Melissa Barrera Talks ‘Scream’ As The Horror Hit Comes Home On Digital

Scream has been one of the year’s terrifyingly strong successes at the box office. Since it landed in theaters in January, the requel has grossed $137.6 million. 

Set 25 years after the Woodsboro murders, a new generation is being slain by Ghostface. After putting butts in seats in theaters, Scream has landed on digital for fans of the iconic multimillion-dollar franchise to buy and watch at home. A release on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD will follow in April.

To celebrate the online release, I caught up with Scream’s Melissa Barrera to go inside the film that cut through the opposition and delivered a bloody good time.

Simon Thompson: I don’t know if anybody’s congratulated you on having the second-biggest movie of the year so far in the US, so congratulations on that. It’s a tremendous accomplishment. People were very excited about Scream, and audiences really turned out for it.

Melissa Barrera: It was incredible. It’s always very nice to have a movie do well at the box office. I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve had a movie not do very well at the box office, and then one do very well, so I try not to base my entire feeling regarding a project that I did on that because it’s not fair. It has nothing to do with me, and I have no power over it. We live in such a crazy world; the pandemic is never-ending, so I try not to base it on that, but it’s nice for Scream to do well. It means that there’s another one coming. I genuinely feel like it was a team effort because the Scream fans understand they need to show up. We did a little bit of like a tour in LA, going to theaters and introducing the movie, so I got to talk to fans. It was amazing how aware they were. The film premiered on a Thursday, and I was running into people who had already seen it multiple times by the second day. I think someone told me they’d seen it seven times, and I almost wanted to cry. It’s such a team effort, but that’s why the franchise has lived on for 25 years. Hopefully, we’ll live on for another 25. If the fans keep showing up and wanting more, then they’ll get more.

Thompson: I remember going to the first Scream movie in a theater. Scream is not a family movie, but it’s become a family outing. Parents were taking their kids to go and see this. Did you ever anticipate that this would be quite the family affair?

Barrera: I was very surprised to see seven and eight-year-olds at the movie theater, but they would be with their entire family. It is a theme, even in the first movie. I’ve spoken to so many people who have told me that Scream was the first movie they watched with their parents, and they bonded over it. It’s a tradition for so many people. They’d say things like, ‘Scream is the movie that made me fall in love with horror because my parents showed it to me.’ It creates this generational bonding that’s passing down, and now the kids that were ten years old when they first saw the first one are bringing their kids to see this one. It’s such a beautiful thing to witness.

Thompson: I’m guessing you probably expected that more with In The Heights than when you signed on for this one?

Barrera: It was definitely a surprise. One of my cousins in Mexico has seven-year-old twins, and their favorite movie is Scream. When it’s movie night in their house, she’s like, ‘What do you want to watch?’ They always say Scream, so I have what I was talking about in my own family.

Thompson: When movies do well, studios often send the cast and crew congratulations gifts. Did you get any commemorative items as a thank you?

Barrera: I did. I got all the posters sent to me. I have them all, from the mask with the knife to the character ones, including my poster. I have them all in here, and I’m going to frame them and put them in my media room. I’m very excited about it.

Thompson: One thing I loved about Scream, over and above the movie, was the art created to promote the film. It is some of the best work created for any movie in the last few years, and audiences seemed to be really into it. Were you surprised by that?

Barrera: A lot of the image was a surprise, in a good way. I loved what they did. Also, they waited until about two months before the movie was going premiered to start really putting much out there. For the longest time, I’d be like, ‘Are they going to do any promo? Are they going to release a trailer?’ I thought they maybe weren’t going to do anything and was like, ‘Oh, man, that sucks.’ A lot of money gets invested into campaigns and marketing, and our marketing team was brilliant. Everything that they did was incredible. They put Ghostface in Call of Duty. That’s insane, but they did it so well, and they should be very proud. It worked. I loved every poster, and the fan art was some of the best I have ever seen.

Thompson: Fans are already doing that for the sequel.

