<Li> Kevin Patrick Walls as Steve Orth </Li> <Li> Lawrence Hect as Neil Prescott </Li> <Li> Roger L. Jackson as Ghostface (voice) </Li> <P> Scream was originally developed under the title Scary Movie by Kevin Williamson, an aspiring screenwriter . Influenced by a news story he was watching about a series of grisly murders by the Gainesville Ripper, Williamson became concerned about intruders upon finding an open window in the house where he was staying . He was inspired to draft an 18 - page script treatment about a young woman, alone in a house, who is taunted over the phone and then attacked by a masked killer . The treatment remained as a short story while Williamson worked on another script, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, a thriller that he would eventually sell but that would languish in development hell for many years . Struggling to pay his bills, Williamson secluded himself in Palm Springs and focused on the development of his Scary Movie treatment, hoping for a quick sale to meet his financial needs . Over the course of three days, Williamson developed a full - length script as well as two separate five - page outlines for potential sequels--Scary Movie 2 and Scary Movie 3 . He hoped to entice buyers with the potential for a franchise . In an interview, Williamson said that one reason he focused on the Scary Movie script was because it was a film he wanted to watch, born of his childhood love of horror films such as Halloween, but "nobody else (was) making it". His appreciation for previous horror films became evident in the script, which features inspiration from and references to films such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, When a Stranger Calls, and Prom Night . Williamson listened to the soundtrack for Halloween for inspiration while writing the script . Excerpts from the soundtrack appear in the film . </P>

Who played the killer in scary movie 1