A Guide to the Scream Universe: From Sidney Prescott to Tara Carpenter

Wes Craven broke into the world of horror with the mortifying rape-revenge film The Last House on the Left in 1972. For decades, Craven was a titan of the genre, helming classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Hills Have Eyes.

His finest work can be found in the slasher franchise Scream. As the director of the first four Scream movies (2011’s Scream 4 was Craven’s final film before his death in 2015), Craven crafted a world full of humor, terror, and meta-humor that proved to be an undeniably entertaining concoction.

Fans thought the franchise was over when Craven died, but in 2022, a new team brought the world of meta-terror back with the legacy sequel Scream. The fifth film in the franchise introduced a new cast of characters, while reintroducing beloved fan favorites. It was every bit as sharp as Craven’s films were and proved that the series had plenty of places to go.

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Scream 6 is set to continue the revived franchise, bringing it to New York City for the first time. If you’ve never seen any Scream film, you may be wondering why on Earth there’s six of them now. You’re also probably despondent over the idea of having to watch five films just to keep up with what’s going. But have no fear! Here’s everything you need to know about the world of Scream—let’s call it the Screamverse—to get ready for Scream 6.

The (not-so) basics

1996’s Scream establishes the fictional town of Woodsboro and our hero Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a high school student whose mother was murdered one year before. Still justifiably haunted by what happened, Sidney is horrified to discover that dead bodies are piling up once again in Woodsboro. To make matters worse, she’s a prime target herself. The suspect, who disguises their voice and is known only as Ghostface for the mask they wear, claims to have killed her mother, and they won’t rest until Sidney herself is dead.

With some help from police officer Dewey (David Arquette) and reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), Sidney manages to subdue and uncover the killer. She’s devastated to discover that her very own boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) was behind the Ghostface mask. That’s right—the man who killed Sidney’s mother and tried to kill her was her boyfriend, a discovery she makes moments after losing her virginity to him. That’s a lot! To make things wilder, there were actually two killers splitting Ghostface duties, the other being Sidney’s and Billy’s friend Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard).

The two-killer reveal was a massive shock and lay the blueprint for the franchise. Since then, there are always two killers, making it twice as tantalizing to suss out who’s behind the mask. The identity of Ghostface is also different every film, making the whodunnit aspect extra exciting every time.

What you need to know about Scream 2, 3, and 4 is that they introduce the Stab movies, a (fictional) series of horror movies inspired by the events of the first Scream, which exist within the Screamverse. The first one follows the events of the ’96 Scream, but they’ve taken on a life of their own ever since. The Stab series also inspires plenty of copycat Ghostface killers along the way. Scream 3 takes place on the set of Stab 3, creating a phantasmagoria of winking madness. By the time we reach 2022’s Scream, there have been eight in-universe Stab movies; the controversial nature of the latest Stab film becomes of great importance in the 2022 film.

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Speaking of 2022’s Scream—it essentially reboots the franchise. It's so similar to the original that it even has the same name, but it spices things up in some exciting new ways. This fifth entry does ignore a cardinal rule introduced in Scream 4, however: “Don’t fuck with the original.” But it’s such a satisfying ride that fans (myself included) are eagerly anticipating how the story will continue on in Scream 6.

Who you need to know

In Scream (2022), we’re introduced to four characters who survive to see Scream 6, where they are poised to take on an important role.

Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) appears in the first scene of Scream, leading us to think she won’t make it out alive. (Cardinal rule: If you’re in the opening scene, you’re going to die.) But despite failing some Stab trivia and enraging him, Tara calls the police before Ghostface kills her; she manages to survive, despite receiving a number of stab wounds.

This brings her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) back to Woodsboro, where she reveals a devastating secret: When she was 13, Sam discovered that she was the daughter of her mother’s affair. Her father is actually Billy Loomis, Sidney Prescott’s ex and the Ghostface from the original film.

