Background
The best way to describe the ‘Scream’ franchise is by saying that every film that makes up the franchise is like a game of guess who.
In each film there is a murderer who kills the characters, concealing their identity by wearing a Ghostface costume- and it’s down to the audience to try and guess who the killer is.
Throughout this list, we will be counting down the top 10 best Ghostface killers across all six Scream films.
10. Detective Bailey (Scream 6, 2023)
As you can probably tell from this list, I’m not the biggest fan of the latest instalments of the Scream franchise after all, “you can’t beat the original”, but Detective Bailey is tenth on our list for a lot of reasons.First of all, it was obvious that he was the killer throughout the film, as he was acting shifty, attempting to get Kirby taken off the murder case, and when it seemed his own daughter had been brutally murdered by Ghostface, he acted upset for all of two minutes, and then went back to his normal self.As well as this, as Ghostface, he used a gun in a convenience store towards the start of the film, killing random people who got in his way. Any fans of the Scream franchise would see this as a big NO! Ghostface is supposed to be careful, not reckless, all the murders are always planned, Ghostface isn’t supposed to kill random people, there’s always a pattern. And most of all, Ghostface never uses a gun until the big reveal in the third act. This is Scream LAW.
Even the motivations for the murders just seemed repetitive. It’s understandable that the writers of the latest Scream films would want to work from the success of the original trilogy, but making Detective Bailey a literal carbon copy of Nancy Loomis just didn’t work. Therefore, Detective Bailey has to have the tenth place on our list.
9. Micky Altieri (Scream 2, 1997)
“The movies made him do it” or so he says. Mickey was a film studies student obsessed with the move ‘Stab’. He wanted the film to have a sequel, so he decided to target Sidney and commit more Ghostface murders in the hope that it would be made into a second Stab movie.
He had all the ability of a killer, but he had no brains. Throughout Scream 2, Mickey committed all the murders (apart from Randy’s), but he wouldn’t have been able to do any of them without the intelligence of Mrs. Loomis telling who to kill and how to kill them.
Mickey hardly appeared in the film apart from the big reveal in the third act, so viewers more than likely forgot about the character by the time the big reveal came around. However, when he was revealed as the Ghostface killer, he was acting so psychotic and unhinged that it gave off the same vibes of Stu Macher in the first Scream film, just not as good. It’s clear that there are a lot better Ghostfaces than Mickey, so he’s earnt the ninth place on our list.
8. Richie Kirsch (Scream 5, 2022)
Richie was very similar to Micky in terms of his motivations for his murder spree. He was a diehard fan of the Stab franchise and felt that the franchise was dying and needed to go back to its origins, so he found Sam (the daughter of Billy Loomis), became her boyfriend, made her return to Woodsboro, and began his murder spree.
He worked with Amber Freeman and targeted people who have strong connections to characters from the original films- such as Sam (Billy Loomis’ daughter), Mindy and Chad (Randy’s niece and nephew), Tara (Sam’s sister) and Wes (Judy Hicks’ son).
The reason Richie is so low on our list is because he shows no personality throughout the film, he just comes across as the caring, delusional boyfriend, acting like he doesn’t know what’s going on most the time. He even told Sam that he’s never heard of the Stab franchise as he thought it would throw suspicions away from him, but the Stab films are very popular in the Scream universe, so the fact that he said he’s never heard of them instantly made him suspicious.
7. Quinn Bailey (Scream 6, 2023)
Quinn is the daughter of Detective Bailey and sister of Richie Kirsch. She was working with Detective Bailey and her other brother, Ethan as the three Ghostface killers of the 2023 massacre in New York.
Quinn wasn’t necessarily a great Ghostface when it came to her kill count, but she had two of the most intense scenes of the film. One being the scene where Mindy was attacked on the subway. The other being the fight scene with Gale Weathers. Gale hasn’t had a phone call from Ghostface until Quinn Bailey called her in her apartment, and Quinn would have succeeded in killing her if the paramedics didn’t arrive on time.
It appeared that Quinn was murdered towards the beginning of the film, so it was a huge twist, that I didn’t see coming when she was unmasked in the third act of the end of the film. As she was part of the most intense fight scene with Gale Weathers (across all six films), and the shock of her faking her own death, Quinn has earnt the seventh place on our list. Unfortunately, we couldn’t rank her any higher as her death count was basically non-existent.
