That is an up to date model of an article first printed January 10, 2022.
It’s solely pure {that a} collection as post-modern and self-analytical as Scream would have its personal fictional movie-franchise-within-the-movie-franchise, like an countless Russian nesting doll of parodies. In any case, what higher option to mock horror movies than to invent your personal collection of them, one that may get as outrageous and foolish because the joke calls for, with out having to fret about all that pesky stuff like character growth and logical, narrative sense?
The Stab movies — first launched in Scream 2 as a fictional film collection primarily based on the “actual” occasions occurring to the residents of Woodsboro, California — gave Scream 1-4 director Wes Craven and screenwriters Kevin Williamson (Scream, Scream 2, Scream 4) and Ehren Kruger (Scream 3) an area to satirize the horror style in a larger-than-life manner, whereas nonetheless maintaining the principle franchise comparatively grounded (Comparatively!), which continued with 2022’s fifth Scream movie from writers James Vanderbilt & Man Busick and administrators Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
So earlier than the latest movie within the collection (Scream VI aka Ghostface Takes Manhattan) arrives, and presumably brings with it new updates to the Stab-verse, right here’s a fast rundown of every little thing we all know concerning the collection up to now.
AKA Stab: The Woodsboro Murders
After the preliminary Ghostface killing spree within the city of Woodsboro, depicted within the unique Scream, reporter and eyewitness Gale Weathers wrote a sensationalized, tabloid-style chronicle of the occasions, titled The Woodsboro Murders. Dawn Studios then bought the rights to Weathers’ ebook and introduced in veteran horror producer John Milton to develop it right into a slasher movie (with a watch towards a brand new franchise). He in flip introduced in filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who had not too long ago collaborated on two initiatives with Quentin Tarantino: the anthology movie 4 Rooms and the vampire action-thriller From Nightfall Until Daybreak. (This final entry is probably going what made Milton take into account Rodriguez for the Stab gig.)
Rodriguez introduced in Tori Spelling to play the lead function as Sidney Prescott, reflecting Sidney’s personal casting prediction, made casually to mates throughout the true life Woodsboro killings. The solid additionally included David Schwimmer as Dewey Riley, Luke Wilson as Billy Loomis, and Heather Graham as Casey Becker, who like Drew Barrymore within the unique Scream will get murdered throughout the notorious Stab chilly open. (Within the hyper-titillating world of Stab, she’s having a shower prime prep for film evening, reasonably than simply specializing in the popcorn.) We might later be taught in Scream 3 they have been joined by up-and-coming actress Jennifer Jolie — not an actual life actor however an precise fictional character! — as Gale Weathers.
This unique Stab solid checklist obtained much more stuffed in years later within the fifth Scream movie (aka 5Cream) when Tara Carpenter opened up the Stab IMDb web page, revealing Vince Vaughn as Stu Macher, Alicia Silverstone as Tatum Riley, Craig Bierko as Cotton Weary, and Ron Howard as Principal Arthur Himbry. In actual life, many of those actors have been thought-about for his or her fictional Stab roles within the unique Scream, although Howard’s inclusion is little question as a result of he co-starred on Completely satisfied Days with the precise Arthur Himbry actor, Henry Winkler. Get it? References!
Stab‘s plot follows the essential define of the primary Scream film, with few key largely shower-related deviations. A masked killer generally known as Ghostface stalks the city of Woodsboro. He makes Sidney Prescott his main goal, having murdered her mom Maureen the yr earlier than. On the finish, Ghostface is revealed to be a collaborative effort between Billy and Stu Macher.
AKA Stab 2: The Murders Proceed
In a nod to Scream and its follow-up popping out inside the area of a single yr (albeit these two have been technically no less than in 1996 and 1997, respectively), Stab and its sequel have been each launched in 1998. It’s primarily based on the occasions of the movie Scream 2 and, as soon as extra, was impressed by a Gale Weathers ebook — on this case, School Terror. (She’s not super-great with titles.) Authentic “Stab” filmmaker Robert Rodriguez returned to the franchise for the sequel, apparently in the identical yr that he additionally directed the very REAL horror movie The School. His fictional counterpart was maintaining admirably busy!
