silverstone
Campbell was known from the TV drama Party of Five and has played Sidney in most of the sequels since. Sarah Michelle Gellar joined the series as Cici in Scream 2, and Jennifer Love Hewitt led Williamson's other slasher, I Know What You Did Last Summer.
4. Who plays Casey Becker in the opening?
- Alyssa Milano
- Rose McGowan
- Drew Barrymore
- Reese Witherspoon
Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney and asked to switch to Casey, so the biggest name on the poster is dead inside the first reel. It's the Janet Leigh trick from Psycho, and it told the audience early that nobody in this film was safe.
5. What food is Casey preparing when the phone rings?
- Pizza
- Toast
- Pasta
- Popcorn
It's Jiffy Pop, the stovetop kind in a foil pan, and it swells and burns while she is on the phone. The caller's opening question is 'Do you like scary movies?', and Casey's favorite turns out to be Halloween, the one with the guy in the white mask.
6. What name is commonly used for the killer's masked persona?
- The Shape
- Ghostface
- The Creeper
- The Tall Man
Tatum uses the name mockingly in Stu's garage, and it stuck for the whole series. The mask was a Halloween-shop product that producer Marianne Maddalena spotted in a house while scouting locations and licensed from its maker, Fun World.
7. What is the fictional town called?
- Springwood
- Haddonfield
- Crystal Lake
- Woodsboro
Woodsboro was played by Santa Rosa and nearby towns in Sonoma County, California. The school board withdrew permission to film at the high school, and the credits end with 'No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa City School District Governing Board.'
8. Who plays TV reporter Gale Weathers?
- Teri Hatcher
- Courteney Cox
- Marcia Cross
- Heather Locklear
Cox was in the middle of Friends and pushed for the part to get away from Monica Geller's niceness. She met David Arquette, who plays Deputy Dewey, on the set, and the two were married by the time Scream 3 came out.
9. The caller quizzes Casey on horror trivia. Which film does she get wrong?
- Friday the 13th
- Halloween
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Prom Night
She answers Jason, but the killer in the original Friday the 13th is his mother, Pamela Voorhees; Jason only takes over in the sequel. She had the Halloween question right, and the price of the miss is her boyfriend Steve, tied to a chair on the patio.
10. What is Sidney's best friend's name?
- Cici Cooper
- Gale Weathers
- Casey Becker
- Tatum Riley
Tatum Riley is also Deputy Dewey's younger sister, which is why Sidney stays at the Riley house after the attack at her own home. Cici Cooper doesn't appear until Scream 2, and Casey Becker is the girl on the phone in the opening.
11. How does Tatum die?
- Stabbed in the school bathroom
- Hanged from the football goalpost
- Pushed off a balcony
- Crushed in a garage door
Cornered in Stu's garage, she pelts the killer with beer bottles and tries to crawl out through the pet flap at the bottom of the door. The killer hits the opener, and the door carries her up into the frame. The goalpost is where Principal Himbry ends up.
12. Which character is the video-store employee who explains horror-movie rules?
- Randy
- Billy
- Stu
- Dewey
Randy Meeks works at the video store and treats the murders as a genre exercise, pointing out that everybody is a suspect. Billy is Sidney's boyfriend and Stu is Tatum's, the one throwing the party where the lecture is delivered.
13. Which phrase does Randy say must never be uttered in a horror movie?
- Who's there?
- Let's split up
- I'll be right back
- Is anybody home?
Randy's rules for surviving a horror movie are no sex, no drink or drugs, and never say 'I'll be right back,' since nobody who says it is. Stu says it anyway on his way out for more beer, and Randy observes that pushing the laws is how people end up dead.
14. What horror film are the partygoers watching on television?
- Friday the 13th
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Halloween
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Randy yells at Jamie Lee Curtis to turn around while the killer is standing right behind him, in the film's most quoted shot. The party has thinned out by then, most of the guests having left to go and look at Principal Himbry's body on the goalpost.
15. Which Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song is on the soundtrack?
- "The Mercy Seat"
- "Red Right Hand"
- "Into My Arms"
- "Stagger Lee"
'Red Right Hand' was used in the film and came back in each of the sequels, becoming the series' unofficial theme. The score itself was by Marco Beltrami, in his first big studio job, and he stayed on for the next three films.

