Sandbox / Scream Ghostface First Generation

MAJOR UNMARKED SPOILERS AHEAD. You have been warned.

Scream (1996)

General

The Original Woodsboro Killers (1996)

"What's the matter, Sidney? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Sidney: You'll never get away with this.

Billy: Oh, no? Tell that to Cotton Weary. You wouldn't believe how easy he was to frame.

Stu: Watch a few movies, take a few notes. It was fun!

The ones who started it all. Billy and Stu murdered Maureen Prescott and claimed five more lives the following year in a murder spree that changed the small town of Woodsboro and those who would survive it forever.

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• Ambiguously Bi: Billy and Stu were both romantically and/or sexually involved with women, and allusions have been made to them also possibly being attracted to men. In-Universe, Sidney calls Billy "a pansy-assed mama's boy", and Randy refers to Billy as "homo-repressed" in the sequel; Kevin Williamson also based them on the real-life killers Leopold and Loeb, a pair of young men who actually were in a relationship. Out-of-universe, many fans have long interpreted (jokingly or otherwise) their relationship to be more than just friendly, with Stu being read as hotter for Billy than vice versa (one example is the almost-fawning way he hands a knife to Billy in the climax).
• Brains and Brawn: Billy is the mastermind and Stu is the muscle. However, they're a downplayed version of this trope compared the other Ghostface pairings in the series, since both are fully willing to get their hands dirty and Stu contributes a number of ideas, namely trying to frame Neil Prescott and presumably going after Casey.
• Card-Carrying Villain: In Stu's words, they prefer the term "psychotic."
• Dramatic Unmask: Casey manages to unmask Stu in the opening scene, although the audience, unlike Casey, doesn't get a good look at the killer's face. Later on, Billy and Stu both subvert this, as they reveal themselves in person without the Father Death costumes. Billy reveals himself after shooting Randy in cold blood, while Stu reveals himself by using Ghostface's voice changer in front of Sidney.
• Fall Guy: Billy and Stu planned to have Sidney's dad take the blame. As for the murder of Sidney's mother a year ago, they successfully framed Cotton with false evidence.
• Famed In-Story: Their killings are documented in Gale's book "The Woodsboro Murders", which in turn leads to the creation of the Stab movie franchise. The first Stab has Billy played by Luke Wilson and Stu by Vince Vaughn.
• Inspirational Martyr: Their killing spree in Woodsboro ends up inspiring future copycat killers.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Billy and Stu are Sidney and Tatum's boyfriends respectively. Stu had also previously dated Casey.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Billy and Stu's deaths only martyred them, spawning many copycat killers in the sequels.
• Predecessor Villain: Billy and Stu are long dead by the time the second film starts, but both of them are mentioned in every movie of the series, making it clear that none of the sequels would have happened if Billy and Stu didn't start the original Ghostface murder-spree.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Billy is the suave, calculating Blue Oni to Stu's loud, boisterous Red Oni. Downplayed after Sidney turns the tables and Billy launches into a full-on screaming meltdown.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: After escaping, Sidney taunts Billy and Stu through the phone with their own Ghostface voice changer. They don't take it very well.
  Sidney: We're going to play a little game. It's called "guess who just phoned the police and reported your sorry motherfucking ass!"
• Teens Are Monsters: A pair of high school students who commit a half-dozen murders and attempt to kill several others. Stu in particular is card-carryingly psychotic after The Reveal.
• Third Act Stupidity: Billy and Stu decide to stab themselves before Sidney or Neil. While Neil is tied up, Sidney is not and is able to use their severely weakened states against them.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Billy is a total bastard with a personal vendetta against Sidney. Stu is his Laughably Evil cohort just in for the kicks.
• Villainous Friendship: Billy and Stu are established to be best friends in their first scene together. Their friendship is ultimately revealed to be quite hollow as Stu cites peer pressure as his motive for helping Billy, and both of them have no issues with attacking each other out of spite. Nevertheless, neither of them actually try to kill each another unlike the Ghostface duos in Scream 2 and Scream 4.
• Villainous Legacy: As the first set of Ghostface killers, Billy and Stu inspired every Ghostface who came after them, with even their inspiration, Roman, taking on the identity when he embarked on a killing spree in the third film. As of the end of the sixth film, there have been no fewer than twelve Ghostfaces or would-be Ghostfaces since Billy and Stu.

Billy Loomis

William "Billy" Loomis

"Movies don't create psychos!
Movies make psychos more creative!"

Played By: Skeet Ulrich

"You hear that, Stu? I think she wants a motive. Well, I don't really believe in motives, Sid. I mean, did Norman Bates have a motive? Did they ever really decide why Hannibal Lecter liked to eat people? DON'T THINK SO. See, it's a lot scarier when there's no motive, Sid."

The mysterious boyfriend of Sidney Prescott, Billy blamed Sidney's mother for destroying his family, and one year prior, he and Stu Macher murdered her and framed Cotton Weary for it. Now, he is going after Sidney and her friends, intending to frame Sidney's father Neil.

