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As the list of actors is slowly being fleshed out for the upcoming Scream 7, we thought we would take a look back at the franchise’s opening kills. If you’re squeamish about spoilers then don’t read ahead as we are going to reveal a few things.
Wes Craven’s horror classic was released in 1996, but the director wasn’t originally interested in doing it. A young fan convinced him otherwise.
Recalls Craven in an interview with Inside Story: “A little kid of around 12 came up to me and said, ‘You should do a real goddamn movie again because the movies you’ve been doing have been getting softer and softer.’ And that just stuck with me.”
With a little encouragement from Drew Barrymore, Craven signed on.
Kevin Williamson wrote the screenplay. He was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, Danny Rolling, a Florida serial killer who stabbed five college students in August 1990. Williamson’s script features the now quintessential Scream cold open where Ghostface kills his first victim within the first 10 minutes. There have been variations of that schema throughout the franchise, but mostly the gag stays intact throughout.
We decided to rank all six curtain raisers in the order of best to worst. We don’t go into the TV series. This is just our opinion, but feel free to chime in with yours in the comments.
Drew Barrymore (Scream – 1996)
The queen of the Scream curtain raisers is Drew Barrymore. That first scene was a meta masterpiece, having the actress listed as top-billing then killing her before the plot even got started. The Jiffy Pop popcorn, the cordless phone, and the horror pop quiz are now iconic. It’s funny because she misses the question about Jason being the killer in the first Friday the 13th movie while sporting a similar type of sweater that Mrs. Voorhees, the real killer, wore in that film.
Well-choreographed, thrilling, and completely out of left field, the original Scream opening with Barrymore is unmatched.
Samara Weaving (Scream VI)
Samara Weaving is beloved in the horror community. Her role in The Babysitter got her noticed but Ready or Not put her on the map. So when it was announced that she had been cast in Scream VI, fans were excited. But they figured out early on that she was the first kill, and then they got even more excited.
Her death scene incorporates the popular trend of blind dating through an app. What makes her death fresh is that the audience is tricked. The Ghostface who kills her isn’t really a Ghostface at all; he is a copycat killer named, ahem, Jason. In an extra bit of homage, Jason is killed by the real Ghostface after he sees his roommate’s head in the fridge; a call back to Friday the 13th Part 2.
Aimee Teegarden and Britt Robertson (Scream IV)
The opening to Scream IV is convoluted. At first, it’s funny, then it’s maddening and finally, satisfying. This one does the fake-out routine where what we think is the real opening is actually a scene from the Stab franchise, Scream’s movie-within-a-movie gag. They do this twice before Aimee Teegarden and Britt Robertson, the real first kills, are taken out. This would be Craven’s last Scream, and it goes to show just what a master of misdirection he really was.
Jada Pinkett Smith (Scream 2)
Again using Stab as a basis for misdirection, Scream 2 starts out with fans going to see a sneak peek of the first Stab. Jada Pinkett Smith‘s character isn’t a real fan of slasher movies and roasts them to her boyfriend Omar Epps. Then, she narrates aloud how she would react in situations like the ones shes seeing on screen unknowingly being targeted herself in real life.
Her melodramatic silver screen death scene has become iconic. Vastly emphasized by its lampooning by the impeccable Regina Hall in the Scream parody Scary Movie.
Kelly Rutherford (Scream 3)
Even though this is really Cotton Weary’s (Liev Schreiber) death scene, the female collateral damage is his girlfriend Christine (Kelly Rutherford). This opening wasn’t Craven’s best. His attempt to throw us off by using Christine as a decoy, ultimately wasn’t effective because Rutherford was neither a popular star nor did she have any empathetic charisma. Even Weary’s kill was uninspired and the whole thing was forgettable. To add insult to injury, they introduced that voice-changing device which broke everyone’s suspension of disbelief.
Jenna Ortega(ish) (Scream 2022)
What a shame that a reboot and homage to the original Scream breaks the mold as far as First Kill girls. In fact, no one dies in the open. Even Randy would disapprove. I see what they were going for. They wanted to confuse the audience into thinking Ortega would die, but little did they know she would become a franchise hero for two movies.
That is not to say the opening sequence was bad, but for fans who have been with the franchise for nearly 30 years, it could have been a better game-changer. This entry also emphasized how no matter how extensive the injuries, everyone seems to survive — at least the important ones.
