Night 21 of "The 31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest"

I've joined in the fun over at Domestic Witch's October Blog Party. You can find a list of participating blogs that are having fun celebrating the season of Halloween. When you're done here take a broom ride over to her site and you'll see the list of blogs on the right side bar.

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Here at The Lounge we will have a "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest". Check back each day to see which movie is featured and some days you may get more than one. They will be a random selection of my favorites. You can see all past selections on the sidebar.

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Make sure to leave a comment for each movie as one lucky person will win their choice of pendant from Laughing Vixen Lounge at the end of the film fest. Please see rules at end of post.

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Night 21....The "Scream" Trilogy

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"Scream"

Directed by Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm St., People Under the Stairs and Cursed) and released on December 20, 1996 by Dimension Films. High school. All of the people around Sidney (Neve Campbell) start to die off. The killer seems to be someone who has seen one too many horror movies. Everyone is a suspect. Can you figure out who?

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"Scream 2"

Directed by Wes Craven and released on December 12, 1997 by Dimension Films. Collage. The movie "Stab" has just been released and all of the people around Sidney start to die off. Can you guess who is carrying on the tradition?

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"Scream 3"

Directed by Wes Craven and released on February 4, 2000 by Dimension Films. While filming the 3rd "Stab" movie people connected to the movie start to die off. Then Sidney shows up and helps Agent McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) solves the mystery.

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I really do love these movies. They shot a breath of new life into the horror genre with a perfect mix of scariness and comedy. It poked fun at the genre itself but in a very loving way and had an extreme sense of violence. I remember being a bit shocked by how brutal the first one was. As with anything else it becomes common place after awhile but at the time it was shocking.

The movies have to work to find a reasonable reason for the killer as the sequels keep coming (yes, there is a number 4 in the works!) but I think they do pretty good. The best parts are always the opening scenes. They are all wonderful but I think part 2 is the creepiest because it plays on the fear that even in a crowded room of people you still are not safe.

One of the best treats here comes in part 3. I've never been a big fan of Parker Posey but she is priceless portraying Gail Weathers in the 3rd Stab movie. Watching her and the real Gail (Courtney Cox) together is too funny.

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Some trivia about the movie...

Scream

1.Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween (1978), which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho (1960).

2. When the killer smashes his head through a window and Casey hits him in the face with the phone, Wes Craven is actually wearing the costume and was really hit in the face.

3. Tatum's house is right across the street from the house in Santa Rosa, California used in Pollyanna (1960). It is also across the street from the house used in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The house in the opening scene was next door to the house used in Cujo (1983).

4. Billy's surname, Loomis, is the same as that of Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween (1978), which in turn was the name of Marion Crane's lover in Psycho (1960).

5. On "The Directors" (2007), David Arquette revealed that he presumptuously turned down the role of "Billy" in favor for playing "Dewey", which was originally written as a hunky, leading man part.

6. The use of caller ID increased more than threefold after the release of this film.

7. The idea of the pet door in the garage came from Williamson's assistant. Originally, Tatum's death scene was to be a fist fight with the killer, and having the door come down on her neck.

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Scream 2

1. Officers Richards and Andrews are named after Kyle Richards and Brian Andrews, the two child actors that Jamie Lee Curtis babysat in the original Halloween.

2. The third rule to surviving a sequel is cut from the movie, but is shown in the trailer. ""And #3. Never, ever under any circumstance assume that the killer is dead."

3. A number of sequences in Kevin Williamson's screenplay simply read "Wes will make it scary".

4. Any actor auditioning for the part of Derek had to perform the scene in the cafeteria where he sings "I Think I Love You" without accompaniment.

5. When we first see CiCi (Sarah Michelle Gellar) alone in the sorority house and on the phone with her friend, she says "They aren't going out anymore, Sarah broke up with Bailey when she found out he slept with Gwen." Sarah, Bailey and Gwen were all characters on "Party of Five" (1994), which Neve Campbell starred in for 6 years.

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Scream 3

1. The house used during the climax, where most of the killing takes place, is the same house used as a school in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

2. Wes Craven filmed three different endings and didn't tell the cast which one he was going to use.

3. The film's original website was a spoof website for Sunrise Studios, the fictional company making "Stab 3", complete with a production list of upcoming films and cast bios of its "Stab 3" stars.

4. Liev Schreiber insisted that Cotton Weary should shrug off his white jacket in the opening teaser. This was mainly because Schreiber had been doing a lot of working out at the time and wanted to show off his pecs.

5. Neve Campbell made a deal which stated that she would only have to be on set just for 20 days, which is also why she isn't as predominant a character as she is in the other films.

6. The green outfit worn by Parker Posey while on set is the same one worn by Courteney Cox in the first movie. All sets for "Stab 3" were replicas of the originals since the sets were destroyed after Scream (1996) wrapped.

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Rules for pendant giveaway...

(1) comment about a movie per movie.

(1) extra entry by following this Blog and (1) extra for following on Twitter (You can only take the blog and twitter entries once for the whole contest).

(1) extra entry for Tweeting about this. Please use this message -Check out the "31 Nights of Halloween Film Fest" to win your choice of pendant from @LaughingVixen http://bit.ly/39tLhH -- 3 Tweets a day max and no more than 1 an hour.

(1) extra entry for guessing the next film. I will tweet hints on Twitter about the next days movie and you can post your guess as a comment. Doesn't have to be right just your best guess.

Make sure to post each entry as an individual comment on any of the movies comment pages. You can comment on past movies. Make sure you can be contacted from your post.