All 50 Deaths From The "Scream" Movies, Ranked
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SPOILER ALERT: This post includes spoilers from ALL FIVE Scream movies. Do not proceed unless you want to know every single person who gets killed and who kills them.
Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com
The first rule of surviving a BuzzFeed post with spoilers is stay a virgin. Oh wait, sorry, it's don't read the post if you don't want to get spoiled.
For those of you brave enough to stay with us, I'm sure you know by now that the fifth Scream movie (simply called Scream because its a requel) is out in theaters now.
Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com
Sydney f**king Prescott is back and of course she's got a gun!
Ghostface is back to kill a whole new batch of unsuspecting victims (no matter how much they know about horror movies), and I am loving every bloody, stabby second of it.
Paramount Pictures / Via Giphy
Run Mason run!
To honor the new release, I revisited all the films and have performed an in-depth ranking of every kill in the five Scream movies.
Dimension Films / Via Giphy
Including Cici of course
To start, some ground rules:
Dimension Films / Via giphy.com
1. I'm only ranking kills from the Scream movies, not the television series.
2. Each kill has been assessed based on creativity of the kill, importance to the film, grisliness, and iconic-ness.
3. The entire kill scene is taken into consideration, so even if the stabbing itself is mundane, if its done in a creative scene, then that ranks higher.
Lastly, you must be CONFIRMED DEAD in order to make this list. Various characters from Scream (2022) survived even though they were slashed up AND the new film confirmed that the iconic Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) did, in fact, survive Scream 4.
Dimension Films
Here's to hoping she returns to kick ass in Scream 6.
So let's begin.
50.Officer at the hospital - Scream (2022)
Sorry to this man. I don't have a picture of him. (He's laying on the ground just out of frame.) I don't know his name. I don't know anything about him other than he was some kind of hospital guard who is bleeding out on the floor in the hallway. We don't even get to see the kill so this is a last place moment.
49.Marnie Cooper (Britt Robertson) - Scream 4
One of the franchise's few other off-screen kills, Marnie dies in the opening montage of Scream 4 and her corpse is thrown in through a window. She appears to have been stabbed in the stomach, but truly who knows. Maybe she was killed for crimes against fashion because her baggy cowl-necked sweater was so hideous?
48.John Milton (Lance Henriksen) - Scream 3
Now that we've got the off-screen kills out of the way, we're moving on to a series of efficient, unimaginative quick kills that don't do much except for clear the chess board of some potential suspects. First up we've got the perverted, sexist, predatory head of the film studio producing Stab 3 (one of the meta horror films based on the events of Scream). His throat is slit in the final act of the third film with very little pomp and circumstance.
47.Steven Stone (Patrick Warburton) - Scream 3
While Stone, a security guard on the set of Stab 3, is doing a perimeter sweep, he's easily offed by Ghostface in a trailer. Moving on.
46.Kenny Jones (W. Earl Brown) - Scream (1996)
The films' final acts usually include some quick casualties just to up the body count and Gale Weathers's cameraman is an easy target for a quick throat slitting.
45.Officer Andrews (Philip Pavel) - Scream 2
We've now got a trifecta of mundane cop deaths. First up, this man who has his throat slit while Sidney is in the backseat of his squad car.
44.Ross Hoss (Adam Brody) - Scream 4
This one is stabbed outside of his squad car.
43.Anthony Perkins (Anthony Anderson) - Scream 4
And here is his partner who is stabbed moments later straight through the forehead. The forehead is a more interesting spot to be stabbed so that's why he's leading this blue badged pack.
42.Hallie McDaniel (Elise Neal) - Scream 2
Sidney's college bestie climbs out of a wrecked squad car over the unconscious body of Ghostface only to be stabbed moments later a few yards away. Very run of the mill.