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• The Alibi: After Billy gets arrested, Ghostface calls Sidney, saying she "fingered the wrong guy again", which means that Billy, who was thought to be Ghostface, wasn't the attacker. This is only half-true, since Billy is only one of two Ghostfaces; the Ghostface who called Sidney while Billy was in jail was in fact Stu.
• Ax-Crazy: After he's revealed to be Ghostface.
  Billy: We all go a little mad sometimes.
• Bad Boss: He's quite the bully to his partner Stu, stabbing him repeatedly in a rage after Stu stabs him too hard once and throwing the phone at him after Sidney reveals she reported him to the police. In addition, he callously bosses Stu around even as the latter’s losing blood at an alarming rate.
• Barbaric Bully: His savagery in regards to his kills coupled with his Hair-Trigger Temper, him and Stu trying to stab each other to make themselves believably authentic survivors of a massacre, him being a Bad Boss to Stu, and his joy at picking on Sidney make him qualify.
• Beauty Is Bad: Portrayed as Sidney's handsome boyfriend, until he reveals himself as the first film's Big Bad.
• Berserk Button: Insulting his mother is a big one.
• Big Bad: Of the first film. He's the one calling the shots between him and Stu, and concocted most of their plan. His motive also makes him the more personal and climactic of the two killers for Sidney in the finale.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Billy at first seems like a nice, friendly guy, if not a somewhat frustrated boyfriend to Sidney. The reveal that he is the killer completely shatters this image.
• Blatant Lies: Despite telling Sidney that he doesn't "believe in motives", Billy's subsequent ranting makes it clear that he was very much motivated by Maureen's affair with his father.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Sidney eventually kills him.
• The Bully: To Sidney and his own partner-in-crime, Stu.
• Bully Brutality: The way he pulls off his kills works as an analogy to this, and the way he treats Stu counts as this too.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He taunts Sidney for having sex with a psychopath, though he still places the blame for his monstrousness entirely on Maureen's affair with his father and his mother walking out on the family.
• Deadpan Snarker: As evidenced by his response to Casey asking "Who's there?"
  Billy: You might as well come out to investigate a strange noise or something.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Killing Maureen was already this, but at least you can kind of understand his logic (revenge for breaking up his family) if you squint really hard. Going on a murder spree to kill and frame her completely innocent family a year after he's already killed her and gotten away with it is a whole new level. Sidney had no idea of or any involvement in what her mother did, so this veers into Revenge by Proxy. Doubly hypocritical when the fifth movie reveals that Billy had actually knocked up a girl named Cristina some time in between Maureen's murder and the first movie, conceiving Sam and eventually causing Cristina's husband to leave their family once he found out about his wife's infidelity.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The reason why he kills Sidney's mother: he blames her mother for her affair with Billy's father. Making fun of his mother is also his Berserk Button.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Very small considering he's a psychopath, but still there.
  • With the confirmation that he was responsible for Tatum's death, the fact that he flinched as she's crushed by the garage door shows even he thought it was a bit much.
  • While he fully blames Maureen and Sidney for his mother leaving him, he doesn't stoop to blaming violent media for his psychopathy.
    Billy: Now, Sid, don't you blame the movies! Movies don't create psychos! Movies make psychos more creative!
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Makes as many jabs at having killing Sidney's mother as possible after The Reveal. Ironically, given his own agenda, all Sidney has to do is mock his mother in any way to send him into a fit.
  • Billy had gotten away with murdering Maureen Prescott and framing Cotton Weary for the crime, but he insisted on carrying out a killing spree on the one-year anniversary of her death in order to frame her husband (who had nothing to do with Maureen's affair with Billy's father) and murder her daughter (likewise totally innocent), all as an extra bit of revenge on a woman he'd already murdered.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's very good-looking, and a depraved killer.
• Faking the Dead: Presumably stabbed by Ghostface (Stu) in front of Sidney. He pops up toward the end, revealing himself to be Only Mostly Dead, and shoots Randy, setting up The Reveal.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's a serial killer who happens to have the charisma of a Fun Personified party animal, following The Reveal. He also makes the calls, except for when he was in jail.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While he was manipulated by Roman into killing Sidney's mother, the killing spree that he and Stu committed was his idea, and more importantly the idea of committing the killings in the Ghostface costume was likely his as well (or possibly Stu's), with even Roman adopting the costume when he embarks on his own rampage. Notably, Billy and Stu are the only Ghostfaces to be mentioned in all of the sequels past their own killing spree in 1996, cementing their status as the original Ghostface killers that started it all. Sidney even states as such in the fifth film and Amber refers to him as "the original mastermind."
  Sidney: Billy Loomis started this, and we're gonna end it. After tonight, no more books, no more movies, no more fucking Ghostface.
• Groin Attack: Tatum hits him with a beer bottle to the groin.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Even before The Reveal, he's obviously a bit off.
• He-Man Woman Hater: Billy killed Maureen for the sin of sleeping with his father and "destroying his family", despite the fact that his father was just as complicit. He gaslit Sidney into sleeping with him again despite her grief, and he and Stu murdered Casey just because she dumped Stu for Steve. It's a given that he has a very limited view of women, at best.
• Hero Killer: Billy murders Principal Himbry and Tatum. He almost kills Dewey as well.
• 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. 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.
• Irony: Billy murdered Maureen Prescott because her affair with his father led to his parents divorcing. Billy himself is posthumously responsible for a nearly identical situation, with Sam's parents splitting up after her father learned that Billy was Sam's biological father, the result of Cristina cheating on him with Billy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite initially acting obviously psychotic during the beginning of the first film, he later on seems to genuinely care for Sidney, but when he reveals himself to be one of the killers, it turns out to all have been just an act.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: He successfully frames Cotton Weary for his and Stu's murder of Maureen Prescott, but when he goes after her daughter a year later, Sidney ultimately avenges her mother's death by killing both of her murderers.
• Knight Templar: Subverted. He tries to present himself as avenging his family and clearly views himself as in the right, but he freely admits that he is a psychopath. He just blames Sidney and Maureen for it.
  Billy: Movies don't create psychos! Movies make psychos more creative!
• Known Only by Their Nickname: His real first name is William, but everyone calls him Billy.
• Lack of Empathy: Has a disturbing lack of regard for others, even Stu.
• Like Parent, Like Child:
  • Billy, his mother, and eventually his daughter all exhibit violent tendencies and one hell of a vindictive streak, as well as a collective disdain for people who attribute violent actions to scary movies.
  • Like his father, Billy proved to be an unfaithful partner; while dating Sidney, he slept with and impregnated Cristina Carpenter, resulting in Sam.
• Like Parent, Unlike Child: 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.
• Mama's Boy: Never really got over his mother leaving the family after it turned out Maureen Prescott slept with his father. Randy even refers to the trope by name in the sequel.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's the mastermind of the whole thing, and in Stu's own words, he peer-pressured him into the plan.
• Mask of Sanity: Played With; while all the Ghostface killers feign being sane and humane people before The Reveal, Billy is intentionally played as someone who is trying to hide how much of a psychopath he is. Skeet Ulrich had apparently been mistaken about the comedy-horror nature of the film when cast and so had done a large amount of research into teenaged serial killers in real life to model his performance as one. As a result, he rather accurately portrays a disturbed individual who is masking their monstrous nature around others, but its hard for him to truly fake affection or conceal his temper, resulting in him coming off as creepily intense and intimidating. Ironically, this ends up working in his favour as it makes him too obvious a suspect, making it easy to buy he's a red herring until the final act reveal.
• Meaningful Name: Given that Billy is a horror movie fan and one of the Ghostfaces, it's fitting that he's named after major characters from classic slasher movies.
  • His first name brings to mind the killer from Black Christmas. Like the Billy from Black Christmas, Loomis harasses the victims with threatening phone calls, before murdering them and is fairly adept at home invasion as well.
  • His surname is an allusion to Sam Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist from Halloween, and the other Sam Loomis from Psycho. Billy is clearly a fan of the aforementioned movies, and quotes Norman Bates in one moment. That said, he is a villain, unlike the two heroic Sam Loomis characters, making this a rather Ironic Name.
  • Taken together, Billy's full name is rather ambiguous about his true nature, which fits with how Sidney can't decide whether or not he is actually Ghostface before Billy's final reveal as one of the killers.
• Moral Myopia: Murdered Maureen for "destroying" his family by sleeping with his father, but Scream 5 reveals he apparently had no qualms sleeping with another woman despite already being in a relationship himself.
• Never My Fault: Double Subverted. He refuses to cast the blame for his murder spree on violent media, only to then try and place the blame on Sidney and Maureen for it.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Billy and Stu had gotten away with murdering Maureen and framing Cotton; their plan to murder Sidney and her father to further spite Maureen ultimately only exposes the fact that they were guilty and gets them both killed.
  • In the climax, Gale tries to shoot him, but forgets to take the safety off in her haste, which he lampshades and mocks her for before knocking her out. Later, just when he's on the verge of killing Sidney, Gale stops him via gunshot, mockingly thanking him for that reminder.
    Gale: Guess I remembered the safety that time, bastard.
• Not Quite Dead: Just as Billy is about to kill Sidney, Gale shoots him from the doorway and seemingly kills him. Sidney, Gale, and Randy all stand in front of the unconscious Billy. Randy lampshades that this is when the killer gets up for "one last scare." Moments later, Billy briefly awakens, before Sidney kills him for real with a headshot.
  Randy: Careful. This is the moment when the supposedly dead killer comes back to life for one last scare.
  [Billy wakes up and lunges at the group, with Gale and Randy screaming as Sidney calmly shoots Billy in the head]
  Sidney: Not in my movie.
• Obviously Evil: Even prior to The Reveal, Billy was the prime suspect among the cast as even his friend circle found him intense and creepy. Randy outright lampshades he's obviously the killer (though he's largely just saying it out of jealousy), but even after he's officially ruled out Sidney still never completely trusts his innocence.
• Playing the Victim Card: He tries to cast himself as the real victim, putting the blame for his murders entirely on Maureen and Sidney. Sidney calls him out on how moronic it is, but Billy ignores her entirely.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Chides Stu for his insensitive talk about gutting people. Given that he and Stu were the killers, it was probably to shut Stu up before he gave up too much information.
• Pretty Boy: Arguably the most attractive of all the male characters in the film, possibly even the franchise as a whole.
• Psychopathic Manchild: A whiny, crazed, immature mama's boy, to say the least.
• Red Herring: He's practically the living incarnation of this. He's obviously messed up, acts incredibly suspicious, and is suspected to be the killer. All of this immediately draws the audience into believing he is innocent because the movie wants you to believe all that. He's actually just as bad as he appears.
• Sadist: As Ghostface, he taunts Sidney on the phone, gleefully informing her that he killed her mother. He also toys with Casey on the phone to make her think she and Steve have a chance of surviving, helps Stu hang Casey's corpse for her parents to see, and looks into Principal Himbry's eyes as he dies just to torment him further.
• Say My Name: During his Faking the Dead ruse, he says "Sid" before crumpling to the floor.
• Slut-Shaming: Billy calls Sidney's mother a whore for having an affair with his father that consequently broke up his family even though his own father was equally at fault for having the affair, and as we later learn he himself had cheated on Sidney with another girl and gotten her pregnant.
• Smug Snake: He ain't exactly subtle about how proud he is of his plan, and once things stop going according to plan, he loses any semblance of composure.
• The Sociopath: He refers to himself as such and ticks a lot of the boxes, being selfish, sadistic, short-tempered, and manipulative. It's downplayed in practice, however, as it's made clear that as awful he is, Billy truly does love his mother and noticeably doesn't blame her for leaving. Stu, on the other hand…
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Unlike the much more animated Stu, once Billy has been outed as a killer, he mostly keeps his voice down, even revealing his duplicity with an almost whispered "we all go a little mad sometimes". Once things start falling out of his control, however, Billy starts shouting angrily.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Between him and Stu, he is clearly the brains in the Ghostface scheme, and many of his interactions with Stu clearly hints at the fact is quite irritated with him, because Stu is frequently inches from Saying Too Much and giving away the game, resulting in a frustraded Billy either telling him to shut up or punching him on the arm to get the same meaning across.
• Thin-Skinned Bully: Less in the sense of being cowardly, but more that Billy loses control hard when Sidney turns the tables on him, only able to make petty threats and throw a screaming fit when she bests him at even that. He also, ironically, puts up less of a fight than Stu.
• Tom the Dark Lord: "Billy" is not a particularly intimidating name for the homicidal monster that he is.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He was able to talk Stu into being his accomplice.
• Unwitting Pawn: Roman convinced him to kill Maureen instead of doing it himself so that nothing could trace back to him.
• Villainous Breakdown: He starts losing it once he loses track of the gun, then Sidney and her father, reducing him to the animalistic, no-holds-barred rage of a man who truly is a snarling monster no matter what guise he takes.
• Villains Never Lie: Very much averted, as he admits, "You get it right? You die.", meaning Casey was never going to live. However, his motive rant screams this trope, because while Sidney is visibly unimpressed with his "slut-bag whore" motive, she doesn't question his actual motive at all. In that she takes his word that his mother left because of his father's affair with Maureen.
• White Shirt of Death: During the final night, he's wearing a white shirt.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kills Maureen and Tatum and almost kills Sidney and Gale.

