How Neve Campbell Accidentally Injured A Co-Star While Filming Scream
Since its premiere in 1996, Wes Craven's "Scream" has become a staple of the slasher genre. The film follows a teenager named Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends when their suburban California town is suddenly terrorized by a ruthless serial killer known only as Ghostface (for the ghostly mask they wear). After the gruesome murder of fellow high school student Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), the killer sets their sights on Sidney.
"Scream" is widely considered to be a "genre film," made by and for lovers of the horror genre, and contains references to classics like "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," and "A Nightmare on Elm Street." The movie also, notably, cemented the character of Sidney Prescott as arguably one of the best final girls in horror film history.
As most "Scream" fans will remember, a fatal fight breaks out between Sidney, her boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich), and his best friend Stu (Matthew Lillard) in the film's climax. However, what some fans may not know is that Neve Campbell accidentally injured one of her co-stars in real life during the filming of the sequence.
Neve Campbell accidentally stabbed Skeet Ulrich with an umbrella
In the film's famous twist ending, Billy and Stu are revealed to be the killers in "Scream." Indeed, it turns out that the best friends were working together all along to conduct Ghostface's terrifying phone calls as well as carry out the gruesome murders that are shown throughout the film. Realizing that the two friends intend to kill her, Sidney begins to fight for her life.
In one scene, Sidney surprises Billy by jumping out of a closet while wearing the Ghostface mask. With Billy caught off-guard, Sidney stabs him in the chest with an umbrella. He screams out in pain and falls to the ground bleeding.
As it turns out, Ulrich's cries of pain were real. According to Screen Rant, the prop umbrella Campbell was wielding had a retractable tip and Ulrich had a protective vest under his shirt while they were filming the scene. Despite that, when Campbell went to stab him for a second time, the umbrella missed the vest and stabbed him in the chest. To make matters even worse, the umbrella ended up hitting a leftover wound from an open heart surgery operation that Ulrich received when he was younger.
Instead of reshooting the scene, director Wes Craven decided to use some of the footage in the final cut of "Scream."