41.Trevor Sheldon (Nico Tortorella) - Scream 4
While statistically the boyfriend is the killer 40% of the time, that was not the case in Scream 4. After being absent for much of the film, Trevor appears in the final moments to be quickly shot in the head by Jill (Emma Roberts). He has moved slightly up the list, because he also got shot in the balls.
40.Vince Schneider (Kyle Gallner) - Scream (2022)
This early parking lot kill in the newest installment is fairly by-the-book and is almost completely unrelated to the rest of the plot. There is more suspense here than the quick kills earlier on the list, but it's not doing anything new.
39.Christine Hamilton (Kelly Rutherford) - Scream 3
The opening kills in Scream movies are usually fairly interesting and eventful. Not so in Scream 3 where Christine gets out of the shower only to stabbed along with her boyfriend by Ghostface pretty unceremoniously.
38.Derek Feldman (Jerry O'Connell) - Scream 2
Much like Trevor in Scream 4, Derek is an eleventh hour boyfriend kill of little consequence. He is shot while strapped shirtless to a giant sun though (it's apparently a part of some kind of fraternity hazing ritual), so bonus points for that odd detail.
37.Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) - Scream (1996)
Despite being a huge star, Henry Winkler went uncredited in the first film as the high school's principal, as not to detract from the younger stars. While being stabbed by Ghostface in the principal's office of a school is pretty dull, Winkler does have fun puttering around to build suspense.
36.Trudie in Stab 6 (Shenae Grimes) - Scream 4
Starting in Scream 2 we are introduced to the Stab film franchise, a series of Scream-like horror movies that the Scream movies use to make meta-commentary. We see clips from several of these films throughout the franchise and that includes a Facebook-themed remix of the Casey kill from Scream as the opening film within a film within a film gambit of Scream 4. Trudie is stabbed by Ghostface after she and her friend Sherrie get scared via the internet. A fairly unimaginative play on the original, but that's the whole point.
35.Sherrie in Stab 6 (Lucy Hale) - Scream 4
And here is Sherrie a spot higher, only edging out her bestie because a throat slit is more interesting than a chest stab imho.
34.Casey Becker in Stab (Heather Graham) - Scream 2
A basic recreation of the opening sequence of Scream for the film Stab based on the Woodsboro murders. Because we see this in a movie theater setting, it really loses the suspense. Also, we've seen it happen before.
33.Kate Roberts (Mary McDonnell) - Scream 4
One of the better quick kills, Jill stabs her own mother as Ghostface through the mail slot in their front door. Ruthless.
32.Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer) - Scream 3
The plot of Scream 3 focuses on the making of Stab 3 and Angelina is cast in the Sidney Prescott role. In the movie's final haunted mansion act, she is stabbed while trying to flee the house, but not before shouting the iconic line "I didn't fuck that pig Milton for a leading role, just to die here with second rate celebrities like you two." Too bad that's exactly what she did.
31.Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) - Scream 2
Sweet sweet Randy. The horror expert who explains the rules of the genre to his friends in the original. He somehow survived the original bloodbath only to be killed halfway through the sequel in a pretty underwhelming way. I do not want to be gutted in a local news van while teens with a boombox stroll by.
30.Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) - Scream 2
Every Scream movie ends with the killer (or usually killers) being taken down by Dewey, Gale, and Sidney. While those deaths are always eventful and important, some are more entertaining than others. The weakest is this one of Billy Loomis's mother. She's got some good crazed monologues, but in the end she's just shot a couple times without doing much.
29.Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) - Scream (2022)
Richie, one of the new film's baddies, is stabbed a few more times and a bit more violently by his girlfriend, but he also goes without too much flair or panache.
28.Roman Bridger (Scott Foley) - Scream 3
And I'd say the same for Roman, the director of Stab 3, who fakes his own death and then pops out as the sole killer of the third film. He does get the coveted "I thought you were dead but I'm gonna pop up one final time for a last jump scare" spot, so props for that, but other villains are given more spectacular sendoffs.
