Continuity mistake: After Sidney has been attacked and is in her room. Billy climbs through the open window. It is completely open. After he drops his mobile phone, the window is only half open. (00:28:35)
Continuity mistake: When Stu & Billy are in the kitchen after Sydney has escaped them, she calls Stu's house phone. Billy gets pissed and throws the receiver at Stu. It bounces off him and lands on the floor, yet when Stu picks up the receiver to talk to Sydney, it's on the table. (01:39:05)
Suggested correction: To be fair, Stu is shown having a grip on the phone's cord, and he had all the time to jerk it up on the desk overshooting his resting arm while he was off-camera during Billy's temper tantrum. Of course, it's also a known fact that Stu being hit and Matthew Lillard's reaction was an ad-lib kept in the final movie, so they were going to keep that take in the movie regardless - it might be a mistake, after all.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when Stu and Sidney begin tumbling (right before he gets killed) there is a bench in the background with a bag of ruffle potato chips facing upwards, in the next shot it is lying down. (01:40:30)
Suggested correction: There are three bags of potato chips; rewatching the scene, does not seem to me any of them changes position or orientation except maybe the leftmost smallest one that turns flat on the back instead of showing the green strip. The change though happens as the camera is away for two cuts on Neve Campbell first, then on Matthew Lillard as they're struggling, which would reasonably affect the flimsy foil bag.
Trivia: After the release of this film, Caller ID sales shot up by over 300% for a period of time. This was a pretty big deal, too, as it was the mid-90's and Caller ID was not a standard feature on phones as it is now. The spike in sales is sometimes attributed to young adults seeing this film and becoming frightened by the idea of receiving a phonecall and not knowing who was on the other side, although it's never been 100% confirmed that this was the case. Either way, it's an interesting correlation.
Suggested correction: It's one of those rumors I'd really love to be able to get a quotable, reliable source for. The figure "300% up" is referred to the US market, from what I understand, but again, color me surprised if it's an actual, legitimate figure and not just one random number.
Submitted a word change saying that's it's never been 100% confirmed because it is indeed hard to verify. But given it's also one of those "cool factoids" that people have thrown around for decades, I do think this rumor has a place in the trivia.
Continuity mistake: In the garage, Tatum slams the fridge door into the killers face, the killer knocks the door with his arm, and it opens fully. But in the next wide shot of the killer getting up, the fridge door is closed. (01:03:55)
Suggested correction: It happens 01:06:42-43 and Tatum's hand is hovering in the background, she closes it off-frame slightly.
Continuity mistake: When Skeet is first shot by Gale he crawls backward, but if you look at the ghost face behind him there is no knife there. The next shot there is a knife on top of the ghost face.
Trivia: Look closely towards the end of the movie when Randy is explaining the rules look at the videos on top of the TV. One of them is clearly the UK version of the Scream video cover under a different name. (01:10:10)
Suggested correction: Sadly, that's actually just a VHS copy of the 1995 film "Smoke" starring William Hurt, a different Miramax-released film. It has a similar font and spine-design as the UK "Scream" VHS... but it's a different movie.
Character mistake: Sid deduces that Billy could be the killer because he could have used his phone call from jail to make the threatening call. However, the deduction has to be incorrect, since if it was really Billy, he could have never used the voice-changing device.
Suggested correction: This will sound pedantic (hey, it's MovieMistakes.com, we're entitled), but I don't think this is what is meant by a character mistake. Sidney isn't presenting an erroneous fact that goes uncorrected, she's explaining an idea that had crossed her mind. Billy immediately gives a plausible response and by the end of the film it's evident who'd called her. The takeaway isn't that Billy could still be the killer but that Sidney can't help but suspect him despite their reconciliation.
Continuity mistake: When Casey puts the two videos on top of the TV, she puts them on top of each other so they are placed neatly. Then when she picks up the letter opener off the TV later, the videos are no longer stacked neatly. (00:08:10)
Suggested correction: To be fair, we don't see (at least in the DVD version I am looking at?) the VHS boxes for the entirety of the time her hand is on it, and she does bump against the TV set at least twice while talking to the killer, once with the top of the set entirely off-camera.
