October 22, 2015

I wanted to do something a little different with “Character Showdown” this week. So far, each week we’ve been looking at various actors all tackling the same iconic role and comparing the differences. This week, I wanted to take a look at the SCREAM franchise, whose villain affectionately known as “Ghostface,” has always been a revolving cast of characters from sequel to sequel, pending on their motivations and how it connects to the last film in the franchise.

Be warned, this WILL be spoiler heavy.

But I’m skipping the TV show for now, since it’s still rather fresh and I don’t want to spoil that for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. (And you should check it out, because it’s good!)

So let’s go through the SCREAM movies and decide. Who was your favorite Ghostface?

SCREAM – Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu (Matthew Lillard)

It’s usually tough to top the original. And I think that might hold true in this case as well. When the killers (plural!) are revealed at the end of the first SCREAM, it turns out to be Billy Loomis, Sidney Prescott’s boyfriend. At first he claims it’s much scarier to have no motive, but in actuality, Bill blamed Sidney’s mom for having an affair with his dad and breaking up his family. OK, actually typing that out, I realize how crazy a reaction it is to dress up as a killer and slaughter most of your friends because your mom left. Not as great a motive as I remembered. But hey, seemed reasonable at the time of its release. But what about his accomplice Stu? First of all, how cool was that to discover that there were in fact two killers to pull this off! Well, Stu’s motivation was simply peer pressure. And the chance to be a minor celebrity once the dust settled and him & Billy could become the sole survivors of the Woodsburo Masscacre. Thankfully, Sidney stepped up and stopped them. “Not in my movie.”

SCREAM 2 – Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Mrs. Loomis aka Debbie Salt (Laurie Metcalf)

In the second SCREAM, Sidney is now in college and someone is murdering people on campus using the Ghostface M.O. Could it be her boyfriend with the extremely bad singing voice Derek (Jerry O’Connell), as she suspects? Or maybe Cotton Weary, the man accused and imprisoned for murdering Sidney’s mom who was acquitted? No. It actually turns out to be… Billy’s… mother? Yep. Laurie Metcalf plays aspiring and annoying amateur journalist Debbie Salt. But when Sidney finally sees her, she recognizes her immediately as Mrs. Loomis. What’s Mickey’s story? He was an active serial killer that Mrs. Loomis found on the Internet and recruited to help her on her quest to avenge her son. Mickey’s original plan is to “blame the movies,” to which Mrs. Loomis immediately dispatches him and reiterates how crazy that is. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s underlining message? Don’t blame the movies. It all starts at home. And Billy was probably a psycho because his mom was a psycho too. Win again for Team Sidney Prescott & now her sidekicks Dewey (David Arquette) and Gail (Courtney Cox)!

SCREAM 3 – Roman Bridger (Scott Foley)

Hey, I like SCREAM 3. If anything, because Parker Posey is amazing as the actress portraying Gail Weathers in whatever STAB sequel they’re up to in the movie within the movie. So who’s using the persona of Ghostface to knock off the cast & crew of the new movie based on the Woodsburo Massacre? Well, as they always say, blame the director! (Or is it writer? Anyways…) Roman Bridger is the sole killer in SCREAM 3. The director of the latest STAB sequel, but also Sidney’s half-brother as it turns out Sidney’s mom had him and gave him up for adoption. Sidney’s mom had a secret hidden past in Hollywood as an aspiring actress, but was used, abused and taken advantage of by sleazy producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen)! He’s jealous because Sidney got the life and family he should have had. When he returned to meet his biological mother, she rejected him and turned him away. So he in turn showed Billy Loomis videos of Sidney’s mom having an affair with his dad, and in essence starting this whole thing to begin with. Pretty wacky and out there, but those are the facts!

SCREAM 4 – Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) and Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin)

And lastly we have SCREAM 4. You’ll have to forgive me because I’ve only seen it once so I’m basing this off of my vague memory. Years have passed, Sidney has written a book about surviving the multiple iterations of Ghostface over the years. And then someone takes up the mantle again with the impending STAB-A-THON marathon forthcoming. We’re back to 2 killers (technically) with SCREAM 4. Sidney’s own niece Jill (Emma Roberts) is the one orchestrating the new Ghostface with the help of (too-short-to-really-be-Ghostface) Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin). His motivation is his love of Jill and the idea that they can be this generation’s Sidney and Randy. For Jill, it’s more about getting her 15 minutes of fame and being an instant online celebrity. So she really doesn’t want to share that with Charlie. Once again, as Sidney points out, “one thing about remakes, you don’t f*ck with the original.” It’s an admirable attempt at making a social commentary on today’s celebrity obsessed youth, but it misses the mark in updating everything else, such as utilizing what’s happened in horror in the decade since the last movie. (Found Footage, Torture Porn, etc.)

Wow, I guess looking back, the motivations of most of SCREAM’s killers is a bit on the silly side, but I still love the movies. Personally, I have to go with the original. Billy Loomis and Stu defined the characteristics of Ghostface. The look, the mask, the horror trivia phone calls and taunting. They’re my fave pair.

What about you guys?