Thirty years after Scream rewrote the rules of the slasher film, Varèse Sarabande and Craft Recordings celebrate Marco Beltrami’s landmark score with a new anniversary reissue. Arriving August 28^th, 2026, the original 14-track album returns to vinyl in a collectible “blood-soaked” sleeve featuring an iconic image of Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker in the film’s unforgettable opening scene. In addition to the wide “Woodsboro Bloodbath” red vinyl, fans can find the 1-LP set in a variety of limited-edition exclusive pressings, including a “Knife’s Edge” silver vinyl with poster (Target), “Surprise, Sidney” metallic blend vinyl (Barnes & Noble), “Don’t Hang Up” clear vinyl (Books-A-Million), “I’ll Be Right Back” blue vinyl (Urban Outfitters), “Final Girl” splatter vinyl (Hot Topic), “Wrong Answer” Blood Red Splatter vinyl (Varèse Sarabande/Craft Recordings), and “Final Phone Call” blue vinyl at select indie retailers. An Extended Cut Edition of the Scream (Original Motion Picture Score), featuring all 40 of the film’s cues from the 2022 Scream boxset, will also be available on CD.

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In 1996, Scream ushered in a new generation of slasher films, mixing self-awareness and satire with chills, gore, and plenty of plot twists. Written by Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek, The Vampire Diaries) and directed by horror pioneer Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, Swamp Thing), the film flipped the genre on its side, with a host of characters who not only referenced classic horror flicks but recognized they were living inside one. Brimming with a who’s who of Gen-X stars—including Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, and Rose McGowan—Scream became one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time and launched a long-running franchise of sequels.

 

At the emotional core of the film is an engrossing score by Marco Beltrami, then a young, up-and-coming composer—one who, ironically, had never scored or even seen a horror film.

 

Yet just three years after he completed the University of Southern California’s rigorous scoring program, Beltrami submitted 13 minutes of music for Scream’s opening sequence and his future was forever changed. “We knew in half a minute that we had found our composer,” Craven told Variety in 2012. “The music was haunting, beautiful and totally original. Marco turned out to be shy and soft-spoken, but a fountain of ideas and innovation. I never looked back.”

 

Among the highlights is “The Cue from Hell,” which accompanies the film’s opening scene, in which Casey (Barrymore) receives a chilling call from a stranger. As she and her boyfriend quickly become two of Ghostface’s earliest victims, the music tracks Casey’s emotions in real time—her unease transforming into sheer terror. Equally haunting, “Sidney’s Lament” captures the grief Sidney (Campbell) carries following her mother’s death. The cue weaves reverb-soaked soprano vocals with atonal strings to conjure not just melancholia, but dread. That same sense of impending doom can be felt in the techno-flavored “Trouble in Woodsboro,” which layers adrenaline-pumping beats, industrial effects, manipulated vocals, and unnerving synths, as the picturesque town grapples with a serial killer in its midst.

 

Sophisticated yet visceral, timeless yet contemporary, the Scream score set the tone for a new generation of horror films.