On the 14th January horror audiences will once more get to experience the terror of a Scream film in cinemas. The fifth film in the series, which (slightly confusingly) shares the name with the first, marks the return of Ghostface to movie screens after an eleven year hiatus. The intervening years saw a shift to television, though the escapades there never really correlated with the existing franchise. This fifth endeavour, directed by the dream team behind Ready or Not, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, will reunite the infamous trio of Ghostface survivors, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) as they return to Woodsboro to help a new set of teens being tormented by the masked killer. This being a continuation of the story of the original three characters has genre fans whipped up to fever-pitch levels of frenzy, and ahead of the release everyone is trying to work-out exactly who could be behind the mask.
Rumours across the internet are rife, with everyone throwing out their predictions, and whilst many people’s hopes are on a return of Matthew Lillard’s Stu, I have a slightly different theory. I should point out that this is purely my own speculation from things that I have noticed during the marketing campaign.
I am yet to see the film and so if my prediction is correct, it is a complete fluke.
That being said, the rest of the article may venture into spoiler territory, that some people who are trying to go into Scream completely cold may not be comfortable with. If you fall into this category then now is the time to click away from this article, but do come back once you’ve watched the film to see how close (or more likely far from) the mark I am.
As previously mentioned, die-hard fans of the franchise are hoping that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett will pull a Spider-Man: No Way Home and bring back pre-established characters outside of the iconic trio. Of all of these characters, the one that fans are praying for the hardest is one half of the original killing duo, Stu Mcahe, a part made famous by Matthew Lillard. The heavy inclusion of Stu’s house on the posters and within the trailer is adding further fuel to the fire, but I am not convinced that his return will happen. Whilst we never saw the character die, just what was presumed to be mortally wounded, his return now after all these years doesn’t make sense. Matthew Lillard has a blink and you’ll miss him spot during one of the party scenes in Scream 2, but it would be stretch to say that was empirical evidence that Stu is still alive. An early draft of the Scream 3 screenplay is rumoured to feature Stu as the one orchestrating the killing from his prison cell, but this idea was scrapped after Columbine in favour of a non-high-school setting. The big issue for me is that Stu never really appeared to be as into the killing as his partner Billy Loomis. Casey Becker is discussed as being a former flame of Stu, but he appears happy enough with Tatum, so how much was sour grapes compared to Billy’s grooming and encouragement? During the course of the Scream finale he admits that it was peer pressure that led him to helping Billy, so with Billy out of the way and all those years having elapsed, why would he pick up the mask again now?
I believe the inclusion of the house is to be a big red-herring. Given the return of Sidney, Gale and Dewey, it makes sense to base the story around a familiar location, and what’s more familiar than the place that was the original setting for it all. It’s been over twenty years since the first Woodsboro killing spree, and given the association with the house, Stu’s parents likely sold the property and moved on years ago. The house has potentially changed ownership a couple of times during the intervening years, with the current resident most probably being one of the many new crop of victims.
My guess is either spot on, or completely wrong, but my money is on the character played by Kyle Gallner – Vince Schneider. Gallner’s name is heavily featured on press releases and is on the billing block on the poster, and yet his face is missing from all the promotional material outside of the trailer. In this trailer we glimpse Vince being stalked by Ghostface as he looks inside a car, with further snippets seemingly looking like he is being chased, but that could be a deliberate red herring. A common trope in the Scream universe is that at least one of the killers passes themselves off as a victim, could this pursuit all be a facade by Vince to distract an on-looker from his guilt? Interestingly, Gallner does not not feature on any of the rest of the marketing materials. There are plenty of poster variations online and yet his face isn’t present on any of them. The campaign went so far as to release character posters, twelve in total, that had the legacy trio as well as nine new cast members posing with the Ghostface mask. Gallner was noticeably absent, which seems strange when you consider that, although not a massive name like Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox or David Arquette, the actor certainly has star power and facial recognition, especially within the genre world. Gallner is best known for his role in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street as well as Jennifer’s Body.
In addition to these twelve individual posters, Paramount released a group shot with the tagline “the killer is on this poster”, on which Gallner is once more absent. Or is he? In the image, Ghostface hovers over their prey, so technically perhaps Gallner is present, he’s just hiding behind the mask. Whilst some may argue that Vince might not be a big enough part to legitimise inclusion in the trailer, it is worth noting that Adam Brody featured in several pieces of marketing materials for Scream 4 and his character – Deputy Hoss – only appeared in a couple of small scenes. Similarly, Deon Richmond made the cut for the Scream 3 poster, his character is one of the least featured and whilst one could argue Brody’s inclusion was down to his stint on The OC, Richmond didn’t share an equal level of fame. So again, it all leads back to the question: are they keeping Gallner hidden for another reason? Previous Scream posters have done similar things, Matthew Lillard wasn’t on the Scream poster, neither Ghostface appeared on the Scream 2 poster, Scott Foley was absent from the third poster, and Rory Culkin was missing from the Scream 4 one.
The tease of Ghostface being on this new poster, might not be a tease at all. It could be telling the truth and any one or more of the faces on there could be the newest wearers of the Edvard Munch inspired mask. Outside of Matthew Lillard returning as Stu, another strongly contested culprit is Jenna Ortega’s Tara. Tara is one of the most heavily featured characters in the trailer, seemingly appearing to be the Drew Barrymore of this new version. A theory garnering traction though is that Tara will disappear after the attack and turn up at the end to reveal herself as the puppetmaster, OR, she’ll “survive” and play the long game as fellow victim.
If you dig deep enough there is a case to be made for everyone. Maybe Gale’s hunger for fame finally causes her to get cut-throat, maybe Sidney just can’t deal with all that trauma any more and snaps. Alternatively, perhaps the pairing of siblings Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) are out for justice for the death of the uncle they never got to meet. Savoy Brown is also no stranger to playing a killer, having given a stunning performance in 2021’s Sound of Violence. The list goes on and on, but one thing is certain, it’ll be a wild and gory ride getting to the revelation and we cannot wait to strap into that cinema seat.
Scream will be released in cinemas across the UK from 14th January 2022. Tickets are on sale at most cinema sites now.
