Skip to content
Bramble

Entertainment

Marco Beltrami looks back on scoring Scream at 30 and calls Scream 4 "uninspired"

In a Deadline interview marking 30 years since the first Scream, composer Marco Beltrami discussed scoring the film and said Scream 4 was the weakest entry. Collider says Craven's own 2011 comments suggest a more enthusiastic start.

2 outlets · 0L · 2C · 0R First reported Account updated
Image: Deadline
Image: Collider

1 / 2

The story, neutrally told

Centre · 1Composer Marco Beltrami spoke to Deadline for the 30th anniversary of the Scream soundtrack, recalling how Wes Craven's 1996 slasher film was their first feature score. Centre · 1Beltrami said they got the job after sending in a piece of manipulated voice and electronic tape recorded with a singer in college, which Craven felt matched the emotional content of Sidney's character, and then scored the opening Drew Barrymore sequence in about two days. Centre · 1Beltrami said they had never seen a horror film before Scream, and that Craven guided them through the process and wanted the music to make the audience identify with Sidney rather than focus on the killer.

Centre · 1Beltrami said a lack of budget for string players led them to have Craven, editor Patrick Lussier and a few producers whistle at the start of Sidney's theme, which became part of the score's sound. Centre · 2On Scream 4 (2011), Beltrami said it was not a project they wanted to do, that they were not sure Craven wanted to either, and that Dimension was forcing it; they described being on a tight budget with a quick session in Eastern Europe, and called it the weakest of the first four films and musically the most uninspired. Centre · 1Beltrami was not involved in Scream 5 and 6, directed by Radio Silence, saying there was only brief contact and they never read scripts; they returned for Scream 7 after Kevin Williamson called, and wrote a killer's theme based on two descending sevenths.

Centre · 1Collider, picking up the comments, noted that in a 2011 JoBlo interview Craven said Williamson's pitch convinced him and that "at that point I didn’t have any doubts at all." Collider said this does not sound like a director who rejected the project from the start, and that Craven described arguing with Bob Weinstein over creative decisions while crediting Weinstein with some helpful ideas. Centre · 1Collider concluded that Beltrami's account was valuable as a participant's view but cannot establish Craven's intentions, and that the two accounts offer different perspectives on a difficult production.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left0 outlets

No left outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Centre2 outlets

Framing
Deadline runs a Q&A celebrating the anniversary and the score; Collider turns one remark about Scream 4 into a short analysis weighing it against Craven's own earlier words.
Emphasis
Deadline: the score's origins, Sidney's theme, the franchise's music and Scream 4's weakness. Collider: whether Craven wanted to make Scream 4.
Leaves out or plays down
Collider does not cover the score or the rest of Beltrami's interview; Deadline does not test Beltrami's view of Craven against Craven's own statements.
Charged language
“uninspired”“some clown in an office in New York”
For example
“I think the movie, of all the first four, is the weakest, and musically too, it’s the most uninspired.” — Deadline
“Craven’s own explanation of why he returned paints a different picture, however.” — Collider

Right0 outlets

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.