Who is the Killer in Scream (1996)

Woodsboro is plagued by a masked killer called Ghostface and he is targeting Sidney Prescott and her friends. Who is this killer and why does he have it out for Sid?

Follo BHG on Instagram:

The Setting

Sidney Prescott lives with her father Neil in Woodsboro. Her mother Maureen was murdered a year ago and the anniversary of her death is coming up. It’s then that a masked killer Ghostface is going on a murder spree starting with Casey Becker who gets a mysterious phone call of the killer who asks her what her favorite scary movie is. She sees her boyfriend Steve Orth getting murdered in front of her outside by the pool, and then she’s next. The next day Sidney gets a threatening phone call and it turns out that she’s the real target.

Read the full review of Scream, here.

The Characters

Sidney Prescott has a best friend Tatum Riley and she is dating Billy Loomis. Tatum is dating Billy’s friend Stu Macher. Their group is completed by Randy Meeks. Tatum has an older brother Deputy Dewey Riley. Sidney has pointed out Cotton Weary, her mother’s lover as her killer because she saw him covered in blood. But Gale Weathers, a reporter believes he’s innocent. Now that the two high school students were killed she returns for another story, or maybe to prove that it’s the work of the same killer.

Let the killings begin:

Death no.1: Steve Orth is bound to a chair while Casey has to answer questions about horror movies. When she gets it wrong or in fact refuses, Steve is disemboweled.
Death no.2: Casey Becker runs away and is chased by Ghostface who stabs her just when her parents get home. He then hangs her from a tree, also disemboweled.
Death no.3: Principal Himbrey is stabbed to death in his office and strung to the flag pole.
Death no.4: At Stu’s party, Tatum is attacked and when she tries to escape through the cat flap in the garage door, the killer turns on the automatic door and she gets crushed.
Death no.5: Kenny Jones, Gale’s cameraman has his throat slashed.

The Killer unmasked

After Sid and Billy had sex, the killer rushed in and stabbed Billy, who’s presumed dead. But later Sid finds out that Billy is still alive. It was all a setup. Billy is actually the killer, together with Stu. But it all started a year ago. They also killed Maureen and framed Cotton. Maureen was also having an affair with Billy’s father and he blames her for his parents’ divorce. Now he wants to frame Neil for these new murders and eventually kill Sid. They even have Neil tied up in the broom closet. So Billy was out for revenge and Stu was just killing along for the ride.

To make their story believable they stab each other, to make it look like they are victims too, so they can point out Neil as the killer whom they had to shoot making them even heroes. As Gale intervenes, Sid knocks out Billy and hits Stu over the head with the tv, killing him. Then Gale shoots Billy, but when Randy says they always come back, he does and Sid shoots him through the head, finally killing him.

Randy and Dewey are badly hurt but will survive and Sid and Gale have worked together to defeat the killers and are less hostile towards each other. But this is only the first aftermath…