Thanks to the reboot trend of bringing back old favorites, the Scream franchise has been resurrected for its fifth installment. Perhaps it is the self-awareness that makes the Scream franchise so popular even today, according to the NY Times, and the way they use a meta-style that mixes horror and comedy to create an interesting experience. Whether that is the case or not, Scream has officially hit the 10th highest-grossing horror franchise of all time. With Scream 6 planning to start filming summer of 2022, their gross could reach over $800 million.
The first film in the franchise is actually based on a true story. Kevin Williamson, a screenwriter, was watching a documentary on the Gainesville Ripper, who killed eight people, five of whom were college students. While he did not wear a mask, Williamson knew this would be the perfect premise for a horror film. After the initial success of the first film, a sequel quickly followed. Three years later, Scream 3, often dubbed the worst in the franchise, followed. The fourth installment was not released until 11 years later and featured a newer cast alongside the originals of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. The most recent installment picks up the original film’s name, but with new directors after the passing of Wes Craven.
After the huge success the fifth film achieved, including dethroning Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home at the box office, fans are eagerly awaiting the sixth film. While we anxiously await Scream 6 to drop in 2023, we can bide our time by re-watching this iconic meta-commentary series of a killer who is played by a new villain(s) in each film. Here’s a list of every Scream movie, ranked.
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5 Scream 3 (2000)
Dimension Films
Scream 3 lines up with the third film of the fictitious series created within the Scream films called Stab. Stab 3 is currently filming in Hollywood when a number of murders to the characters occur. The Stab films revolve around the real murders that took place in Woodsboro. When these new movie-inside-a-movie murders take place, Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, played by the three original actors of Campbell, Cox, and Arquette, team up once again against a new Ghostface killer who may have been the mastermind behind all the killings so far.
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4 Scream 4 (2011)
In Scream 4, ten years have passed since the last time the Ghostface killer has shown their face in Woodsboro. Sidney is now an author whose last stop on her book tour takes her back to her hometown. Her old friends, Gale and Dewey, are now married, and everything seems normal for the three until Sidney’s return sparks the return of a new Ghostface. This time, the killer is supposedly targeting Sidney’s cousin Jill, played by Emma Roberts. Sidney, Gail, and Dewey team up to save Jill’s life and find out who has donned the Ghostface mask this time and why.
3 Scream 2 (1997)
After surviving the original Ghostface, all seems well for Sydney, Gale, and Dewey in Scream 2. Sidney is off to college with her friend Randy. Gale has written a bestseller about Sidney and the murders that took place in the first film. Dewey is still in the police force. At Sidney’s college, two students are found dead while watching the new film, Stab. No one believes the murders are connected to the ones that happened in Woodsboro, but Dewey and Gale investigate and find that someone is recreating the past murders to haunt Sidney. Can this copycat killer(s) be related to the original killers from the first film?
2 Scream (2022)
In this fifth film, singularly titled Scream, 25 years have passed since the first killings by Ghostface in Woodsboro. This time, a new group of teenagers is targeted that do not have any relation to Sidney Prescott. The film mirrors the original Scream by paying homage to Drew Barrymore’s iconic opening scene where she must answer trivia questions to survive. As the film progresses, we learn that Billy Loomis, from the original film, had a daughter named Sam, who enlists help from Dewey who has become a recluse after his divorce from Gale. Dewey calls Gale and Sidney, and they figure out that the victims have been related in some way to the original killers. True to the first film, the killer or killers are hiding in plain sight, but can Sidney and Gale win yet another match against the ruthless Ghostface killers?
1 Scream (1996)
It’s no surprise that the original film in a franchise is often the best one. The same logic applies to the Scream franchise. Wes Craven’s first film is rightfully considered a classic that set the stage for meta-commentary films. We first meet our three heroes in the first installment where Sidney is in high school, Gale is a local reporter, and Dewey is a deputy. A year after her mother’s death, Sidney becomes the target of a mask-wearing killer nicknamed Ghostface. In her first conversation with Ghostface, the killer talks about Sidney’s mother, seemingly connecting her murder with these new ones. Gale confronts Sidney, saying she also believes the murders are connected and that Sidney wrongfully accused an innocent man. During an end-of-the-year party, Ghostface appears, and it takes both Sidney and Gale to stop the killers.
