Scream (1996 soundtrack)

The music to the 1996 slasher film Scream directed by Wes Craven featured two albums released in order to promote the film. An original soundtrack to the film featuring several songs as heard in the film, released on December 17, 1996, by TVT Records. Marco Beltrami's score for the film was released along with Scream 2, in a double-disc album in July 1998.^[1] The soundtrack and score received acclaim from critics.

Scream: Music from the Dimension Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Various artists
Released	December 17, 1996
Recorded	1993–1996
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	46:30
Label	TVT
Producer	Marco Beltrami Tony Cohen Kelley Deal Ed Gerrard Tim Harper Timothy London Tim Patalan Jefferey Rabhan Chris Randall[2]
Scream soundtrack chronology
Scream: Music from the Dimension Motion Picture (1996) Scream 2: Music from the Dimension Motion Picture (1997)

Scream: Music from the Dimension Motion Picture is the original soundtrack to the film released on December 17, 1996, by TVT Records. It featured 11 songs—most of which appeared in various scenes in the film—in addition to a cue from Beltrami film's score. The soundtrack was not as successful, failing to chart on the US Billboard 200.^[3]

"School's Out" by Alice Cooper appeared in the film following the closure of Woodsboro high school, but in the album, the original song was replaced by its cover performed by The Last Hard Men. The acoustic cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", performed by Gus Black, is plays softly in the background while Sidney and Billy discuss their relationship. The original song was featured in the soundtrack to John Carpenter's Halloween, a film to which Scream makes repeated homage.^[4][1] Analyst Jeff Smith describes the musical choice as:

An ironic comment on the brutality we have just seen in the opening sequence. More importantly, however, the allusion to the Blue Öyster Cult classic recasts the song's title by literalizing its meaning. While the title itself invokes the Reaper as a popular symbol for death, the film presents us with an actual person, who not only dresses as the Grim Reaper but also unleashes homicidal vengeance on the other characters of the film. The irony here, of course, is that Billy himself proves to be one of the film's dual slashers and is, in fact, the "Reaper" to be feared.^[5]

The song "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, heard in the first film, is also used in the forthcoming instalments (excluding Scream 4). Nick Cave performs a version of the track written specifically for Scream 3 in that film. An alternate version of the music video "Drop Dead Gorgeous" by Republica, featuring clips from the film, was shown on music networks such as MTV. Although the song can be heard in the film, it is only included on the European edition of the soundtrack album. The song was also used in one of the film's television commercials.^[4]

Marco Beltrami's score for Scream was released along with the score for Scream 2 on July 14, 1998, in a double CD edition.^[7] It consisted of only six tracks with a runtime of only 12 minutes, compared to over an hour of music made for the film.^[7][8] Some reviewers felt the restricted runtime was a result of the high cost of releasing a composer's music commercially, combined with Varèse Sarabande's unwillingness to pay.^[9] However, on June 6, 2011, the complete score—consisting of 25 tracks, with a runtime of 63 minutes—was released as a part of the score's "deluxe edition" pressed to 2,000 copies.^[10]

Scream and Scream 2's score were released in vinyl in September 2016 in bone white and splatter-colored editions, and was again re-issued on a red-colored vinyl disc in July 2019.^[11] Beltrami's score for the first four films of the franchise has been issued in a box set on January 7, 2022,^[12] coinciding the fifth instalment's release and in vinyl box set on June 10, 2022.^[13][14]

The score to Scream received generally positive reviews, with Mikael Carlsson labeling it as "some of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years".^[7] Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com claimed the scores had "cult status", awarding it 3 stars out of 5.^[8] He also called the "haunting" vocals of "Sidney's Lament" as the "voice of the franchise", which had been used in the forthcoming sequels.^[8] AllMusic said that the score "perfectly captured the post-modern, hip scare-ride of the Scream movies", also giving it 3 stars out of 5.^[15] James Southall of Movie Wave commented that the score is "less likely to become one of Beltrami's finest scores" but "one of his most important, considering the impact it had on his career", writing "There are certainly some wonderful aspects to it, it’s fascinating to hear the early development of ideas which would become trademarks of the composer, and indeed it’s impressive to hear the scale of music he was able to write on such a small budget."^[16]

• Music of the Scream franchise