The series focuses on a succession of murderers who adopt a ghost-like disguise, dubbed Ghostface (voiced by Roger L. Jackson) who taunt and attempt to kill Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in the first four films.
[1] Other major recurring characters include film-geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), falsely accused Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), single mother Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), and FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere).
After receiving a taunting and threatening phone call, she is ordered to answer horror film trivia questions to save the life of her boyfriend, Steve Orth.
Like her co-stars Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, her appearance is credited by Craven for raising the profile of the film and helping to attract a larger female audience.
[31] Ghostface is a fictional identity, created in Scream by Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis and his friend Stu Macher to conduct a murder spree in the town of Woodsboro.
He becomes suspicious of Stu Macher when he expresses no concern for his girlfriend Tatum Riley when she went missing, and then discovers that he is one of the Ghostface killers prior to him revealing himself to Sidney with Billy Loomis.
The character does not appear in Scream VI, but Gale Weathers states that Sidney and her husband, Mark, have gone into hiding with their three children in response to the latest killings in New York.
[15] In Scream 3, it is revealed that, under Roman Bridger's advice, Billy had planned to set Stu up as the "fall guy" for their killing spree in case they got caught, while him getting an easy sentencing for being an accomplice.
[41] Actresses Marley Shelton,[42] Melinda Clarke and Rebecca Gayheart also auditioned for the role, however, McGowan was cast as Tatum because the production team felt she best embodied the "spunky" nature of the character.
[45] Tatum's death, like those of Casey Becker and Kenny Brown, caused conflict between director Wes Craven and the MPAA film rating board.
Left without his van due to it being an official crime scene and finally being pushed to his limits following Randy's death, he leaves, giving Gale all of the news footage that they had filmed so far and telling her that she needed her "head examined".
Mickey states that he carried out the killings with the intention of getting caught, believing he would receive fame for his deeds and from the resulting trial, and intending to blame film violence for influencing him.
In the fourth film, Gale is attacked at Stab-A-Thon as the Woodsboro High teenagers watch the famed Stab opening scene, quoting her lines of dialogue.
[20] In an early version of the script, Angelina was a second Ghostface, Roman's lover and accomplice, with the original draft elaborating that she was a former classmate of Sidney's from Woodsboro, whose real name was Angie Crick.
[46] Editor Patrick Lussier and producer Marianne Maddalena left it ambiguous as to whether Angelina was actually dead due to being dragged off, discussing the idea in the film's commentary.
On the fifteenth anniversary of the Woodsboro massacre depicted in Scream, Sidney Prescott returns to the town to promote her new self-help book, "Out of Darkness", about her overcoming the attacks and the deaths in her life.
[27] Deputy Hoss (forename unknown) is a "rookie" member of the Woodsboro police, who is assigned to guard Jill Roberts, Kirby Reed and Sidney Prescott after threats from Ghostface.
[27] Charles "Charlie" Walker is a student at Woodsboro High School, friend of Robbie Mercer, love interest of Kirby Reed and an avid fan of horror films, particularly the "Stab" series.
[27] The PPV version of the film released to streaming in some countries re-dubs some of Olivia's lines, calling Jenny "the other woman" in the car on the way to school, making her murder much more obvious in how personal it may have been.
The next day, unbeknown that she has died, Olivia Morris refers to her as "Marnie the Carnie" when she tells Jill that she got a call from her earlier in the morning using the Ghostface voice, indicating animosity between the two.
Against director Wes Craven's wishes, Bob Weinstein who had greater creative power, deleted the scene in the editing room, which was critical to highlight the remake theme.
[57][58] Kirby Reed is a Woodsboro teenager, friend of Jill Roberts and Olivia Morris, love interest of Charlie Walker and an avid fan of horror films.
In Scream (2022), a visual clue reveals that Kirby survived her injuries and participated in an interview about the attacks, making her the sole survivor of the 2011 killing spree, although her whereabouts are unknown.
She is also publicly ostracized following a string of conspiracy theories framing her for the Woodsboro murders, attends therapy frequently with Dr. Stone, and enters a secret relationship with her neighbor Danny Brackett.
Unfortunately, the group is locked inside, and Kirby and Chad are attacked by the Ghostfaces, who reveal themselves to be Wayne Bailey and his children, Ethan Landry and Quinn, who faked her death earlier and was the one who started the conspiracy theories to ruin Sam's image.
She reveals that they were disappointed at the last Stab movie and wish to revive the franchise with a new killing spree to act as "source material" and break away from the "toxic fandom" label they feel they have unjustly received.
It is revealed that Jason, along with his roommate Greg Bruckner, had been planning to finish creating the "movie" that Richie Kirsch set out to make the year previously by killing the Carpenter sisters.
The site's critical consensus reads, "Lacking truly compelling characters or scenarios, Scream is forced to trade too heavily on nostalgia for its big-screen predecessors in the franchise.
[87] In a positive review, David Hinckley from New York Daily News awarded the pilot four out of five stars and stated, "Happily, Scream maintains a sense of humor, reinforced with snappy, self-aware pop culture dialogue.
"[90] Conversely, David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle panned the series and gave it one out of four stars, criticizing the acting performances as "bland, robotic, and uninteresting" as well as its apparent lack of racial diversity.