‘Scream’s End Credits Are Hiding One of the Shadiest Digs in Horror History

In 1996, the horror genre was given a much-needed boost when Wes Craven’s Scream hit theatres. The horror flick changed the way we were used to seeing the genre at the time and blurred the lines between horror and comedy to create a memorable and lasting legacy. Nowadays, Scream is still regarded as one of the most beloved and well-respected horror films ever made, and since its release, the horror genre as a whole has taken so much inspiration from it. It’s been dissected and discussed inside and out, from the spectacular (and rarely done) double killer reveal, to the revolutionary final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). But there are still details about the movie that surprise fans to this day, one of which you'll have to hang around to the bitter end to spot. As it turns out, making history with the movie wasn’t as smooth a ride as one might think, and the filmmakers made sure that struggle would forever be immortalized thanks to a particularly petty end credit.

‘Scream’s End Credits Throw Shade at a Local High School

Scream is set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, where teenagers are being targeted by a masked murderer deemed Ghostface (voiced by Roger L. Jackson). As a lot of the film's first half takes place in the characters' high school, the crew needed the perfect location for Woodsboro High. They ended up finding it at Santa Rosa High School, but the shooting did not go as planned, resulting in the filmmakers including a “No thanks whatsoever to the Santa Rosa city school district governing board” in the end credits of the movie. But what exactly happened to get to that point? What did the Santa Rosa City School District governing board do to warrant such a petty credit?

Scream’s executive producer Marianne Maddalena shared in an interview with LA Times that the school went back on an agreement to let them film there.

“We made a decision to go to Santa Rosa because the high school was perfect for our movie. We created a shooting schedule for when they told us it would be the best time to shoot in the school. When we got up there they changed their minds. I think basically someone didn’t like the script.”

Board president Frank Pugh chimed in to say that the filmmakers failed to fill out the proper forms required to go about filming in the school. “We have 1,700 kids that need an education. The filmmakers want to shut down wings, shut down the cafeteria. Any reasonable person knows that there’s paperwork that needs to be worked out.” But by the time the filmmakers filled out all of the necessary paperwork, word had spread throughout town about the type of movie Scream was, and the townsfolk were less than thrilled.

Reportedly 800 people showed up to the school board meeting to debate the filming of the movie, which certainly did not help the crew’s case. “The board can’t really make decisions based on content issues of the film,” Pugh said. “Instead, the board was interested in how this shooting would disrupt the campus climate.” Ultimately, it was decided that Scream’s filming schedule would prove too disruptive, due to the majority of shooting taking place during finals week.

‘Scream’ Found a New Filming Location Last Minute

After the headache that was Santa Rosa High School, Scream ended up being filmed at Sonoma Community Center, a former grade school. While it may not seem like that large of a change, it reportedly required some scenes to be rewritten to accommodate the setting change. “You have so many problems in production anyway, the last thing you need at the last moment is to lose your major shooting location.” Marianne Maddalena said. ”We felt upset about it, which is why we had the credit. In the end, everything worked out for the best.”

Frank Pugh chimed in once more to say that he watched the credits of Scream just to see if the incident was acknowledged, and was surprised by the brashness of the credit: “It’s always interesting to see who they thank and who they don’t. I guess that was their attempt to try and make a statement or upset the board or something... I don’t know. I guess they’ve got to do what they think they’ve got to do."

It’s now been almost 30 years since Scream was released, and thus 30 years since the whole kerfuffle with the Santa Rosa school district, so hopefully it’s water under the bridge now. But it does forever remain a part of Scream and is a humourous piece of trivia to look for on your next rewatch.

Scream is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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