All the answers

1. Who directed Scream?

Wes Craven

Craven, who made A Nightmare on Elm Street, turned the script down at first and came back to it after other directors passed. He gives himself a cameo as Fred the janitor, dressed in Freddy Krueger's hat and striped sweater.
2. What was the title on Kevin Williamson's script when it went out to studios?

Scary Movie

The script went out as Scary Movie and drew bids from several studios before Miramax's Dimension label won it. The Wayans brothers picked up the discarded title for their 2000 parody, whose main target was this film.
3. Who plays Sidney Prescott?

Neve Campbell

Campbell was known from the TV drama Party of Five and has played Sidney in most of the sequels since. Sarah Michelle Gellar joined the series as Cici in Scream 2, and Jennifer Love Hewitt led Williamson's other slasher, I Know What You Did Last Summer.
4. Who plays Casey Becker in the opening?

Drew Barrymore

Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney and asked to switch to Casey, so the biggest name on the poster is dead inside the first reel. It's the Janet Leigh trick from Psycho, and it told the audience early that nobody in this film was safe.
5. What food is Casey preparing when the phone rings?

Popcorn

It's Jiffy Pop, the stovetop kind in a foil pan, and it swells and burns while she is on the phone. The caller's opening question is 'Do you like scary movies?', and Casey's favorite turns out to be Halloween, the one with the guy in the white mask.
6. What name is commonly used for the killer's masked persona?

Ghostface

Tatum uses the name mockingly in Stu's garage, and it stuck for the whole series. The mask was a Halloween-shop product that producer Marianne Maddalena spotted in a house while scouting locations and licensed from its maker, Fun World.
7. What is the fictional town called?

Woodsboro

Woodsboro was played by Santa Rosa and nearby towns in Sonoma County, California. The school board withdrew permission to film at the high school, and the credits end with 'No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa City School District Governing Board.'
8. Who plays TV reporter Gale Weathers?

Courteney Cox

Cox was in the middle of Friends and pushed for the part to get away from Monica Geller's niceness. She met David Arquette, who plays Deputy Dewey, on the set, and the two were married by the time Scream 3 came out.
9. The caller quizzes Casey on horror trivia. Which film does she get wrong?

Friday the 13th

She answers Jason, but the killer in the original Friday the 13th is his mother, Pamela Voorhees; Jason only takes over in the sequel. She had the Halloween question right, and the price of the miss is her boyfriend Steve, tied to a chair on the patio.
10. What is Sidney's best friend's name?

Tatum Riley

Tatum Riley is also Deputy Dewey's younger sister, which is why Sidney stays at the Riley house after the attack at her own home. Cici Cooper doesn't appear until Scream 2, and Casey Becker is the girl on the phone in the opening.
11. How does Tatum die?

Crushed in a garage door

Cornered in Stu's garage, she pelts the killer with beer bottles and tries to crawl out through the pet flap at the bottom of the door. The killer hits the opener, and the door carries her up into the frame. The goalpost is where Principal Himbry ends up.
12. Which character is the video-store employee who explains horror-movie rules?

Randy

Randy Meeks works at the video store and treats the murders as a genre exercise, pointing out that everybody is a suspect. Billy is Sidney's boyfriend and Stu is Tatum's, the one throwing the party where the lecture is delivered.
13. Which phrase does Randy say must never be uttered in a horror movie?

I'll be right back

Randy's rules for surviving a horror movie are no sex, no drink or drugs, and never say 'I'll be right back,' since nobody who says it is. Stu says it anyway on his way out for more beer, and Randy observes that pushing the laws is how people end up dead.
14. What horror film are the partygoers watching on television?

Halloween

Randy yells at Jamie Lee Curtis to turn around while the killer is standing right behind him, in the film's most quoted shot. The party has thinned out by then, most of the guests having left to go and look at Principal Himbry's body on the goalpost.
15. Which Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song is on the soundtrack?

"Red Right Hand"

'Red Right Hand' was used in the film and came back in each of the sequels, becoming the series' unofficial theme. The score itself was by Marco Beltrami, in his first big studio job, and he stayed on for the next three films.