Alongside the Carpenter sisters (named after Halloween director John Carpenter, I’m sure) are Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), twins who are friends of Tara’s from high school. They’re the nephews of Randy (Jamie Kennedy), a deceased friend of Sidney, who was a horror film obsessive. We didn’t get to know much about Chad in the previous film, but Mindy shone through, carrying on her uncle Randy’s legacy as a horror movie fiend. She even repeats Randy’s famous “Look behind you” line from the original film. Mindy is also the series’ first canonically queer character, which means we must protect her at all costs.

All four of the friends were brutally attacked by Ghostface in this film, so I imagine in Scream 6, they’ll be extremely concerned that yet another Ghostface is back in their lives—especially as they’ve moved all the way to New York City to get away from Woodsboro.

That said, Scream spends a lot of time focusing on the legacy characters, so the newbies still are a bit undefined. There’s plenty of opportunity for Scream 6 to explore them further—assuming any of them make it out alive.

A surprise for many fans will be the return of Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), who’s set to have a major role in Scream 6. She was last seen left for dead in Scream 4, making this a long-awaited and surprising comeback.

The biggest returning character is Gale Weathers, the only character who’s been in every film. After first appearing a ruthless reporter who will do whatever it takes for a story, Gale has steadily become one of the series’ heroes, possessing a great blend of charm, survival skills, and a steadfast commitment to her career. She also fell in love with Dewey. The pair got married around the time of Scream 4, though they were divorced by the time the reboot came around. (Courteney Cox and David Arquette, a.k.a. Gale and Dewey, followed a similar trajectory in real life; the divorcées remain friends.)

This brings us to the franchise’s most important character. No disrespect to Halloween’s Laurie Strode, but Sidney Prescott is the ultimate “final girl.” She’s lost so many people that matter to her that death is practically programmed into her. Yet she’s remained incredibly resilient in the face of all these murders, five grueling films, and plenty of Ghostfaces that have tried to take her down. The only thing you can really count on in Scream movies is that Sidney Prescott is going to make it to the end.

Except for this time. News that actor Neve Campbell was not returning for Scream 6 took the internet by storm and left Scream fans heartbroken. How could the series continue without her? Why on Earth wouldn’t they pay Campbell what she deserves? She is the franchise. Still, if last year’s Scream is any indication, there will be plenty of references to Sidney, even if she isn’t going to grace us with her presence. And at the end of 2022’s Scream, she seemed at peace, living far from Woodsboro, happily married with children.

Maybe Ghostface has finally decided to stop hunting her. I can live with that, even if it means being without the best character in the Screamverse.

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Who’s new to the cast of Scream 6?

Joining the cast for this film are Jack Champion, Liana Liberato, Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving, Dermot Mulroney, Henry Czerny, Devyn Nekoda, and Josh Segarra, amongst others. Whether any of them makes it out alive or not remains to be seen; the film has been touted as one of the most kill-filled films in the series.

Who’s behind the mask in Scream 6?

Good question! The quick answer: I have no idea. You’ll have to see the movie to find out, and I’m sure the reveals will surprise us both.

What makes Scream so special?

All of this discussion matters because Scream matters. The movies have become one of horror’s defining franchises for one reason: the gloriously self-referential, meta quality that defines it. These movies pride themselves on gleefully toying with horror conventions.

Each Scream film is extremely aware of other horror movies and their tropes. In the very first scene of the original Scream, hapless victim Casey (Drew Barrymore) takes a phone call from a killer, who makes her answer horror movie trivia to save her and her boyfriend’s life. When the mysterious caller—Ghostface, the series’ iconic villain—suddenly bangs on the door, Casey pleads, “Who’s there?” only to be told, “Never say ‘who’s there?’ Don’t you watch scary movies? It’s a death wish.”

One character in Scream breaks down the essential “rules” of surviving a horror movie, with multiple new rules introduced throughout the franchise. Scream 2 has an entire sequence set in a college film class, with students discussing movie sequels and their merits. In the fifth Scream, which bears the same title as the original, even has someone explicitly explain that they’re all living through a legacy sequel.

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