The Scream Kings Came To Dallas.

Last Night The Texas Theatre Held A Special Screening Of Scream (1996) With A Live Q&A From Stars Matthew Lillard And Skeet Ulrich.

Skeet Ulrich, who played Billy Loomis.

The historic theatre in Oak Cliff had a couple of special guests last night during its belated 25th anniversary screening of the original Scream film. The starring killers, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, joined the theater full of horror fans to introduce the movie and stuck around for a question and answer session. For the people watching upstairs, the theatre put on a simulcast.

Matthew Lillard, who played Stu Macher.

Despite starting at 8 p.m, it felt like a midnight movie. All night, audience members cheered for the appearance of each character, lovingly heckled, catcalled Stu and Billy and yelled out iconic lines like “I wanna be in the sequel,” and “My mom and dad are going to be so mad at me!”  All that was needed were some props to throw and we would’ve had ourselves a Rocky Horror experience. There’s no doubt the classic slasher film has held up all these years, but it was an extra type of magic to experience it this way.

Lillard and Ulrich are in town for the 2022 Texas Frightmare Weekend, one of the largest horror conventions in the country that’s been going on since 2006 in Grapevine. In addition to their attendance, cast members Neve Campbell and Jamie Kennedy will also be at Frightmare for autographs and photo-ops. The convention begins tonight and runs until Sunday, May 1.

Once time for the Q&A, Ulrich sat cooly on the edge of the stage, legs dangling, while Lillard was a bit more restless and strolled through the audience from time to time. The actors answered burning questions between the occasional burning confession of love from fans who were sometimes just a little too bold.

“Is anyone here a psychologist? Because I have daddy issues that only ya’ll two can fix,” was certainly up there on that list.

Mood.

Here are some highlights of the Q&A:

• Both actors only ever put the Ghostface robe once during filming and it was for takes of the same scene — when the killer is walking behind Randy as he’s breaking the fourth wall by repeating, “turn around Jamie!”
• No one actually knows who specifically killed who. Ulrich believes that Stu and Billy tag-teamed killed Casey. They did have to hoist her up in that tree after all.
• Someone asked Lillard how he feels about being a sex icon. He didn’t have an answer.
• Ulrich kept the boots he wore after filming, but also mentioned the friend in Lillard as a set souvenir, who then said the cast is “better friends now than we’ve ever been.” Ulrich called him “one of the most endearing, beautiful, sweet human beings ever.”
• They thought the movie wasn’t going to be anything special at first.
  • “We had signed on to a horror movie by a director –God bless his soul, Wes Craven — who hadn’t had a hit movie in a while,” Lillard said. “We were like, ‘Oh, it’s just a horror movie.’ And the fact that we’re here these many years later is crazy to us.”
• Lillard is down to make a full reappearance in a future installment. Although, he did have a small cameo in Scream (2022), providing the voice of the Ghostface with the flame thrower.
• Ulrich declined his (spoiler alert) reprise in Scream (2022) for two months before agreeing to come back, saying it didn’t feel right at first but started to make sense after talking to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
• Yes, Lillard did the Shaggy voice.
  • “I haven’t done this in…four hours,” he says.
  • “You did it on the plane here,” Ulrich added.
• A 12-year-old boy later did his own impression of Shaggy, to which Lillard gave him a hug and took a photo.
  • “That is the truest gift,” he says. “That’s as good as it gets. Sure, Skeet get’s all the girls but I get that.”
• And don’t worry, they acknowledged the homoeroticism between Stu and Billy.
  • “Super gay!” Lillard says during the pre-screening introduction, later giving his final answer at the Q&A — “If you want them to be gay, they’re gay all day.”

Photos by Frances Tingle.