Stu Macher

Stuart "Stu" Macher

"Surprise, Sidney!"

Played By: Matthew Lillard ^note Skeet Ulrich was wearing the costume in the scene where Ghostface menaces Randy before killing Kenny, which Word of God says was Stu.

"You see, Sid, everybody dies but us! Everybody dies but us! We get to carry on and plan the sequel, because let's face it, baby, these days, you gotta have a sequel!"

Tatum's boyfriend and a classmate of Sidney who is Billy's accomplice in the murder of Maureen Prescott. His motive for both her murder and the events of the first film amounts to little more than peer pressure and simply being crazy.

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• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: While his failures can be attributed to him not being very bright to begin with, it's not helped by the fact that he drinks a bit at his own party even though he has plans to orchestrate a series of murders, and frame a guy. This is something that is noticeably not repeated by his successors.
• The Alibi: Has one for the murders of Casey and Steve in the form of Tatum, who informs Randy that Stu was with her at the night of the murders. Randy counters that Stu could have killed Casey and Steve before or after visiting Tatum. It is implied that Randy was right, since Stu looks noticeably guilty afterwards, and Tatum resorts to interrogating Randy about his whereabouts on the night of the murders.
• Ax-Crazy: Eventually revealed to be one of the Ghostface killers. Overall, he's one of the biggest For the Evulz killers in the franchise.
• Barbaric Bully: His grotesque enthusiasm in engaging in the killings and him and Billy stabbing each other to makes themselves look like authentic victims qualify him as such.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's probably the goofiest character in all the series. That said, he still efficiently carries out a number of murders, and does it all For the Evulz. Even Mickey isn't this goofy or dangerous.
• The Bully: Of the lackey variety, accompanying the main bully within their classic high school/college posse, even if he gets bullied himself amongst the two.
• Bully Brutality: Him taking part in most grisly kills, including the murder of his ex, is a reflection of this.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: His motive for murdering Casey and Steve is bitterness over Casey breaking up with him.
• Death by Irony: Stu, a Serial Killer who based his murders on horror movies, dies when Sidney crushes his head with a television playing the original Halloween.
• Dirty Coward: His pathetic Villainous Breakdown where he's reduced to bawling like a baby, in contrast to Billy's more aggressive one, confirms him to be this overall.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He brutally murders Casey and her boyfriend for her dumping him.
• The Dragon: Billy's accomplice, assisting him in multiple murders.
• Dumb Muscle: It's clear after The Reveal that Stu is just the brawns of the operation, following the more intelligent Billy's lead for the most part. He does come up with the idea to frame Neil Prescott as the culprit for their killing spree, though.
• Entitled to Have You: He kills Casey for the sin of dumping him, even though he was dating Tatum at the time of the murder.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: And papas too, possibly. While he'll gladly kill, he doesn't want his parents to know because he's afraid of how angry they'll be at him. Although his reaction's mostly because he doesn't want to get caught, he might also be scared of breaking their hearts.
  Stu: Did you really call the police?
  Sidney: You bet your sorry ass I did.
  Stu: (begins to cry) My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!
• Even Evil Has Standards: Heavily downplayed, considering he mostly killed For the Evulz, but even he was shocked to hear Billy's mother abandoned him after Sidney's mother had an affair with his father.
• Evil Is Bigger: Matthew Lillard is 6'3", the tallest of the main cast of the first film.
• Evil Is Hammy: He seemingly goes crazy following The Reveal in a twisted Fun Personified way, but even before that, the ham is barely constrained.
• Evil Is Petty: Besides helping Billy being for his sick amusement, he murders his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend out of jealousy.
• Evil Laugh: He lets out a real one when he reveals himself as the killer.
• Faux Affably Evil: He acts like a Fun Personified party animal of a Plucky Comic Relief, but he's really one of the villains.
• For the Evulz: No motive except getting his kicks. Subverted in the case of Casey and Steve, though, since Casey dumped him for Steve.
  Stu: Watch a few movies, take a few notes. It was fun!
• Foreshadowing: Randy's line "I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife." Bonus points for the reason why he said it: it was in reply to Stu saying "I'll be right back!" in a mocking voice when he went to the kitchen to grab a beer. Stu said that because, as the killer, he knew he had nothing to fear.
• Frame-Up: While Billy came up with most of the plans, it was Stu's idea to pin their crimes on Neil Prescott.
• Hero Killer: Stu murders both Casey and Steve in the opening scene and kills Kenny while chasing Sidney. He also comes close to stabbing Randy in the back.
• High-Voltage Death: Electrocuted when Sidney drops a TV on his face.
• If I Can't Have You…: Implied to be his reason for killing Casey Becker and her boyfriend Steve Orth.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: For most of the movie, Stu acts obnoxious and immature, but ultimately seems to be harmless. Once he and Billy are revealed to be the killers, Stu quickly goes from humorous to frightening.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Alongside Billy, Stu had gotten away with his participation as Billy's accomplice in Maureen's murder when they pinned it on Cotton Weary, but a year later, their killing spree in the first movie is brought to an end when Sidney kills them both in self-defense.
• Large Ham: Especially after The Reveal, Matthew Lillard devours scenery left and right.
• Laughably Evil: Thanks to Matthew Lillard's Large Ham performance.
• More Despicable Minion: While the murder spree was Billy's idea, Stu outdoes him in terms of evilness. It was his idea to murder Casey and Steve, which was probably their most horrific murder. Also, Billy at least has a somewhat tragic motive, while Stu is just in it For the Evulz.
• No Sense of Personal Space: He leans on Billy's neck to hang right over his shoulder when they're menacing Sidney in the kitchen. Given that he does the same to Randy in the video store and hangs all over Tatum after the principal lets school out early, it seems to serve as a both an intimidation tactic and possibly a gesture of affection.
• Not Quite Dead: Hinted at by Mindy in Scream VI when she and Kirby see the television he was electrocuted with. Kirby calls it the TV that killed him, Mindy quickly replies with "if you believe he's dead..."
• Overshadowed by Awesome: While Stu is one of the original Ghostfaces and came up with some of the plans^note Attacking Casey and Steve was his idea, and he chose Neil Prescott as the Fall Guy., Billy was the leader of the duo and is consequently the one most people remember as Ghostface.
  • Scream 2: When Mickey starts bragging about his plan, he compares himself to Billy.
  • Scream 3: Roman mostly talks about how he inspired Billy. In contrast, he regards Stu as the disposable accomplice Billy could blame if things went wrong.
  • Scream 4: Charlie was so focused on making Trevor the new Billy Loomis that he forgot that a true remake would need a new Stu Macher too, which is why he was unprepared for Jill's betrayal.
  • Scream 5:
    • When the new Ghostface quizzes Tara on the identity of the first Ghostface, Tara, who only saw Stab once many years ago, quickly recalls Billy but forgets that Stu was also Ghostface.
    • It's implied that Richie and Amber see Billy as the more important Ghostface. Notably, they went out of their way to trick Billy's daughter Sam into returning to Woodsboro so that they could frame her as the requel Ghostface when it would have been easier to frame Stu's nephew Vince, a local Woodsboro resident, as the requel Ghostface.
  • Finally averted in Scream VI where Quinn (who wears Stu's mask to commit her own murders) states that Stu was actually her favorite killer. Kirby also takes a moment to marvel at the TV that killed Stu, which she later uses to dispatch Ethan.
• Psycho Ex-Boyfriend: To Casey. They dated before the films started, and he murders her in the opening.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Really immature, and comes off as a crazy, sadistic kid. Notably, when he learns he's been exposed, his first thought is how angry his parents will be.
• Sadist: Billy at least had some kind of sympathetic motive for his crimes, however inexcusable they were. Stu seems to have killed for no other reason than sheer pleasure. At one point, he even salivates at the idea of getting to do a "sequel" to the Woodsboro murder spree.
• Saying Too Much: After Sidney rhetorically questions how someone can gut another person, Stu enthusiastically describes how to gut a human body. He probably would have given himself away as the killer if not for Billy's quick interference.
• Skewed Priorities: When Stu is bleeding out from his stab wounds and Sidney informs him that she's just called the police, the last thing that should've been on his mind would be how mad his parents were going to be when they found out.
• Slashed Throat: He slits Kenny's throat while trying to attack Sidney.
• Smug Snake: Like Billy, but he's the dumber and less efficient of the duo, so he comes across as even more smug.
• Stupid Evil: He has a tendency to talk too much and give away hints that he is one of the killers, much to Billy's annoyance. Likewise, his murders are much sloppier than Billy's and he even gets drunk on the night of the their master plan, leading to some particularly dumb choices that come back to bite him in the ass.
• Tap on the Head: Slams Sidney's head against the floor to stun her during the attack in her house.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He tries to invoke this as an excuse when he blames his crimes on "peer pressure" from Billy.
• Villainous Breakdown: He bawls like a baby when Sidney reveals to them that she has called the police on him and Billy.
  Stu: My mom and dad are going to be so mad at me...
• Villainous Crush: He claims to have always had a "thing" for Sidney. While in the middle of trying to choke her to death.
• Villainous Valour: Despite being severely weakened from blood loss, he charges at Sidney in a last-ditch effort to kill her.
• Worf Had the Flu: He quickly incapacitates Sidney when he attacks her the first time, meaning that he probably would have been able to do the same when he fights with her again during the climax. However, he's been stabbed multiple times by Billy and thus severely weakened from the blood loss. This means that Sidney is able to get the upper hand this time and smash a TV on his face, killing him for good.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Played with. Stu believes that he and Billy are the invincible slasher villains that can never die and therefore can return for the sequels. While Stu is correct in assuming that he is in a slasher movie, the slasher movie in question is a Deconstructive Parody, which means he and Billy definitely don't have the supernatural powers of, say, Freddy Kruger or Jason Voorhees to cheat death. As an added bonus, while Billy and Stu die by the end of the first movie, the Ghostface identity outlives them both and returns for the sequels in the form of copycat killers.