Spelling, Schwimmer, and Jolie reprised their lead roles as Sidney, Dewey, and Gale, whereas — going by Scream 3‘s script, albeit not talked about within the movie — Christine Hamilton joined the solid as murdered Windsor School scholar Cici Cooper (who was performed by Sarah Michelle Gellar in Scream 2). After the movie was made, Hamilton began a real-life relationship with the true Cotton Weary, the harmless man whom Sidney had initially held accountable for her mom’s loss of life earlier than Billy and Stu’s involvement was made clear. (Not Craig Bierko, the actor taking part in him within the Stab movies. Hold it straight.) Sadly, within the opening scene of Scream 3, each Cotton and Christine are murdered by the brand new Ghostface.
It’s price noting that we by no means truly see any footage from the movie Stab 2 within the Scream franchise. All of our information about it has been pieced collectively from data we discover out in Scream 3, after we lastly meet producer John Milton and go to Dawn Studios.
The primary tackle Stab 3 was set to be subtitled Return to Woodsboro, and would have been the primary movie within the collection primarily based on a semi-original story. Cotton Weary was set to play himself and get killed within the opening scene. Subsequent, an unique character named Sarah Darling (performed by fictional actress Sweet Brooks) could be murdered simply earlier than having a shower, in a nod to Casey Becker’s loss of life from the unique Stab.
Gale Weathers was additionally going to get killed on this entry, together with a brand new character named Ricky Wafford, performed by fictional actor Tyson Fox and impressed by the Scream character Randy Meeks. (Whew, that’s numerous layers! Submit-modernism!) Jennifer Jolie returned as Gale in Stab 3, although her co-stars Tori Spelling and David Schwimmer each left the collection at this level. Younger actors Angelina Tyler and Tom Prinze have been introduced in to take over as Sidney and Dewey, respectively, with Tyler beating out 50,000 hopefuls in a much-hyped expertise seek for the brand new Sidney.
For no matter purpose, Milton handed up Rodriguez’s companies this time round (or possibly this time Rodriguez couldn’t make the scheduling work) and introduced scorching younger music video director Roman Bridger to take over Stab 3. Sadly, it seems, Bridger was the true, undesirable, secret half-brother of Sidney Prescott, who had by no means gotten over the emotional trauma of being rejected by Maureen years in the past. He’d been secretly orchestrating the Ghostface killings from the very begin, mentoring Billy Loomis as a part of a fiendish revenge plot. Earlier than being shot and killed by Dewey Riley, Roman managed to execute Christine Hamilton, Cotton Weary, Sarah Darling, Tom Prinze, Angelina Tyler, Tyson Fox, Jennifer Jolie, and John Milton. The bloodbath shut down manufacturing of Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro completely and impressed Gale Weathers’ subsequent ebook, Hollywood Horror.
Out of (minor) respect for the victims, Dawn Studios took a few years off earlier than greenlighting a brand new tackle Stab 3, which after all was primarily based on Gale Weathers’ most up-to-date tome. Having initially sat out the third movie, franchise vet Robert Rodriguez ended up returning as soon as extra.
Official Stab posters seen on the official Scream VI Expertise occasion in Los Angeles not too long ago (themselves created for Scream VI) point out {that a} fictional musician named Dante Paltrow wrote the rating for Stab and Stab 2 earlier than precise flesh-and-blood Earth composer Marco Beltrami stepped in to contribute music to Stab 3. That will make Beltrami the one particular person we’re conscious of who has labored on each the precise Scream franchise and its fictional movie-within-a-movie counterpart.
We don’t get a take a look at this model of Stab 3, however a poster that’s seen throughout Scream 4 signifies that it had a HUGE supporting solid, additionally together with Rutger Hauer, Elizabeth Banks, Balthazar Getty, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Aniston, and Will Smith.
In the meantime, we have now to guess there’s some fairly intense curiosity in seeing any footage Roman Bridger shot of the primary model of Stab 3, earlier than he murdered his producer and his complete solid after which was killed himself. Did Dawn ever take into account doing a “tasteful” launch of this in some type?
