scream hit the viewing audience at just the right time. After a decade of routine slasher movies, audiences had become numbed by the quintessential tropes associated with their favorite 1980s genre. By the time the 1990s rolled around, the slasher movie had to evolve due to audience expectations as weapon to use. Thus, a postmodern horror icon was born. Written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven, scream was so successful that it spawned five sequels (at the time of writing) and served as the inspiration for two TV shows that took advantage of the financeability of the franchise's name, without the innovative storytelling that made the original such a success.
However, a clever gimmick is not enough to keep a movie series alive. Another reason scream lasted so long is his ability to hold up a bloody mirror to society. The motivations of the killers in each film are often directly related to what popular culture is obsessed with at the time. By constantly moving with the times, scream has been able to endure after the passing of the man who brought it to life in the first place, ensuring that its name and legacy will live on. To honor that work, we take a look at why the killers in these films committed such heinous acts and rank them based on originality, relevance, and believability.
6 Peer Pressure - Scream
One of the shocking twists at the end of the original scream was that there were two killers. The mastermind, of course, was Billy Loomis, Sidney's sexually frustrated, movie-obsessed boyfriend. The other was his best friend Stu Macher, the man who could never be Billy and knew it. When Sidney asks Stu what his motive was for putting on the mask and killing so many people, he replies, "Peer pressure." I'm way too sensitive." In some ways, this is the most realistic motif. If Billy had the motivation, he certainly seems like the kind of mysterious and charismatic person who could build a cult.
So it's not unbelievable that Stu was so desperate for his buddy's approval that he agreed to commit a series of murders. However, Stu had lost a lot of blood and was already feeling "a little dizzy", so he may not be the most reliable narrator. So we can't be sure if this was the case Actually his motivation, or not. It is also possible that this was Charlie Walker's motive Scream 4but he never explicitly states his reasons, it is only implied that he did it to be close to Jill and become famous.
5 Jealousy - Scream 3
Although Roman Bridger is the only killer Scream 3he shares some of his motivation with his cousin Jill Roberts Scream 4. Both characters are jealous of Sidney Prescott's life, but for very different reasons. In Roman's case, it's because his mother Maureen gave him up as a child, went back to Woodsboro, got married, gave birth to Sidney, and started a new, happy family that wanted nothing to do with him.
Enraged, he orchestrated the brutal murder of Maureen and the entrapment of Cotton Weary. He then worked his way up in Hollywood as a director and was hired Stitch 3, and began killing his cast so that his long-lost sister would find him, and he could kill her for daring to experience the happy family life he was entitled to. This motif is fine for the movie itself, but it's a bit long-winded. Those are one lot of hoops to jump through when he could have just killed Sidney the same night Maureen was killed.
4 Revenge - Scream 2
By far the most popular motif in the scream movies is revenge. Billy claims to have raped and killed Maureen because she had an affair with his father, which caused his mother to leave him. Why did Nancy Loomis lose a lot of weight, get a makeover and pretend to be a reporter named Debbie Salt in Scream 2? To get revenge on Sidney for killing her son Billy Loomis. Why did Quinn and Ethan become roommates with Sam, Tara and Chad while their father Wayne became a New York cop? So they could pay tribute to their beloved Richie, who of the Stiches movies and was killed by Sam and Tara in Scream 5.
Revenge is probably the easiest motive to deal with. It's easy to put ourselves in the shoes of these individuals and ask ourselves, "What would we do if someone we love was killed?" However, where it falls apart is all the work these individuals have put into seeking revenge. Would you really go through all of that if it would have been much easier to get close to the person and end them right away? It's a believable motive taken just a little too far for credibility.
3 Fame - Scream 4
Yes in Scream 4, Jill was jealous of her cousin Sidney, but not because she wanted a life of family bliss. No, she couldn't stand all the attention Sid was getting. Jill wanted to be famous. So she followed her cue of all the reality stars who got all their fame and notoriety from having horrible things happen to them. She convinced the movie nerd Charlie (who obviously appealed to his attraction to her) to help her and the pair tried to frame Sidney as a murderer while being seen as the lucky survivors.
Mickey Alrieri (played by Timothy Olyphant), the most dangerous film student of all time, was motivated by a similar desire in Scream 2. The difference here is that he wanted to get caught so there would be a big, sensational trial (things like that were very popular in the '90s) and he could entertain the crowd. He saw his fame as theater, a fictional story intertwined with elements of reality, all controlled by him. In both cases, this is one of the scarier motives, because we've seen how far people will go in the real world to become famous.
2 Fans' Rights - Scream (2022)
Scream 5 contains probably the most unique motivation since the first film. Rather than someone obsessed with horror movies in general, the killers in the fifth episode are obsessed with the Stiches movies specifically. In their minds, the Stiches franchise (which was inspired by the events of the first three scream movies) had become so lost that it was up to them to reboot the series in real life, as the very best Stiches movies were based on actual events.
Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman bonded over their mutual love for Stiches online and hatched their plan to terrorize Woodsboro again, this time with the help of Billy Loomis' daughter so that a good Stiches sequel can finally be made. For the first time, the killers do something purely out of love. You could argue that revenge is inspired by love, but that's more about anger and sadness than anything else. These two idiots love Stiches so much that they are willing to become serial killers to save it. It's a fascinating motivation that serves as a poignant commentary on the toxic fan rights culture that's rampant on the internet.
1 No motive - Scream
Billy Loomis gives two reasons for his actions in the original scream. The first (as mentioned earlier) was anger and bitterness over Sidney's mother breaking up his family. The second is that he has no motive. He just wanted to do it. Writer Kevin Williamson has said this stemmed from discussions with people divided over the nature of the motif. Some people want there to be a clear, understandable motive, while others have found it scarier to have no motive. So he did both.
Of all the killers on this list, Billy Loomis feels like the most dangerous. He is elusive and difficult to track down. We start the first movie believing him to be the killer, then we see him get killed. However, it turns out that the attack was faked. He planned his attacks perfectly and thought through everything to keep Sidney and us in the dark until the very end. Keeping his motive vague only adds to his mystique. There's obviously something wrong with him, but he's so brilliant and two-faced that it's almost impossible to fully understand him. Therefore, the absence of motive is the best motive of all.
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