Scream 2

General

The Windsor College Killers (1997)

Sidney: So you two are in this together?

Mickey: Yeah, well. Had to have financing. Tuition's expensive. Deb, there — my backer. We met on the Internet. Psycho website. Classifieds.

Nancy: There's only an estimated 97 active serial killers in the country. So Mickey, here, was quite a find. Definitely one on the way up. All he needed was a little guidance and nurturing.

The Ghostface killers of 1997, who terrorize Windsor College in Ohio.

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• Brains and Brawn: Mickey does most of the legwork in the movie, killing everybody except Randy as part of his crazed scheme to create a real-life Woodsboro sequel. By contrast, Mrs. Loomis had a much more well thought-out plan and only ever attacks the Woodsboro survivors.
• Connected All Along: It turns out that Mickey was in cahoots with Mrs. Loomis despite never interacting with her onscreen before their reveals. Mrs. Loomis mentions finding Mickey on a serial killer website.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Billy and Stu were both high school students and a more or less solid team; Mrs. Loomis is a middle-aged adult and Mickey is a college student, and the latter was the former's Unwitting Pawn.
• Copycat Killer: Mickey plays it straight by murdering people who share names with the victims from the first Ghostface killing spree, and in a similar order as well. On the other hand, Mrs. Loomis seems relatively indifferent to the copycatting, and is mainly targeting Sidney and the other Woodsboro survivors. In fact, it is implied that Mrs. Loomis invoked this trope with Mickey so that she would have an easy fall guy after killing off Sidney.
• Dramatic Unmask: Mickey plays this straight by unmasking himself in front of Sidney and Derek. On the other hand, this is subverted in the case of Mrs. Loomis, who reveals herself by threatening Gale with a handgun.
• Fall Guy: Played with in that Mickey is willing to turn himself in to the police to take all the credit for the murders, but Mrs. Loomis shoots him to prevent him from potentially implicating her.
• Famed In-Story: Their murder spree inspires Stab 2.
• A Sinister Clue: Unlike the first movie's Ghostface, the Windsor College Ghostface favors their left hand when using the knife. It turns out that one of them, specifically Mickey, is an actual lefty whereas Nancy is only pretending to be left-handed so that the police believe Mickey is the sole killer.
• Superior Successor: They manage to top Billy and Stu in terms of body count, claiming eight victims. Nancy also succeeds in killing Woodsboro survivor Randy.
• Two Dun It: As with the first movie, two people don the Ghostface costume in Scream 2.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Mrs. Loomis is utterly ruthless while Mickey is her Laughably Evil minion.

Nancy Loomis

Nancy Loomis (alias: Debbie Salt)

"You don't know what it is to be a mother. To raise a child, to teach him and guide him!"

Played By: Laurie Metcalf

"No, I'm very sane. My motive isn't as 90s as Mickey's. Mine is just good, old-fashioned revenge. You killed my son, and now I kill you, and I can't think of anything more rational."

Seemingly a harmless reporter, Debbie Salt turns out to be Nancy Loomis, the mother of Billy Loomis. She hates Sidney and Gale for killing her son, and plans the murder spree as revenge, intending on framing her accomplice Mickey as the sole murderer and getting away scot-free.