6. Amber Freeman (Scream 5, 2022)
Amber Freeman became obsessed with the Stab movies and the history of Woodsboro when her parents brought Stu Macher’s old house. She met Richie on a Reddit forum and together they planned the 2022 Woodsboro murders.
Throughout the film, Amber was quite annoying and was a very blunt character, which made her an obvious suspect to be Ghostface, which came true by the end of the film.
Although there were not many likable qualities of Amber, she did have a high kill count, including the murder of fan-favourite legacy character, Dewey. The fact that she was able to kill Dewey and even called it “an honour” must gain Amber a place on our list.
As well as this, she probably had one of the best Ghostface deaths by being burnt alive, therefore she has earnt the sixth place in our list.
5. Nancy Loomis (Scream 2, 1997)
Scream 2 successfully broke the stereotype of Ghostface by having the killer revealed to be Nancy Loomis. Nancy was the mother of Billy Loomis, who was the Ghostface in the first Scream film. Her main motivation for the murders was revenge. She wanted revenge on Sidney, Gale, Dewey, and Randy for the death of Billy in the first film.
Nancy recruited Micky and paid for his tuition into the same university as Sidney and Randy, so he could get close to them. She even gave herself the false persona, Debbie Salt and became a news reporter so she could keep herself close to Gale Weathers.
She was probably the smartest and most resourceful Ghostface as she planned the murders and told Mickey who to murder and how. however, technically she only killed one person- Randy and this was only after Randy called Billy a “mamma’s boy”. Because of her lack of kill count Nancy Loomis has gained the fifth place on our list.
4. Stu Macher (Scream, 1996)
Stu Macher was one of the original two Ghostfaces. In fact, the first two victims of the whole franchise were Stu’s ex-girlfriend, Casey Becker and her new boyfriend, Steve.
Stu was probably one of the most dangerous Ghostfaces in the whole franchise as he didn’t have a real motive for his killings, he only did it because it was fun, and he was psychotic. However, when he was questioned by Sidney what he would tell the police, Stu told her that he was going to blame ‘Peer-pressure’.
Stu was completely psychotic, and this made him one of the best Ghostfaces, the only reason he’s fourth on our list and not higher is because of his lack of motive, and other Ghostfaces just have better motives than him.
3. Roman Bridger (Scream 3, 2000)
“Kudos to him for ambition.” Roman Bridger was the only Ghostface of the 2000 massacre. Roman was the biological half-brother of Sidney, and he orchestrated the original Ghostface killings by recruiting Billy Loomis.
All the murders committed in the third instalment of the Scream franchise were all down to Roman Bridger. This was almost enough for him to gain the top spot in our list, however, some of the killings seemed impossible for him to commit as he would have had to be in two places at once. As well as this, it was quite obvious throughout the film that he was the killer.
Because of his ambition, and despite all the plot holes surrounding the character, we believe that Roman deserves the third place in our list.
2. Billy Loomis (Scream, 1996)
Billy Loomis was the boyfriend of Sidney Prescott, and the first ever Ghostface. He has earnt the second place on our list for a number of reasons.
Billy’s motivation for committing the murders was that Sidney’s mum, Maureen was having an affair with Billy’s father, Hank. Billy’s mother found out and left. Upset by the whole situation, Billy killed Maureen and wanted further revenge by killing Sidney and everyone she cares about.
To throw suspicion away from himself being the killer, towards the end of the film, he faked his own death by making it look like he was murdered by Stu Macher, and it was a huge shock when Billy was revealed to be the murderer.
Billy almost won the top spot on our list, but there is one other Ghostface killer we feel deserves the top spot…
1. Jill Roberts (Scream 4, 2011)
Jill Roberts was Sidney’s cousin, and she has successfully gained the top spot on our list. Jill had grown up her whole life living in her cousin’s shadow. Fed up with her life, she decided to start the 2011 Woodsboro murders, where everyone would die except herself and Gale, so she could be seen as the perfect ‘final girl’ and Gale would help Jill write a book about surviving the murders.
Jill has gained the top spot on our list because she wasn’t the obvious suspect of being Ghostface, her motive was strong and clear, and she was completely psychotic as she pulled her own hair out, threw herself against walls and into a glass table to make herself look like a victim. She even went as far as to kill her own mother. She was completely deranged, and the role was played perfectly by Emma Roberts.
Ultimately, Jill was killed by Sidney in the hospital after her plan failed, however she still got a great death scene, by being shocked in the head by a defibrillator.
Do you agree with our picks for the top ten Ghostfaces? Let us know in the comments below.
