For better or for worse, Scream 5 is officially in the works at Spyglass Media Group. As Wes Craven is no longer with us, Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have stepped in to helm the new film with original writer Kevin Williamson co-writing the screenplay with James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. While no details have been revealed about the plot, we can presume that the sequel will acknowledge the previous installments of the series, now that David Arquette has been confirmed to reprise his franchise role as Sheriff Dewey Riley.
Although Arquette is on board, Neve Campbell still has yet to officially sign on to appear as Sidney Prescott, but she has confirmed that talks have taken place with the filmmakers about bringing her into the film. It seems likely, as it wouldn’t feel like a true Scream sequel without her, though that does bring up the question asked by the title of this article. From the start of this whole story and dating back to her teenage years, poor Sidney has been unmasking and defeating one Ghostface-masked psychopath after another, losing several of her friends each time. Is this really going to happen for the rest of her life?
Let’s take a moment to go through the character’s history, but know that potential spoilers for years-old movies are ahead for those not caught up on the Scream franchise. In high school, many of Sidney’s classmates were butchered by two masked assailants revealed to be her own boyfriend and his best pal. After killing them both herself, Sidney attends college in Scream 2, only for the Ghostface murders to start happening again. This time, Sidney discovers that it’s her dead boyfriend’s mother picking up where her son left off, using the help of a horror-obsessed classmate. That’s four murderers that have tried to kill Sidney wearing the same costume by the time she gets her associate’s degree.
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After Scream 2, Sidney starts getting the hint that living a normal life will not be for her, so she goes into self-isolation. Unfortunately, a famous film director who also happens to be her long-lost half-brother is the next person to develop a master plan to kill her. After luring Sidney out of hiding by killing off the cast members of his own film, Roman joins the previous Ghostface killers in death when Sidney and Dewey dispatch him as well. At the time, it seemed like this would be the end of the Scream series, and it began to look like Sidney could finally find some peace with all five of her would-be assassins dead.
As we know now, that didn’t turn out to be the case. Craven would return to the franchise for one last go with the sequel Scream 4, which was released in 2011. While visiting Woodsboro to promote her new book, a new Ghostface begins killing teenagers in town again, even tying Sidney to the murders by planting evidence in her car. In the end, the mastermind behind the killings is revealed to be Sidney’s own cousin, Jill, using the help of the local horror geek. That brings us up to seven Ghostface killers who’ve tried to kill Sidney in one 15-year period, and two of them were her own relatives!
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Now that we’re preparing for the return of Ghostface in theaters — and assuming Sidney Prescott will again be the central focus of the story — this means we’ll be seeing at least eight killers in a single slasher film franchise. Something interesting about the Scream movies is that the whodunit aspect means that a new killer must be introduced in each story. It’s starkly different compared to other slasher series where you typically have just one killer always coming back from the dead to continue their killings, and it does lead one to wonder just how many copycat killers will go for one particular person.
Of course, guessing who the killer is has always been a part of the fun with watching the Scream movies. If the fans want it, I am also on board for seeing Scream 5 happen, even if it means even more trouble will be coming Sidney’s way soon. I just empathize with the perennial final girl, as I’m sure this whole thing is starting to get old from her point of view. Let’s just hope she survives if she appears in Scream 5 — it wouldn’t be fun at all to see her going down after personally taking out so many other Ghostface killers in the years before.
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Personally, I hope that the first victim in the inevitable opening sequence actually is Sydney. As mentioned above, how man times can we endure the same ‘ol routine where her friends and loved ones get killed off but she outsmarts the killer(s) and delivers some catch phrase that’s, not catchy at all. I feel like the stakes need to be raised this time and maybe we can center on an entirely new story with different characters. Preferably this can take place in an entirely new setting, no more Woodsboro, but with Dewey and (hopefully) Gail being the only returning characters. That’s the only link to the existing installments I would care to see at this point.