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• All There in the Script: An early script for Scream 4 reveals that her full name is Nancy Loomis, likely a Shout-Out to actress Nancy Kyes (known professionally as "Nancy Loomis"), who played Annie in the original Halloween. The name is finally confirmed on-screen in Scream VI.
• Avenging the Villain: She is the mother of Billy, the Big Bad from the first film, seeking revenge.
• Ax-Crazy: Her post-revelation moments as a Ghostface even has both of her eyes being greatly wide open.
• Bad Boss: She shoots her own underling Mickey, something that was completely unnecessary as Mickey was happy to take the fall as the killer as he wanted Fame Through Infamy.
• Batman Gambit: She claims to be a student at Gale's seminar, counting on Gale's arrogance to dismiss her as some wannabe reporter when she's actually the lead Ghostface.
• Big Bad: Of the second film. She's out for revenge against Sidney for the death of Billy in the previous film, and is the dominant Ghostface in the climax.
• Berserk Button: Insulting her son Billy (thus implying she was a bad mother). Randy does this to the killer over the phone, not knowing the killer he was talking to specifically was Billy's mother, and she as Ghostface lets loose on him.
  Sidney: You're as crazy as your son was.
  Mrs. Loomis: What did you just say? Was that a negative, disparaging remark about my son? About my Billy?
  Sidney: No, Billy was a good boy. Billy was perfect. You did a bang-up job, Mrs. Loomis.
  Mrs. Loomis: It's not wise to patronize me with a gun, Sidney. Randy spoke poorly of Billy and I got a little knife happy.
• Boom, Headshot!: While she appears dead after Cotton shoots her, when Mickey rises up and yells (and gets gunned down), Sidney decides to put a bullet in her head, "just in case".
• Cast Herd: Nancy invokes this by avoiding the Woodsboro survivors, most of whom will recognize her upon first glance due to their familiarity with Billy and his parents. She only interacts with Gale because Nancy is pretending to be a news reporter, so avoiding Gale, an actual news reporter, will be incredibly difficult. Gale also wasn't as close to Billy as Dewey, Sidney, and Randy were, not to mention not actually from Woodsboro, so Nancy had a better chance of tricking her.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Whenever she smiles, it's always scary. Exaggerated considering her giant blue eyes that glow in the dark and her ability to disappear completely, fooling everyone except for Sidney and Cotton.
• Crime of Self-Defense: She truly does not care at all that Sidney only killed Billy in self-defense and acts as if her son wasn't a mass murderer who needed to be stopped before he killed anymore people.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mrs. Loomis attempts to kill Sidney for killing her son, Billy, which is somewhat understandable, but she ignores the fact that she abandoned her child, motivating Billy's rampage in the first place, and that Sid only killed Billy because the guy took part in and assisted in the murders of six people, then attempted to murder Sidney herself and frame her father for said murders. Mrs. Loomis also murders Randy for insulting her son.
• Double Tap: On the receiving end of this from Sidney. After the first Ghostface killing spree ended with Billy springing up back to life before getting shot dead, and Mickey following suit at the end of his and Mrs. Loomis's killings, Sidney does the Genre Savvy thing and shoots the presumably deceased Mrs. Loomis in the head to ensure her death.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Give her this: she loves her son.
• Even Evil Has Standards: After shooting Mickey, she admits that even she finds his "Blame the Movies" idea to be too insane to work.
  Mrs. Loomis: Mickey was a good boy, but my God! That whole "blame the movies" motive? Did you buy that for one second? The poor boy was completely out of his mind.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She never considered for a moment that Cotton wouldn't want Sidney dead, and genuinely expected her suggestion of allowing Sidney's death to sway him.
• Expy: Can be considered one for 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 Freudian Excuse 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.
• Females Are More Innocent: As much of a psychotic mastermind as she was in Scream 2, she did have a relatively more sympathetic motive for her crimes throughout the movie (with that being the matter of her son Billy being dead, whom she still loves despite the fact that she abandoned him out of her then-husband's infidelity), especially when compared to that of her accomplice Mickey's (who instead only wants to have a rather deranged legacy of being a serial killer).
• Formerly Fat: The last time Sidney saw her, Mrs. Loomis was about sixty pounds heavier. Her appearance in the film has her look quite fit. It's also why Gale doesn't recognize her.
  Gale: Jesus. It can't be, I've seen pictures of you.
  Sidney: Yeah, this is 60 pounds and a lot of work later.
  Nancy: It's called a makeover. You should try it. Look a little tired yourself there, Gale!
• Getaway Driver: Judging by the camera footage seen by Gale and Dewey in the auditorium, Mrs. Loomis waited outside the theater for Mickey, and once he left the theater, drove him away from the scene.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Will not have her son be called out or belittled in any way. When Randy does this, she gets a little "knife-happy" on him.
• Hates Small Talk: Out of all the killers, Mrs. Loomis has the least patience for horror movie chitchat, and goes right to threats.
• Hero Killer: Mrs. Loomis happily takes the credit for murdering Randy. Furthermore, she is the Ghostface who stabs Dewey multiple times In the Back though he manages to survive.
• Hypocrite: She blames Sidney for killing Billy, even though her abandoning him is what led to him attacking Sidney's family in the first place. She's also sick to death of people blaming the parents for the faults of their children but lays the blame for the entire affair on Sidney's mother in the same monologue without a hint of irony. When Cotton Weary tries to intervene in her murder of Sidney, Debbie tries to get him on her side by pointing out Sidney's testimony put him in prison for a year, even though it was Billy (the person Debbie is trying to avenge) who framed Cotton for Maureen's murder in the first place.
• Irony: Mrs. Loomis despises the implication that she was in any way responsible for Billy becoming a serial killer. However, her own subsequent killing spree could be used as an argument that her son becoming a serial killer was inevitable.
• It's All About Me: Has absolutely zero sympathy for anyone that was harmed by Billy's crimes and wants to kill the girl who killed him in self-defense, believing that she and her son deserve all of the sympathy while Sidney and her friends deserve none. It is heavily implied she was neglectful of Billy in his life anyway, and only really flip-flopped to being a caring and mournful parent after all the blame she received for raising a serial killer.
• It's Personal: All her attacks are on survivors of the Woodsboro massacre, likely because she blames them for the death of her son. Besides Sidney, she kills Randy and gives chase to Dewey and Gale, at the end of which she non-fatally stabs Dewey. Her murder of Randy happens when she was hiding in the back of Gale's van talking on the phone with Dewey, Gale, and Randy, meaning she was fully hoping to off at least one of the trio.
• The Killer Was Left-Handed: Invoked and subverted. Mrs. Loomis is right-handed as she writes down information with her right hand when pretending to be a news reporter and holds her gun in her right hand when taking Gale hostage. However, Mickey is left-handed, so Mrs. Loomis switches to her left hand when attacking someone to make sure the evidence is traceable back to only Mickey.
• Like Parent, Like Child: After seeing her in action, one can note that Billy was merely a chip off the old block; just like her son, Mrs. Loomis is a self-righteous, vengeful psychopath who can't accept fault and who blames Maureen and Sidney for the end of Mrs. Loomis' marriage. On a lighter note, both she and Billy reject the notion of blaming movies for inspiring violent behavior, with Mrs. Loomis writing Mickey off as insane for thinking that such a defense would actually work.
• Mama Bear: A rather dark portrayal, considering that she's trying to kill Sidney for killing Billy.
• Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: She acts like her son was an innocent victim, even though he murdered a woman, framed an innocent man for it, nearly resulting in his execution, and went on a killing spree, killing five people (six if you count Maureen Prescott), three of them by disembowelment.
• Meaningful Name: She's very salty about her son's death.
• Moral Myopia: Mrs. Loomis is out to avenge Billy's death at Sidney's hands, but not only does she not care in the least about the innocent people Billy murdered or that Sidney only killed him in self-defense, but she's willing to go through plenty of innocent lives herself as long as it means that Sidney dies in the end.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Her name is a Shout-Out to Nancy Loomis^note Now Nancy Kyes, known for her role as Annie Brackett in John Carpenter's Halloween.
• Never Mess with Granny: Laurie Metcalf was in her early 40s, but the fifth film's revelation of Billy having fathered a daughter before his death makes her an example of this.
• Never My Fault: The defining element of her motive; she'll blame and kill anyone related to Billy's crime spree and death before she blames her own neglectful parenting.
  Mrs. Loomis: Ha! I was a good mother. You know what makes me sick? I am sick to death of people saying that it's all the parents' fault and that it all starts with the family. Wanna blame someone? Why don't you blame YOUR MOTHER? She was the one who stole my husband and broke up my family. And then you took my son!
• No Full Name Given: After The Reveal, she's only referred to as "Mrs. Loomis." Her real first name is never revealed, but many people just use her first name in her alias and call her "Debbie Loomis." An early script for Scream 4 gives her name as Nancy, which is later confirmed in Scream VI.
• No Sympathy: Does not give a damn about the fact that Sidney's mother was murdered by Billy, or that he tried to kill her and her father and frame her father for murder posthumously. In regards to Maureen, Nancy probably felt that she had it coming after having an affair with her husband.
• Not Helping Your Case: When she reminds Cotton that he spent a year in prison because of Sidney, she forgets to realize Cotton was framed by her son for the murder Billy committed.
• Not Quite Dead: After Mickey proves to be such, a Genre Savvy Sidney shoots her in the forehead "just in case". Given that she twitches afterwards, she was probably correct.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: She puts up a show of being a Mama Bear trying to avenge her son, but it's obvious that she's just bitter about being blamed for Billy's killing spree and taking it out on Sidney rather than accept any culpability.
• Oh, Crap!: After Sidney caves in to an earlier bargain with Cotton, she quickly figures out she's screwed just before Cotton shoots her dead.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her motivation is that her son was killed by Sidney at the previous film's climax.
• Parental Abandonment: Abandoned Billy before the first film after she learned that her husband had an affair with Sidney's mother.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Backstabbing and shooting her own accomplice, who genuinely believed Mrs. Loomis was on his side, was pretty low, but given that Mickey was a psychopathic killer whose only motive was to get famous for his crimes (something even Mrs. Loomis wrote off as crazy), he's hardly a sympathetic victim.
• Playing the Victim Card: She clearly believes that she's the wronged party and that she and Billy are innocent victims. It's very clear that her entire killing spree is motivated by a massive victim complex and an absolute refusal to accept the slightest hint of culpability for her or her son's actions.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Nancy has a good opportunity to kill Derek at the sorority house but settles for injuring his arm since she has no real grudge against him. Earlier, she locked Derek out of the house to prevent him from helping Sidney, Nancy's real target.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Prior to turning on Mickey. It's subverted when he's revealed to have survived, however (albeit not very long).
  Mrs. Loomis: Oh, Mickey... there's not gonna be a trial.
• Revenge Myopia: Arguably the most hypocritical of the lot. She wants to murder Sidney for killing her son, even though it was in self-defense, and her son murdered Sidney's mother and best friend, tried to kill her and her father, and wanted to frame her father as a spree killer/mass murderer. Her own abandonment of Billy played heavily into his psychosis in the first place. But no, she's sick of people using that old Blame Game on her. She even attempts to get Cotton in on this, noting that Sidney falsely accused him...for the crimes her son committed and intentionally framed him for.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Her reason for the murders.
• The Reveal: She is Billy's mother from the first film, seeking revenge on Sidney.
• Third Act Stupidity:
  • Mrs. Loomis is so adamant that she'll get away with her plan to the point where she continues to hold Sidney at gunpoint and deliver a Motive Rant rather than just shooting her dead. This leads to Sidney escaping Nancy's grasp by tricking her into thinking Mickey is alive before smashing a glass bottle against her neck.
  • She betrays Mickey before trying to kill Sidney, even though he would have been useful backup in case Sidney tried to fight back.
• Unseen No More: Billy mentions her in the first film, although she doesn't appear until the second film.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • As vile as she is, she is right that she shouldn't be blamed for Billy's crimes or be held as solely responsible for his killing spree. However, both her refusal to accept that her neglectful parenting could have motivated him and the way she chooses to deal with it make it very hard to feel sympathy for her.
  • Mrs. Loomis is hardly any more stable, but she's right that Mickey's whole "blame the movies" strategy was crazy and not at all likely to work.
• Woman Scorned: Not in the romantic sense, but in the sense of wanting to kill the person who killed her son.

Mickey Altieri

Mickey Altieri

"That's what Billy was good at. He knew it was all about... execution."

Played By: Timothy Olyphant

"I'm gonna blame the movies. It's pretty cool, huh? It hasn't been done before. You see, this is just the beginning, a prelude to the trial. That's where the real fun is, because these days, it's all about the trial. Could you see it? The effects of cinema violence on society. I'll get Dershowitz or Cochran to represent me, Bob Dole on the witness stand in my defense. Hell, the Christian Coalition will pay my legal fees!"

A Windsor College student and Nancy Loomis' accomplice, Mickey sought to become famous as a result of the killing spree, hoping for a sensationalized trial where he would claim that he, horror buff that he is, was driven to kill due to watching too many violent movies.