27.Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) - Scream 3
After being a reliable red herring in the first two films, Cotton is the opening kill of Scream 3. The drive-home-as-fast-as-you-can-to-save-your-girlfriend bit is interesting, and he gets to do the opening mysterious phone call scene, but once he arrives home, it's just a few stabs and on we go.
26.Jenny Randall (Aimee Teergarden) - Scream 4
After her friend Marnie is chucked through the window in Scream 4's opening, Jenny gets the more eventful chase scene which ends with an homage to a garage door-themed scene from the original when Ghostface traps her underneath before stabbing her. We're starting to get a little bit more exciting here.
25.Sherriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton) - Scream (2022)
Now for the tandem kills of the Hicks family in the newest installment. After surviving Scream 4, Judy is now a sheriff and basically gets to reenact the Cotton/Christine scene from Scream 3 only she's driving to try and save her son. I also like the added twist that she runs straight into Ghostface's knife on the front lawn in her panicked hurry.
24.Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette) - Scream (2022)
Wes gets the Christine role of showering and wandering around the house while his companion races home to save him. I ranked him higher than his mother solely for the slow-motion knife-through-the-neck shot we see as he's stabbed in the foyer.
23.Robbie Mercer (Erik Knudsen) - Scream 4
Robbie basically gets the "let me explain the horror movie rules" role from Randy in Scream 4 and does so admirably. He commits a cardinal sin, however, and gets drunk in the film's final act making him an easy target for Ghostface as he wanders around the house vlogging. Due to an earlier stated rule that gay people survive horror films, his final words are "I'm gay if it helps," which is exactly what I would say if someone was going to stab me too. (Although there is some controversy surrounding if Robbie is actually gay or not.)
22.Tyson Fox (Deon Richmond) - Scream 3
Tyson is another Stab 3 cast member who falls victim to Ghostface in Scream 3's final sequence. He gets stabbed, flipped in the air when a rug is yanked out from underneath him, and then chucked out a balcony, so he got a nice little sendoff despite a small role.
21.Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey) - Scream 3
Parker Posey playing actress Jennifer Jolie playing Gale Weathers might be the best part of Scream 3. She is electric from her opening sequence, and gives every chase scene energy as she clomps around shrieking. Her final moments, trapped in a secret room and banging on two-way mirrors is high energy even if it's not the most exciting way to go. If only Dewey had reached her a few seconds earlier, she might have survived.
20.Phil Stevens (Omar Epps) - Scream 2
The opening kill of Scream 2 is a bit overshadowed by that of Phil's girlfriend moments later, but getting stabbed in the cheek through a bathroom partition is certainly a way to go. Also he dies at a Stab viewing party, so really is there a better place to be killed? I think not.
19.Steve Orth (Kevin Patrick Walls) - Scream (1996)
If you thought Casey was the franchise's first kill, think again. That honor goes to her football player boyfriend Steve, who has his intestines sliced out by Ghostface when Casey gives a wrong answer to his scary movie trivia game. Being first and SO BLOODY is worth something on this list.
18.Cici Cooper (Sarah Michelle Gellar) - Scream 2
Every Scream movie has a fairly random, unrelated set piece murder toward the start (Vince and Principal Himbry are weaker versions of this death location). Scream 2's addition to the roster is Cici the sorority girl who is taunted over the phone before being chased through her entire sorority house and tossed over a balcony. The scene is a lot of fun, and the death is certainly memorable.
17.Sarah Darling (Jenny McCarthy) - Scream 3
Filling the same slot in Scream 3 is Sarah's chase through the film studio including her final moments among a rack of Ghostface costumes (surprise one of them has a killer inside). The introduction of the voice changer 2.0 to replicate the cast member's voices also makes this more interesting as Sarah runs lines with her "director." Her role: Candy, a chick who gets killed second, is only in two scenes, and has to die naked.
