Trivia: Towards the beginning of the movie when Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere are standing in the hallway next to their lockers at school, next to them is a bust of Henry Winkler's character who played the principal in the first film and was killed.
Trivia: While the film is primarily written by "Scream" and "Scream 2" writer Kevin Williamson, due to a hectic production schedule, "Scream 3" writer Ehren Kruger was brought on to do some last-minute rewrites during filming. However, Kruger chose to go uncredited, as he mainly worked on "polishing up" scenes originally written by Williamson.
Trivia: When Deputy Perkins is pretending to be dead in the squad car, Deputy Hoss reveals Perkins' first name to be "Anthony". Anthony Perkins was the name of the actor who played Norman Bates, the killer in the original "Psycho".
Trivia: Something odd to notice: "Scream 4" is the only one of the four films to feature the iconic image of "Ghost-Face" (the name of the mask the killer wears) on the US poster or DVD cover. All three previous films had just pictures of the cast and the title arranged over a black background. (Although the DVD cover does retain this look, a profile image of Ghost-Face has been added into the background.) Somewhat ironic, as the films are so synonymous with the mask.
Trivia: "Scream 2" was released only one year after the original, while "Scream 3" was released three years after the second film. By contrast, it took an entire eleven years for the fourth film to come out. Originally, "Scream 3" was meant to be the final film in the series. Series director Wes Craven and series creator Kevin Williamson, along with producer Bob Weinstein, felt that given the increasing numbers of remakes and reboots that began to come out after "Scream 3", that it would be fun to make a fourth film in the series that satirized the concept of redoing old ideas. Thus, "Scream 4" was born.
Trivia: Kirby was originally going to be revealed to have survived. However, the scene revealing she survived was cut due to timing and pacing issues. Director Wes Craven instead decided to leave her fate intentionally ambiguous so they would have the option of bringing her back in a future film if they wanted - she was stabbed and last seen bleeding, but was still breathing. Spoiler Alert... the 2022 sequel does ultimately confirm she survived in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Easter-Egg in one scene.
Trivia: The final film of director Wes Craven, who tragically passed away from brain cancer in 2015.
Trivia: Aspects of this film (including the motivation of the lead killer) were actually left-over ideas from Kevin Williamson's original plan for "Scream 3." After he was unable to commit to writing "Scream 3", a new writer was brought on who wrote an entirely new script. Williamson re-worked portions of the original "Scream 3" story-treatment into the plot of his television series "The Following", and then subsequently re-worked other portions of the story-treatment into "Scream 4."
Trivia: The only "Scream" film not to feature the song "Red Right Hand," which reportedly couldn't be included due to a licensing issue. The previous three films all featured the song either during the film or during the end credits. The fifth film released in 2022 also briefly features the song in one scene.
Trivia: In the room where the Cinema Club gathered, there are many different horror movie posters. One is for The Hills Have Eyes, a classic directed by Wes Craven himself.
Trivia: Kristen Stewart was approached to appear in the original opening, where she would have been killed in an homage to Drew Barrymore's death in the original film. However, Stewart felt that she wouldn't be able to measure-up to the high standard set by Barrymore in the original film, so she politely declined the offer. Subsequently, the opening was re-written to feature multiple deaths and several fake-outs.
Trivia: Something subtle many don't notice - the blade on the knife in many murder scenes is actually CG, with only the handle being real. This was done for several reasons - first, because rubber knives tend to look a bit "iffy" on-screen, second for safety and third, because it aided in the gore effects, since they could have the killer actually shove the handle into the victim and digitally animate the blade going in, making a more seamless stab effect possible.
Answer: I personally submitted this as a revealing mistake. There is no official statement from Wes Craven or anyone else involved in the making of the movie about it being deliberate. So in my eyes, it's a mistake.
THGhost