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• 15 Minutes of Fame: Became Ghostface and did the killings intending to be caught and subsequently gain fame and a trial, where he planned to blame horror films for his rampage.
• Allegorical Character: Mickey fits the idea of a movie sequel. He not only wants to cash in on the success of the first outing but also wants to outdo it as well through Sequel Escalation. This results in him performing bigger, riskier stunts such as killing Maureen and Phil in public, taking on two trained cops at once, surpassing the body count of Billy and Stu with Nancy's help, and purposefully surrendering to the police (or at least that was the plan).
• All for Nothing: Mickey went on a killing spree to be famous and get the trial; however, Mrs. Loomis betrayed him by shooting him. Mickey was hurt by the betrayal. He was gunned down by Sidney and Gale and thus finally killing him. Adding insult to injury, he was only remembered as a copy cat killer and he's rarely talked about it.
• Attention Whore: He killed simply so he could stand trial for it afterwards and bask in the limelight.
• Ax-Crazy: The only Ghostface who was already an active serial killer before ever getting involved in the Ghostface biz.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He acts nice and caring towards Sidney before The Reveal.
• Blown Across the Room: The result of his Multiple Gunshot Death when Sidney and Gale shoot the hell out of him after he tries for one more jumpscare attack (also counts as Laser-Guided Karma after he nearly shoots Gale in his initial death throes).
• Card-Carrying Villain: Mickey is noteworthy for being the only Ghostface to openly acknowledge and relish in their villainy. He makes no attempt to excuse, downplay, or ignore his violent behavior and gleefully looks forward to the fame he believes his trial will spark. While there have been other killers who've displayed giddy behavior after the reveal, Stu has the weak excuse of "peer pressure" and Ethan is implied to be an incel who acts just as much out of frustration as he does violent urges. Mickey lacks even the weakest of excuses, having already been a serial killer before becoming Ghostface.
  Sidney: You're psychotic!
  Mickey: Yeah, well, sshh. That'll be our little secret.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Billy. While Billy was a bit abrasive and short-tempered even before he was revealed as the killer, Mickey makes a point of seeming perfectly charming and harmless. Billy had a motive for his actions, if admittedly a fairly flimsy one, while Mickey is only interested in achieving fame. While Billy planned to get away with it by making himself and Stu look like victims, Mickey wants to get caught so he can achieve notoriety. Whereas Billy explicitly shot down the idea that movies made him go on a killing spree, Mickey fully intends on using this as his legal defense.
• Cop Killer: Murders Officers Andrews and Richards.
• Copycat Killer: Like most Ghostfaces, Mickey is a copycat of Billy and Stu, but his objective of getting the trial of the century is inspired by the contemporary O.J. Simpson trial. Mickey states that he will hire Dershowitz and Cochran, members of Simpson's Dream Team, to defend him.
• Didn't Think This Through: It never occurred to Mickey that his grand plan of becoming famous by standing trial for his crimes might not be to the liking of his accomplice, who doesn't want to be implicated for her role in the killings. His planned defense is likewise ill-conceived; even Mrs. Loomis, who is only marginally saner than Mickey, never believed it would work.
• The Dragon: To Debbie Salt, also known as Nancy Loomis. She paid for his college tuition and essentially nurtured him into being her accomplice, and he more or less follows her directions throughout the film. He's also the scapegoat she intends to blame the murders on after killing Sidney.
• Dragon Their Feet: Survives Mrs. Loomis by scant seconds, popping up for one last scare.
• Dramatic Unmask: He unmasks himself to Sidney and Derek, first by turning off the voice changer and speaking in his normal voice, ensuring that they realize who it is they're dealing with seconds before he actually removes his mask.
• Drives Like Crazy: As Ghostface, he takes Sidney, Hallie, and Officer Richards on a wild car ride, Richards clinging onto the hood for dear life. The ride ends when Ghostface crashes the car into a construction site, sending a pipe through Richards' head.
• Evil Counterpart: Mickey is one to Cotton Weary in Scream 2. Both of them are Attention Whores looking for their 15 Minutes of Fame and threaten Sidney to get those fifteen minutes. Mickey and Cotton are also suspects for Ghostface and end up killing at least one person: As Ghostface, Mickey murders plenty of innocent people while Cotton kills Nancy, the other Ghostface.
• Evil Is Petty: Mickey wants to get famous, and considers that worth any number of innocent lives.
• Fall Guy: Mrs. Loomis intends to have him take the fall for the murders. Granted, Mickey himself wants this, but Mrs. Loomis also plans to kill him to avoid him potentially implicating her.
• Fame Through Infamy: He wants to get caught so that he can have the trial of the century for his crimes, putting himself at the center of political debates about violence in the media.
• Faux Affably Evil: A very nice and charming student, until he unmasks himself as Ghostface to Sidney and Derek, yet acts like a thrill-seeking Fun Personified party animal in reaction to his kills. He originally was intended to be straight-up affable, not a killer at all.
• For the Evulz: Unlike every other Ghostface (apart from Jill), Mickey freely cops to the fact he's just murdering people because he likes it and the idea of being an infamous serial killer.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: During the final confrontation, Mickey has a large cut on his forehead from crashing the police car.
• Heroic Build: Exploited. Mickey's muscular build is similar to that of his victim Phil, which allows the masked Mickey to disguise as him after stealing Phil's jacket.
• Hero Killer: Murders everyone in the film except Randy.
• Irony : He wanted to be immortalized and being an infamous serial killer; however, because Mrs. Loomis was the real mastermind and he was only remembered as a copy cat killer and he's rarely talked about it.
• Kick the Dog: Murdering Derek in front of Sidney, after claiming that Derek was his partner, all just to make her feel even worse about his death.
• The Killer Was Left-Handed: Unlike Mrs. Loomis, Mickey is a true left-hander and grips the knife with his left hand when stabbing his victims. In one deleted scene, Derek pointed out that both Mickey and Ghostface were left-handed. This gives Mickey the dubious honor as the first left-handed Ghostface in the series.
• Large Ham: Much like Matthew Lillard in the previous movie, Timothy Olyphant wastes no time chewing the scenery after the big reveal.
• Laughably Evil: Like Stu above, he acts like The Joker as Ghostface.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Mickey has some playful flirtation with Hallie, who he later kills.
• Made of Iron: Somehow managed to survive Mrs. Loomis's gunshots and get up to his feet for one last scare. It takes a barrage of gunfire from Sidney and Gale to knock him down. He also survives crashing a car into a construction site.
• Manipulative Bastard: Mickey goes out of his way to plant doubts in Sidney's mind about Derek's trustworthiness, even flat-out claiming Derek to be his partner during the climax, all to psychologically torment Sidney and make her feel that much worse when Mickey kills Derek.
• More Despicable Minion: Self-centered as it is, Nancy Loomis at least has the motive of trying to avenge her son. Mickey killed simply because he enjoyed it and wanted to get famous.
• Multiple Gunshot Death: How he ultimately dies, courtesy of Sidney and Gale.
• Murder Simulators: Invoked with his plan, which was to get caught and, at the trial, blame violent horror movies for turning him into a psycho killer, earning him sympathetic media, legal attention, and quite possibly a light sentence.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Nancy confirms that she shot Mickey with the other cop's gun. Since Mickey is the one who killed both of the detectives guarding Sidney and stole their handguns, this means that he handed one of the guns to Mrs. Loomis out of goodwill when both Ghostfaces met up at the theater.
• Not Quite Dead: After Cotton saves Sidney by shooting Nancy dead, Mickey suddenly springs up back to life. He suffers a Multiple Gunshot Death from Sidney and Gale for his trouble.
• Sadist: Just look at the way he murders Maureen and Derek. He's clearly enjoying every second of it.
• Serial Killer: Notable in that he was already an active one before becoming Ghostface, which means that his total body count is much higher than what is seen on screen. Nancy Loomis recruited him for this reason.
• Significant Name Overlap: As part of his "blaming violent movies" motive, he murders people who share the same names as the Woodsboro victims from the original Ghostface killing spree in a similar order. However, this is dropped after Nancy kills Randy, presumably because Nancy, the leader of the two, had a plan to target Sidney later that night, so there would be no time for Mickey to find other similarly-named victims.
• Sword and Gun: He arms himself with both a pistol and Ghostface's signature knife in his final confrontation with Sidney.
• Troll: A particularly nasty example; Mickey pretends that Derek, currently bound and helpless, was his partner in the killings just to further mess with Sidney's head and make her feel even worse for suspecting the innocent Derek after Mickey murders him.
• Unwitting Pawn: Mrs. Loomis easily duped Mickey into believing that their killings would lead to him winning fame through an inevitable trial for his crimes. As soon as she had Sidney in her crosshairs, however, Mrs. Loomis gunned Mickey down, having never believed his "blame the movies" defense would work and only using him as muscle and as a useful scapegoat.
• Villain Respect: He gives props to Sidney for putting up a good fight, saying that she has a "Linda Hamilton thing going."
• Wrong Genre Savvy: invoked Mickey is under the impression that his and Mrs. Loomis's killing spree is the Even Better Sequel to Billy and Stu's rampage. In reality, most Stab fans consider Stab 2, the film based off he and Mrs. Loomis's killing spree, to be a Contested Sequel, a solid entry that is superior to every Stab movie made after Stab 3 but not necessarily superior to the original one.
  Mickey: Just wait until the trial. It is gonna rock!
  Mrs. Loomis: Oh Mickey, there's not going to be a trial.
• You're Insane!: Both Sidney (who calls Mickey "psychotic" to his face) and Mrs. Loomis express a (justifiably) low opinion of Mickey's sanity.

Scream 3

Roman Bridger

Roman Bridger

"I'm a director, Sid — I direct. "

Played By: Scott Foley

"I had no idea that they were going to make a film of their own. I mean, introducing: Sidney, the victim. Sidney, the survivor. Sidney, the star!"