16.Olivia Morris (Marielle Jaffe) - Scream 4
And taking the early film death slot for Scream 4 is Kirby and Jill's bestie Olivia who is stabbed seemingly hundreds of times, hung out the window, and then disemboweled so much that 50 gallons of blood appear to be dripping from her ceiling by the end. All while Kirby and Jill watch from across the lawn of course. This is easily the bloodiest, most violent kill in the whole franchise and deserves a high ranking because of it.
15.Liv McKenzie (Sonia Ben Ammar) - Scream (2022)
In and of itself, Liv's death in the new Scream is fairly mundane: just a bullet through the head. BUT, I am ranking it so high because it is the REVEAL. It's the shock and awe moment where we learn that Amber is the killer as she knocks off her friend with uncaring swiftness and launches the film's final killing spree.
14.Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant) - Scream 2
While his partner Mrs. Loomis dies fairly easily, Mickey is first betrayed and shot by Mrs. Loomis in a shocking twist and THEN comes back from the dead to be the film's last gasp scare tactic. The Greek tragedy set tumbling down on him is also a nice cinematic touch.
13.Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) - Scream 4
Playing a similar role in the fourth film is Charlie, who reveals himself to be the killer, only to be murdered by his accomplice Jill. I ranked this one higher, however, because it is a twist on the Stu/Billy scene in Scream where the pair of baddies take turns stabbing themselves to look like fellow victims. When Jill is instructed to stab his shoulder, she instead stabs his heart, because horror films after all prefer sole survivors.
12.Rachel in Stab 7 (Anna Paquin) - Scream 4
The center of the trifecta of opening sequences from Scream 4 features two friends in Stab 7 scoffing over the opening of Stab 6. When Rachel complains too much about horror movies being predictable, however, Chloe turns and stabs her with a kitchen knife. Not so predictable anymore huh? And of the five people who die at the beginning of Scream 4, this is far and away the most surprising and innovative.
11.Tom Prinze (Matt Keeslar) - Scream 3
In a franchise of almost exclusively stabbings and shooting, a gas explosion that destroys a whole house is quite a standout move. Tom, the actor playing Dewey in Stab 3, runs back in the house to get a fax message from the killer only to be roasted alive. Probably one of the most painless Scream deaths, too, I'd say.
10.Captain Down (Tim Hillman) - Scream 2
Wowzers. My hats off to this man. As you've seen so far on this list, the police are usually pretty worthless. Not Captain Down. The man is a legend. After his partner has his throat slit, Down gets out of the car, fights Ghostface head on, gets stabbed and banged against the car several times. THEN when Ghostface tries to drive off, he hangs on the hood of the car for quite some time. He is only finally killed when the car is totaled and he is crushed under some kind of construction debris. AND EVEN THEN HE IS STILL HOLDING ONTO HIS GUN. Like, the man did not need to give us so much, and yet he provided!
9.Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) - Scream (1996)
Part of the original Ghostface pair, it's hard to get more iconic than Sidney's high school boyfriend-turned psychopath Billy Loomis. His final scenes in which he fakes being stabbed, licks his cornstarch blood, gets Stu to stab him, and then eventually is shot by both Sydney and Gale are legendary. He's the original last-minute pop up. He's an icon.
8.Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) - Scream (1996)
And of course his accomplice Stu Macher is listed right here alongside him. While Billy is certainly the more iconic character, dying by having a large '90s TV pushed on your head to the point of electrocution is certainly a more interesting way to die. TV trumps bullet in this ranking.
7.Rebecca Walters (Alison Brie) - Scream 4
It is shocking that it took the franchise four films to get to a parking garage murder, but it was WORTH THE WAIT. This sequence is a masterpiece. First, Alison Brie as Sidney's bitter, fame-obsessed, recently fired publicist is one of the franchise's most entertaining characters. The giddy way she says "two girls were murdered" is everything, and her muttering to herself in this scene is incredible. Second, we have the elevator glitching. But she doesn't die there. Instead we move on to point three, the car not starting (also a well done horror trope). When she finally dies after being chased around the parking structure, it is only with a boring stab, but then she is pitched off the structure into the middle of a press conference, so really the woman knows how to make an entrance even as a corpse.