I would say it's a valid mistake because we do see a shot of the tapes later, and they're still neatly placed (for example, when she says her boyfriend will be there any second), so we know she didn't do anything to them when her hand was off camera. And I never saw any bump hard enough after her boyfriend is killed that would move the top case into the new position it's in.
Deliberate mistake: When Sidney is typing the message to the police, you can see that there are red lights flashing, which must mean the police are there, 5 seconds after she types. Obviously deliberately done for the humor. (00:29:30 - 00:30:25)
Suggested correction: Contrary to what the entry says, I don't see police lights flashing as she types, nor when she talks to Billy. I do agree that still it's barely a minute before the police arrive in full force on the scene and it's pretty ridiculous (although I am not sure it's deliberate humour).
There's a time skip between Sidney encountering Dewey at the front door and Billy being arrested. It's plausible Tatum had sent Dewey to check on Sidney knowing she was going to be late, and so he arrived before the rest of the authorities. Billy did not chase after Sidney and likely reacted calmly to Dewey to look as innocent as he could, he wouldn't necessarily have been arrested right away.
Revealing mistake: Sidney is teasing Billy, and as a sort-of-reward to him she flashes him before he goes. That's the idea, but in the view from behind you can actually see through the nightie the shoulderstrap of a bra. (00:16:55)
Suggested correction: Could she have had a bra that undoes at the front and quickly flashed him?
To actually answer the question; her hand is on full display, holding the nightie open. She'd still have to open the bra. You can technically argue that you can't see her other hand, which she could be simultaneously maneuver to pull down the cup of the bra and expose a nipple, since there's hardly any time to undo it fully and she'd have to fasten it back afterwards. Or that cupless bras exist. Truth is, she opens her casual, normal, comfy nightwear during the unexpected visit of her boyfriend, and the way the scene is shot leaves no room to interpretation.
This is a question, not a correction.
Character mistake: Sidney asks on the porch why Cotton couldn't prove that he was having an affair with her mom. Tatum's answer is "Well, you can't prove a rumor. That's why it's a rumor." That's quite the preposterous answer, especially since the point she wants to make is that it was not in fact 'just' a rumor.
Suggested correction: Tatum isn't trying to argue with Sidney. Tatum agrees that she doesn't know the truth about her mother's infidelity and certainly can't prove anything. Rather, what Tatum is trying to tell her - gently and somewhat indirectly - is that she believes the rumors, which is distinct from knowing the facts.
Stupidity: Dewey and Sidney jumpscare each other at the front door. There's just no possible logical reason for a deputy (or ANYONE) to be holding the mask the way Dewey is in the scene. If he were leaning against the door, he would have lost his balance or reacted in any way to the door shifting. (00:30:30)
Suggested correction: Perhaps he was going to knock on the door with the mask. And Dewey didn't call out for Sidney.
I am not sure who would almost-but-not-quite knock with his hand wrapped in a mask and holding perfectly still keeping the pose, facing the opposite direction. It's a pose completely unnatural especially looking frozen and not in the middle of something else. (I amended the part about calling out, it was wrongly phrased since I wanted to say the exact opposite, thanks!).
He was about to knock on the door and was then looking behind him, probably heard a noise. He ain't the most solid type either.
I personally think this is a good stupidity entry. The stupidity section exists for stuff that isn't technically mistakes, but is still irksome or just silly. And this fits that. It's good for a quick jump scare, but doesn't really add up. It's a piece of evidence, so he probably wouldn't be touching it anyways, the way he's holding it is completely unnatural (nobody holds a mask they just picked up off the ground like that), and it's conveniently held at exactly the right height and position to be in Sidney's face when she opens the door. The movie was flying in the face of basic logic to manufacture a quick scare. And it's effective in context... but it doesn't really make sense if you dissect the scene.