The director of Stab 3 and Sidney Prescott's half-brother. Roman is revealed to be the retroactive Greater-Scope Villain of the first three films, being Maureen Prescott's first child from when she was sexually assaulted during her brief stint as a Hollywood actress. When Maureen rejected Roman, seeing him as a hated reminder of her old life in Horrible Hollywood, Roman inspired Billy and Stu to murder her, setting off the events of the series. He hates Sidney for living a happy life with Maureen and for becoming a celebrity after surviving the previous Ghostface killings, feeling that both of those things were owed to him. Roman is the only solo Ghostface in the six movies, not having a partner working alongside him.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: He can't help but chuckle when he sees that Sidney pulled off the same bulletproof vest trick as him.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Subverted. He holds hands with Sidney after she stabs him in the chest in an apparent attempt to genuinely connect with her, but then rises back up and lunges at her with his knife.
• Arc Welding: Revealed to be the person who put Billy and Stu up to murdering Maureen in the first place.
• Author Avatar: For Wes Craven. He's a horror director who orchestrated the events of the series, and admits to being tired of horror movies.
• Ax-Crazy: Downplayed. He's an egotistical maniac who enjoys killing, but he has a certain intelligence and cunning, seeing how he orchestrated Billy and Stu's crimes from the first movie. However, he throws out his sanity at the climax when Sidney pulls her Shut Up, Hannibal! on him. In addition, out of all the Ghostfaces, he has the most kills, at nine.
• Bait the Dog: When he's apparently fatally wounded, he holds onto Sidney's hand, as if they are having a brother/sister moment. It turns out he's trying to throw her off her guard in a last-ditch attempt to kill her.
• Barbaric Bully: After losing his composure, he tries to viciously fight Sidney.
• Bastard Bastard: Roman is Maureen's Child by Rape whom she gave up for adoption. When he confronted her years later, she rejected him, saying that her only child was Sidney. He resents Sidney for being the only one of them who got their mother's love, not to mention her getting the fame that he wanted. While Roman was dealt a bad hand, he decided to cope with it by orchestrating Maureen's murder, then, years later, go on a killing spree to frame and murder Sidney so he can get the fame he thinks he deserves.
• Big Bad: Of the third film. He's the mastermind behind the Stab 3 murders, and is revealed to be the one who inspired Billy and Stu to their massacre in the first film. Unlike his predecessors and successors, Roman is the only Ghostface to lack an accomplice.
• Big Brother Bully: Exaggerated, because not only does he bully Sidney, he ruins her life, psychologically torments her, and attempts to murder her, all out of jealousy.
• Blown Across the Room: He goes flying when Dewey finally puts a bullet in his head.
• Boom, Headshot!: How Roman met his end. After getting stabbed by his half-sister, Sidney, he gets up for one last scare to kill her. While Dewey shot him repeatedly, it didn't keep him down, because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. It isn't until Sidney tells Dewey to shoot him in the head, which he does, that his madness finally ends.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: He borrows Sidney's. They both scream "FUCK YOU!" at each other before their No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• The Bully: He's psychologically torments Sidney, harangues her, and delivers a Precision F-Strike against her.
  Roman: Oh, it's rough being friends with you, Sid. [mocking] When you're friends with Sid, you die.
• Bullying the Dragon: What it ultimately comes down to. Especially telling because, by this point, Sidney has had well and truly enough of the Ghostface crap, so that when the final showdown comes, rather than Sidney being on the defense as usual, she charges at him in an equally murderous rage after deciding to go full Bully Hunter.
• Cain and Abel: He's Sid's half-brother, born from Maureen's rape when she was living in L.A.
• Child by Rape: He's John Milton's son, conceived when he raped Maureen Prescott.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike every Ghostface before (and since), Roman operates without a partner.
• Copycat Killer: An interesting case. Roman reveals that he inspired Billy and Stu to become killers, and thus is responsible for inspiring some of Ghostface's tactics, most notably their reliance on a partner to facilitate their murder sprees, and usage of a fall guy to escape the consequences. Despite this, Roman doesn't quite follow his own advice, as he is the only Ghostface to work alone.
• The Corrupter: Roman was the one who set Billy down the path of a serial killer by revealing his father's affair with Maureen Prescott to him. Granted, he may have only accelerated the inevitable and simply exploited a darkness that was already inside Billy.
• Create Your Own Hero: He orchestrated the death of Sidney's mother through Billy and Stu, which makes him indirectly responsible for not only Billy and Stu's later killing spree, but also Mickey and Nancy's copycat murders. By the time Roman takes up the knife and confronts her in person, Sidney, now a full-blown Action Survivor and utterly sick of being a scapegoat for the previous Ghostfaces, furiously dresses him down verbally, fights him toe to toe with vicious hatred to match his, and ultimately kills him.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He's a talented enough strategist to have successfully orchestrated a murder without anyone suspecting him. He's a talented enough director to have climbed up the Hollywood ladder in a few short years to get exactly where he wanted to, and probably could have obtained the fame he felt he was so entitled to if he had stayed on that path. He instead decides to apply his talents to murdering his cast and toying with Sidney in order to emulate her image as an Action Survivor.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: He deconstructs the archetypal "Serial Killer with a Freudian Excuse" villain seen in numerous horror movies. At the climax, he launches into a Motive Rant detailing his Freudian Excuse for wanting to kill Sidney. He grew up hating her and their mother Maureen because he felt that Maureen loved Sidney more and essentially abandoned him, viewing him as an unwelcome reminder of her old life, and believes that the fame Sidney got after the massacre should've been his. An infuriated Sidney responds to this rant with a blistering Shut Up, Hannibal! speech, calling the killer a selfish brat who can't take any personal responsibility and is only killing people for pleasure and trying to rationalize it after the fact. Tellingly, Sidney's speech causes a Villainous Breakdown in him, as he yells at an unfazed Sidney to stop talking before flying off the handle and attacking her.
• Didn't See That Coming: Roman only provoked Billy into murdering Maureen; he didn't foresee Billy setting out on a killing spree, and certainly never predicted that Sidney would survive it and get famous. Sidney's unexpected rise to fame rankled Roman so deeply that he eventually set out on his own spree of Ghostface killings to both ruin Sidney and get some of that fame for himself.
• Died on Their Birthday: The climax of the third film takes place at Roman's birthday party at John Milton's mansion. Played With. Firstly, after everyone at the party splits up to look for secret passageways, Roman uses this moment to fake his own death (Gale finds him in a trunk with a large knife sticking out of his stomach) before later revealing himself to be the Ghostface killer and explaining his motives to Sidney. Then, he and Sidney fight it out, and in the end, Sidney stabs Roman in the back, twice, with an icepick. Roman ultimately dies from these injuries but not before sharing a sibling moment with his half-sister, Sidney, who takes some sympathy on him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's a retroactive one for the franchise as a whole. After scheming behind the scenes, indirectly causing the plots of the first two movies, and becoming the main antagonist of the last section of the original trilogy, he's replaced by new villains for the next movies and the show, which were released years after Scream 3.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Roman is revealed to have manipulated Billy and Stu into killing Maureen for rejecting him as her child; the reason he goes after Sidney is because he's jealous of all the fame and attention Sid has received because of the killings, which she never even wanted in the first place.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Irate movie nerd Roman, who Sidney had never even met prior to the reveal and who had been seemingly killed off, is not only the killer but the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire franchise.
• Entitled Bastard: As far as Roman is concerned, he deserves to be famous, and he has every right to lay waste to Sidney's life, because he deserved everything she ever had as well.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • None of the Ghostface killers are above childish, petty taunting, but Roman goes the extra mile of using Maureen's voice and image to psychologically torture Sidney, throwing in sadistic taunts in Maureen's replicated voice.
  • He's also the only Ghostface to try to frame Sidney for the killing spree, simply because he was so Driven by Envy that she got famous instead of him.
• Evil Mentor: Not only did he give Billy the idea to murder Maureen, he also gave him a few helpful pointers, including finding someone to frame and having a partner to throw under the bus in case he got caught.
• Expy: Possibly of Freddie Krueger (another horror icon by Wes Craven) as they're both Serial Killers who were children by rape.
• Faking the Dead: Does this to throw everyone's attention off him as a suspect.
• Fall Guy: He plans to pin his murders on Sidney.
• Famed In-Story: His murder spree goes on to inspire Stab 3, which was ironically supposed to be directed by him and be a completely original story.
• Faux Affably Evil: Immediately after the unmasking, he is initially smugly polite and charming towards Sidney, transitions to being hyperactive, especially when killing John Milton, before completely dropping the affable facade when his mean-spirited Hair-Trigger Temper gets the best of him.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Prior to the reveal, he wears glasses.
• Freudian Excuse: Maureen refuses to accept him as her son, which coupled with being a Child by Rape, didn't do wonders for his mental health. However...
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Sidney shuts him up by pointing out that he killed solely For the Evulz, and thus, any justification he might have had was blown out the window the second he called upon Billy to murder Maureen.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of the first two films. The Scream franchise as we know it would never have existed if Roman hadn't revealed Maureen's infidelity to Billy Loomis. He also gave Billy pointers, like having an accomplice and potential fall guy in case things went south, giving birth to the first pair of Ghostface killers, and by extension, all of the copycats in the sequels. He steps down from this role to become the Big Bad for the third film. That being said, he may have only accelerated, especially as the second film implied Mickey, who had no prior connection to Sidney, was already a serial killer before being recruited by Nancy.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He can barely contain his rage during his Motive Rant, but when Sidney shoots his claims down, he completely snaps, and the two begin to violently beat each other, before Roman tries to strangle her to death.