6.Dewey Riley (David Arquette) - Scream (2022)
Sweet sweet Dewey! It took five films, but the franchise finally decided to dispense with one of its trio of leads. He's been stabbed, shot, and knocked around more times than we can count, but he's always been the heart of the series. In the most recent film, he goes back to shoot Ghostface in the head only to be stabbed himself. As a death in and of itself, it isn't that exciting, but since it's the sendoff to the legendary Dewey Riley, I had to rank him high.
5.Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison) - Scream (2022)
To arrive in the franchise so late and die so spectacularly is a gift. After revealing herself to be the killer, shooting her friend in the head, and going on a diatribe about how she's a toxic movie fan who needed to kill people to give the franchise new content, Amber bears down on the leads for a final killing spree. Instead she's stabbed a few times, doused with hand sanitizer (in the best bit of low key COVID referencing I've yet to see on the big screen), and then burnt alive when she runs into the stove covered in Purell. BUT WAIT she also gets the coveted last minute pop up as a flame-broiled human who then gets shot in the head.
4.Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) - Scream 4
"How do you think people become famous anymore?" Well duh, it's by murdering all your friends and family, stabbing yourself, ripping out your own hair, throwing your body down onto a glass coffee table, and then posing as the final girl of Ghostface. Jill's final run is deliciously delusional, and dare I say it, she's the best villain of the franchise? When she awakens at the hospital, however, and learns that her Aunt Sidney is still alive, she staggers through the halls to finish her off. Unfortunately, a defibrillator to the brain and then a couple of bullets to the head (in addition to her self-inflicted wounds) put an end to her glorified victim complex. A fitting end to my favorite homicidal high schooler.
3.Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan) - Scream (1996)
This is the most ingenious death in the franchise. To try and escape Ghostface by climbing through a garage doggy door, only to be hoisted into the air and have your neck snapped is the sick, twisted creativity we want to see. Ghostface didn't even need to bother coming back to stab her again. Bonus points for Tatum's final monologue about not being scared of the killer. Bonus bonus points to whoever installed and reinforced this garage door. This is Fort Knox level quality that mine growing up could only aspire to.
2.Maureen Evans (Jada Pinkett Smith) - Scream 2
After Scream's brilliant opening, the writers were left with a nearly impossible task in opening the sequel, and yet they came back strong and stuck the landing. The Stab screening filled with Ghostface impersonators is an ingenious place to start Scream 2 and to have the crowd so caught up in the frenzy that they don't notice a woman actually being stabbed feet away from them is perfect. Jada plays the scaredy cat reluctantly watching a horror film perfectly, and when her "boyfriend" returns only to stab her repeatedly in the aisle, I got chills. Plus the drama of her staggering bloody in front of the screen to the horrified and confused looks of the crowd! Can you imagine? The franchise for all its glory is still waiting to recapture this magic in an opening act.
1.Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) - Scream (1996)
It was you. It was always you. This Drew Barrymore scene IS Scream. To feature the famous actress so prominently in the marketing campaign only to kill her off immediately is genius. To have her play a meta game based on horror films is genius. The line "Do you like scary movies?" is genius. The sheer terror this has burned into every human answering a phone while home alone is genius. The blonde bob and cream sweater is genius. This is one of the greatest sequences in cinematic history (let alone the franchise). This is number one with a bullet (or I guess knife in this case). Also, this tidbit I found on Reddit about Ghostface's initial question? MIND BLOWN.
Watch the first four Scream movies using the links below and buy tickets to Scream now in theaters.
Scream and Scream 2 are available to stream on Peacock.
Scream 3 is available to stream on Starz.
Scream 4 is available to stream on Showtime.