AKA Stab 4: Knife of Doom
Fed up with the infamy surrounding her identify, Sidney Prescott finally threatened to sue Dawn over their continued exploitation of her life story. (Plus, individuals typically stopped attempting to kill her throughout this era, so there have been no additional tales to adapt or Gale Weathers’ books to license.) So the studio rebooted the Stab franchise fully, beginning a brand new unique trilogy relating a recent story.
Stab posters seen as a part of the aforementioned Los Angeles pop-up occasion Scream VI Expertise truly gave us some new perception into the prolonged franchise in early 2023. We now know {that a} filmmaker named Max Feinberg helmed the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh entries within the Stab collection, all of which have been written by the extraordinarily cleverly-named Will Kennison. See what they did there!? They switched the letters of Kevin Williamson’s first and final identify!
AKA Stab 5: Clock of Doom
Based on Woodsboro Excessive scholar and Stab franchise aficionado Jenny Randall, the fifth movie accommodates a time journey component and was broadly thought-about to be the worst entry within the collection by followers till the discharge of the notably divisive Stab 8. (Extra on that in a bit.) In any other case, not a lot is understood about Stab 4 or its follow-up, Stab 5, and there’s no footage from both movie in any Scream film.
STAB 6 (2007-2009?)
AKA Stab 6: Ghostface Returns
We by no means get a strong plot synopsis of Stab 6, and it’s not fully clear what yr the movie opened, although we will guess it was someday within the late ‘00s from context. We see one sequence from the movie in Scream 4: Two mates — performed by Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes — are about to observe the horror movie Noticed IV once they get simultaneous telephone calls and Fb messages from Ghostface, who then exhibits up and murders them, in a way that instantly reveals there are two killers.
AKA Stab 7: Knife of the Hunter
We solely get to see one transient sequence from the seventh Stab movie, which was primarily based on the novel Knife of the Hunter, written by Gale Weathers beneath her married identify, Gale Riley. This one opens with Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin taking part in friends Chloe and Rachel. They’re watching the opening scene of Stab 6 collectively and providing snarky commentary concerning the predictability of horror movies earlier than Chloe stabs Rachel within the intestine with a knife. Which fairly succinctly makes her level; I imply, she didn’t see that coming.
This was the final movie within the Stab franchise for almost a decade, and the ultimate entry within the franchise to stay true to the unique’s murder-mystery “whodunnit” format.
AKA Stab 8
10 years after Stab 7 appeared to shut out the collection, Ghostface returned within the the “requel” Stab, an try and reboot the franchise for a brand new era. Controversial The Final Jedi helmer Rian Johnson took over the collection, and regardless of his established love of detective mysteries, pivoted away from that style, opting as an alternative for a true-crime docu-drama method recreating the 2011 Woodsboro killings initially featured within the movie Scream 4, together with the involvement of native Woodsboro police officer (and later Sheriff) Judy Hicks. Nevertheless, this new Stab movie apparently takes a number of main liberties with the “precise” occasions.
Hardcore followers rejected Stab, the choice to drop Sidney Prescott and different legacy characters, and Johnson’s try and reboot the general franchise with what was seen as extra of an “elevated” horror method. In truth, the movie turned a relentless topic of scorn and mock on the web, and performed a serious function in inspiring the twenty fifth Anniversary Woodboro Murders, dedicated by poisonous horror film followers Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman. (Not less than Gale Weathers opted to not write a brand new ebook about these crimes, although it appears unlikely any particular person individual is highly effective sufficient to carry the Stab franchise to a detailed single-handedly at this level. It has a momentum of its personal.)
OK, positive, that’s a reasonably convoluted franchise, however hey, it’s primarily based on precise occasions and generally manufacturing on the movies themselves is interrupted by precise murders! So the truth that it’s nonetheless extra coherent, timeline-wise, than the Halloween collection is de facto saying one thing.
Richie and Amber wished to “repair” Stab 8 by utilizing their new crime spree to encourage a re-do of the film. Did they no less than partially succeed? We will see in Scream VI…
For extra on Scream, click on the picture under to see what Skeet Ulrich (“Billy Loomis”) and Matthew Lillard (“Stu Macher”) needed to say concerning the unique movie’s twenty fifth anniversary.