Barrera: I know, and these are talented people. They should be working for Paramount. Where are these people? They are so gifted. It’s insane.

Thompson: When you saw people’s reactions to Scream, were they what you expected?

Barrera: I didn’t know what I was expecting because I was just terrified. There was so much expectation because it had been ten years since the last one, and when people have such high expectations, it’s hard to live up to them. I was hoping the fans were open to having a movie with a new team because it’s the first Scream without Wes Craven and it wasn’t written by Kevin Williamson. It’s an entirely new take but pays homage to everything that’s come before with the utmost respect. I was hoping for the best, but you’re waiting for a crash. It’s like trying to go through the through Platform 9 3/4 when you go through, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I went through!’ That’s how I felt. I was just so happy for the directors, Matt and Tyler because I knew they had a lot of pressure on them. And they love this franchise so much. They are filmmakers because of Wes, so their getting to do this and it doing so well was fantastic. Also, with them being the nicest people you could ever meet work with, they deserve all the good things in life. They deserve all of the praise and all the good things. I’m happy that it did well for them.

Thompson: When you auditioned, was Sam the character you went for? Sometimes people get scripts, and they read for multiple roles.

Barrera: Yeah, the only character I was going for was Sam. I know they had been auditioning people for a while pre-pandemic, but I wasn’t part of that. I didn’t find out about Scream until late July 2020, and they had switched around the ages. I think initially, everyone was younger, so they aged them up. I hope to get to continue with Sam’s journey as I believe she’s such an interesting and complicated character. After this fifth movie, I think there are so many cool things that can happen for her.

Thompson: When you read the script, did you know what Sam’s outcome would be? Or did you find out when you read it?

Barrera: I read a script, but I had a different ending, and I just assumed that was the whole script. It wasn’t until I met with Matt, Tyler, Chad, William, and Jamie, one of the writers, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so exciting. The ending, blah, blah, blah,’ and they were like, ‘That’s actually not the ending.’ So I didn’t know what her outcome was going to be, and I didn’t know who would end up being under the Ghostface mask.

Thompson: When did you find out?

Barrera: I found out as we started shooting, and I would sometimes have more information than the rest of the cast. I worked every day and sometimes shot scenes where I needed to have that information. I think Jack and I were the first to know everything.

Thompson: It’s one thing to stop the people outside of the production bubble from knowing what happens in the movie, but I can only imagine how difficult it is not to reveal an ending when you’re making the movie. What is that like?

Barrera: It was torture because I feel like I’m very transparent. You can read everything that I’m thinking on my face, so I would sometimes like Jasmine or Dylan would come up and ask, ‘Is it this person?’ I’d have to try to turn away and not reveal anything. Everyone was playing the guessing game and accusing each other for a while. Once everyone found out, it was still exciting because we still got to shoot it, and audiences were going to get that excitement too. It’s a very epic end to this movie.

Thompson: I would have been terrified of leaving the script somewhere on a chair and someone accidentally picking it up, thinking it was theirs.

Barrera: I left my script in my trailer the entire time. I wouldn’t take it out because I didn’t want anyone finding out before it was time. It was such a fun game to play. I wish I were one of the people who didn’t know or one of the last ones to find out because it was priceless.

Thompson: Scream is so meta in itself, but this is almost like a Stab movie within a Scream movie for real.

Barrera: Because of the nature of the movie, because it’s so meta, it’s scary, and honestly, I blame the third movie, too. When I did my first costume fitting, I went into this warehouse. It was dark, and there was no one there, but there was a rack of Ghostface robes and masks, and I was like, ‘This is where I die, and there’s no one around.’ I was evidently in the wrong place. I had gone into the wrong warehouse for my fitting, but I was freaking out at that moment, and then I thought it was maybe a prank, but it was scary. Courtney Cox will tell you she lives in constant fear because she’s such a scaredy-cat.

Scream is available for purchase on Digital from Tuesday, March 1, 2022, and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD from Tuesday, April 5, 2022.