History Characters / ScreamGhostface

* SiblingYinYang: Ethan is depicted as a dorky, soft-spoken ShrinkingViolet who struggles with talking to girls and gets almost no respect from his peers. Quinn is easy-going, brutally honest, has no problem attracting multiple guys, and seems to be on good terms with the rest of their friend group.

** They also deconstruct the sociopathic chessmaster type of villain. While the plans each Ghostface incarnation makes for their kills are genuinely impressive, often remaining under the radar for the whole film, their plans are full of flaws that would have exposed them eventually if investigated by competent investigators. Even aside from their moments of BondVillainStupidity, their attempts to stage themselves as victims who narrowly survived the experience would not hold up to forensic scrutiny[[note]]for one thing, Billy had already used fake blood earlier that night to fake an attack, and was still coated in it by the time he and Stu intentionally injure one-another[[/note]] while the patsies they try to pin the blame on for the attacks and frame would similarly be easily cleared of guilt[[note]]both Sidney's father and Trevor would show obvious signs of having been kidnapped and held against his will, from the marks left on them from being BoundAndGagged to how they were incapacitated in the first place leaving obvious injuries that wouldn't match defensive wounds, and Sam's injuries wouldn't line up with those Ghostface would have occurred nevermind the fact she wasn't even in the same state when Tara was attacked and has alibis for the other attacks[[/note]]. Aside from that, they make a number of small mistakes that contribute to their undoing that allow for Sidney and later Sam to get the upper hand in the final act, from failing to account for some of the other characters involved to not ensuring their victims are actually dead. This all matches up with the reality of most real life killers (spree killers in general rarely escape justice, and most serial killers generally get by on police incompetence or indifference rather than their own skill, and in reality, serial killers tend to be individuals of below average intelligence and are often exposed by family), but also shows that while they certainly think of themselves as brilliant masterminds, they're grossly overestimating themselves and underestimating everyone around them.

* GlassCannon: Justified, as they are overly dependent on their victims cowering in fear, and are thus almost laughingly unprepared for when someone fights back, especially Sidney.

* OutlawCouple: The first pair of Ghostfaces who are confirmed to be romantically involved. This is later subverted when Jill backstabs Charlie and reveals that he was one of the {{fall guy}}s all along.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Charlie clearly sees him and Jill akin to something like ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'', as a pair of OutlawCouple [[VillainProtagonists Villain Protagonists]] who end the movie getting away with their crimes. Jill proves him very, very wrong.

* OutlawCouple: Charlie and Jill are a couple, but this is later subverted when Jill backstabs Charlie and reveals that he was one of the {{fall guy}}s all along.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: The fifth film reveals that he cheated on Sidney just before the events of the film, adding yet another layer to what a bastard he was. Bonus points for his motive being his anger at Maureen Prescott for having an affair with Billy's father and tearing his family apart and yet still having no issue engaging in infidelity himself.

** He'd also cheated on Sidney before the events of the film, adding infidelity to his long list of crimes.

* {{Hypocrite}}: He hates the Prescotts and blames them for destroying his family because his father had an affair with Maureen Prescott, which led to his mother leaving. And yet, Randy spots him flirting with some girls in the video store when he is already going out with Sidney. Furthermore, in the fifth film, it's revealed that he knocked up Sam's mother Cristina. Given the ''very'' tight time frames implied by the dialogue,[[note]]Sam's mention that she was 13 and her sister Tara was 8 when she found out who her biological father was implies an age gap of five to six years, and it's mentioned that the events of the fifth film take place almost exactly twenty-five years after the first. If Tara is young enough to be in high school (18), that would make Sam no older than 24, the time between the films minus the nine months it would've taken for her to gestate. Billy would've had to have had sex with Cristina and conceived Sam very shortly before the events of the first film.[[/note]] this means that Billy cheated on Sidney with Cristina. For bonus points, the revelation of Cristina's infidelity caused her husband to leave her and their children, the very same situation that drove Billy to kill.

* EvilIsBigger: Matthew Lillard is 6'3", the tallest of the main cast of the first film.

* {{Expy}}: Can be considered one for [[Film/FridayThe13th1980 Pamela Voorhees]]. Both are grieving mothers who seek revenge for their sons' deaths, and murder because of the insanity stemming from it. Many of the tropes seen here can even be found on Pamela's character page as well. However, Pamela's FreudianExcuse is stronger, and her character is ultimately more sympathetic and tragic, due to having suffered even before Jason was born, and having had to raise him during what should have been the best years of her life as a teenager, while Mrs. Loomis' abandonment of Billy makes it hard to sympathize with her, especially since it was a primary factor in how he went insane. There's also the fact that, at the time, Jason was an innocent boy, whereas Billy had already become a serial killer.

* LikeParentUnlikeChild: Billy's daughter Sam, despite having her demons, has all the empathy and genuine sense of righteousness that Billy lacked; where Billy murdered Maureen Prescott out of disproportionate rage and subsequently planned a killing spree to further destroy Maureen's family, Sam, though brutal when pushed too far, only ever kills people who are out to murder her and her loved ones, whom she genuinely values, unlike Billy's mistreatment of Stu.

* DeathByIrony: Kirby Reed was starting to have romantic feelings for him once she "saved" him, but his response to that was an attack on her with the Ghostface knife as a form of his revelation as a killer right in front of her, showing that he ''doesn't really feel the same way'' (at least, not anymore, since he used to have a crush on her) just as he expects her to die from those wounds[[labelnote:*]]which she didn't, as briefly confirmed in [[{{Film/Scream2022}} the fifth movie]][[/labelnote]]. Later on, it's revealed that he and Jill Roberts were dating, indicating that he has feelings for her, but she soon '''backstabbed''' him by killing him with that same kind of knife, showchasing her ''lack of actual feelings'' for him as he was left to die.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: His set-up victimization during the climax, where Kirby was there to "save" him, abruptly hints his genuine one, where he got completely killed by his accomplice Jill.

** His attempted murder on Kirby has him stabbing her twice, leaving her to severely bleed out from those wounds. Later, he gets stabbed twice, as well, but it's instead done by his accomplice Jill, and is ''a lot'' more dire in comparison. What's even more ironic about this is that unlike Charlie, Kirby manages to survive from her potentially fatal injuries that were given by him.

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** His attempted murder of Kirby has him stabbing her twice, leaving her to severely bleed out from those wounds. Later, he gets stabbed twice, as well, but it's instead done by his accomplice Jill, and is ''a lot'' more dire in comparison. What's even more ironic about this is that unlike Charlie, Kirby manages to survive from her potentially fatal injuries that were given by him.

* AllAbusersAreMale: The majority of the confirmed victims he attacked as Ghostface are female, including both Gale and Kirby (who survived from being completely slayed by him).