• Hero Killer: Roman murders everyone in the film including Jennifer (who helped Dewey and Gale with their investigation) and Cotton (who killed the previous movie's Big Bad, Nancy Loomis).
• Hidden Depths:
  • Assuming that he was being serious, there is his claim that he wanted to direct something like a romantic comedy, instead of just another music video or horror film.
  • While not a full-fledged Stage Magician, Roman is able to hide his pulse, which is a real-life magic trick.
  • It is implied that Roman custom-built his own voice changer since he is able to imitate the voices of his victims, something future Ghostfaces never replicate. According to the DVD commentary, there originally was a scene that showed how he was able to build said device.
• Hypocrite: Roman claims credit for Billy taking on Stu as an accomplice and potential fall guy. When he sets out on his own killing spree, Roman ignores his own advice, acting alone for the entirety of Scream 3.
• Immune to Bullets: Invokes this by wearing a bulletproof vest under his costume. A bullet in the head, on the other hand...
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: As he lays out his motives to Sidney, Roman is full of smug confidence, but the instant Sidney starts calling him on it, Roman falls apart and flies into a psychotic rage.
• It's All About Me: His motives for instigating the Ghostface killings? His mother rejected him because he was a reminder of her rape and dark past. His motives for wanting to kill Sidney? She, Dewey and Gale survived the previous killing sprees and became famous for it, so Roman wants Sidney's fame, claiming he should have had her life.
• I Work Alone: Unlike other Ghostface killers, Roman has no partners in crime.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Despite being a sarcastic director, he does seem to be a friendly and harmless nerd, but after The Reveal, he's just The Bully. The one instance where he seems to bond with Sidney, he only did so to catch her off guard and make one last attempt on her life when she least expects it.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Roman gets away with his role in spurring Billy and Stu to murder Maureen, but it's when he decides to enact his own killing spree in the third movie that justice catches up to him in the end, courtesy of Dewey shooting him in the head at Sidney's behest.
• Kick the Dog: His voice changer carries the voices of several different characters from the series, including Maureen's. He uses her voice when talking to Sidney a few times, often while covered with a bloody bedsheet. His murder of Cotton also qualifies as one of the "pointers" he gave Billy when planning Maureen's murder was to frame someone for the crime, thereby ultimately making Roman responsible for Cotton's wrongful imprisonment and near execution.
  Roman: (offscreen, speaking with Maureen's voice) I lied, Sidney, I can't protect you at all! You don't deserve to be protected! You didn't protect me!
• Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Roman manipulated Billy and Stu into murdering Maureen Prescott, his own mother. He even kills his father (although he deserved it), and tries to kill his half-sister Sidney for good measure.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A relatively minor example. Assuming his disdain about having to direct Stab 3 instead of a romantic comedy was genuine, this applies as his orchestration of Maureen's murder led to the birth of the Ghostface persona, making him the reason why the Stab movies exist in the first place.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Roman had sex with Jennifer at least once, and later kills her.
• Mad Artist: He approvingly compares Billy's scheme to making a film, and considers his planning out murders a way of fulfilling his role as a filmmaker.
  Roman: I'm a director, Sid. I direct.
• Made of Iron: After being stabbed in the chest with an ice pick and seemingly dying, Roman springs back up and tries to attack Sidney again, the ice pick still in his chest until Dewey puts him down with a gunshot to the head.
• The Man Behind the Man: He was the one who incited Billy to kill Maureen one year before the first movie. He also told Billy to have an accomplice: Stu.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His first name is a reference to Roman Polański. Given his backstory and Polanski's real-life scandals, it's darkly appropriate, especially since both of them are film directors.
  • His surname Bridger fits the fact that he's the original trilogy's Greater-Scope Villain, who set the entire film series' chain of events in motion.
• Mommy Issues: He has this even more so than Billy did. Roman blames his mother for all the misfortune in his life, and he is so fixated on Maureen's rejection of him that, even years after her death (which he orchestrated), Roman wants to murder and frame Maureen's favored child Sidney to spite their dead mother (as well as Sidney herself).
• Never My Fault:
  • Claims to be a tragic victim lashing out at the world. Sidney's shattering of his self-delusion results in a Villainous Breakdown.
  • He claims he hates Sidney because she became famous for surviving the events of the original film, and thinks he deserves that kind of fame. At no point does it ever dawn on him that she only became famous because of events he orchestrated, so he is the reason why Sidney gained any notoriety.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had he just stuck to directing and not taken up the Ghostface legacy, he probably would've attained the fame he wanted through legitimate means, and Sidney would have remained a scared shut-in. But instead he forced her out of hiding, forcing her to face her fears and Survivor's Guilt and overcome them. Not only does she thwart his plan and kill him, but she goes on to write a book and become even more famous. This ends up making Sidney a more badass and formidable opponent for future Ghostfaces, who runs into danger to save others and fights the killers with every intent to take them down.
• Not Good with Rejection: Boy howdy. The series only starts off because Maureen Prescott rejected him as her son.
• Not Quite Dead: Sidney walks away from Roman after stabbing him in the chest with an ice pick. Roman then proceeds to get back up in an attempt to kill Sidney, Dewey, and Gale. Dewey shoots Roman several times, though only through his bulletproof vest, before finally silencing him with a headshot when Sidney reminds him.
• One-Man Army: Unlike all of the other Ghostfaces, who work in pairs, he accomplishes his killing spree on his own, and consequently has the highest kill tally: 9. This is best shown when he manages to kill Angelina, Tyson, and Jennifer in the span of about five minutes. Kirby gives him props for his tenacity, 2 decades after his death, in VI.
  Kirby: Kudos to him for ambition.
• Out of Focus: Subsequent films don't really mention him much despite his role in Maureen's murder, opting instead to focus on Billy Loomis and the effects of his killing spree as one of the original Ghostfaces alongside Stu.
• Patricide: His own father is one of his many victims.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Kills his own father, John Milton, who raped his mother.
• Playing the Victim Card: Roman has a genuinely traumatic background, but he continuously tries to cast himself as a tragic victim even as he kills innocent people due to his Mommy Issues and petty jealousy. Sidney epically calls him out on it and bluntly tells him that he's not a Tragic Villain; he's just a pathetic Psychopathic Manchild who won't take responsibility for his own actions. Roman doesn't take it well.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Milton offers him control of the final cut of his movie.
  "I already have it."
• Psychopathic Manchild: Shown by his childish tantrum after Sidney's "The Reason You Suck" Speech and his overall approach to life. He orchestrated the death of his own mother because she didn't love him, refuses to take any responsibility for his actions, and enjoys himself like a child in a toy store.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: As Ghostface, he doesn't wear the glasses he had in public.
• Rape and Revenge: Invoked as part of his plan. Roman intended to frame Sidney for the killings, with the motive being that she found out that Milton was responsible for Maureen's rape and wanted to "make him pay."
• The Resenter: He hates Sidney for getting their mother's acceptance, believing that everything Sidney has ever received, especially fame (which Sidney has never wanted and tries to avoid), should have been his. Because of this, he happily subjects Sidney to psychological torture and intends to frame her for his own crimes.
• Self-Made Orphan: Excluding Maureen's murder, John Milton was his father, and he ends up being Roman's last victim.
• The Sociopath: Has a complete Lack of Empathy toward Maureen for having been raped, masterminding her murder simply because she didn't welcome him with open arms when they met again. This carries over to his half-sister Sidney, who he grows jealous of because she survived two killing sprees and became famous for it. He wants all the fame for himself, so he uses her survivorhood against her. He has a pretty high sense of self-worth, pretending to be the victim and refusing to take responsibility for his choices. Everyone else is gore fodder for him. When he and Sidney seemingly connect before his death, it's just a distraction.
• Stranger Behind the Mask: Played with; the audience and other characters had met Roman prior to his unmasking as Ghostface, but Sidney had never set eyes on him before in her life. Roman even has to introduce himself to Sidney after he's removed the mask.
• Superior Successor: He kills more people than any other Ghostface who came before him (or after, for that matter).
• Third Act Stupidity: Similar to the original Ghostface duo, Roman opts to murder John Milton first, who is bound and unable to escape, while Sidney is free and can fight back. Once again, Sidney survives because the Ghostface killer couldn't resist bragging about their plan.
• Tragic Villain: Subverted; Roman is crazy enough to see himself as this, being a Child by Rape rejected by his mother for being a reminder of her trauma, but he thoroughly proves that he's ultimately just a selfish, entitled, spiteful brat who kills because he enjoys it and because he wants to be famous, using his past as a flimsy excuse for his actions and throwing a tantrum when he's called on it.
  • In fairness, though, he still has a more sympathetic backstory than that of the main villain from the fourth movie (since his is somewhat comparable to that of the Penguin's from Batman Returns).
• Unknown Rival: Roman was the cause of some of the worst misfortunes of Sidney's life, and he always resented her for having their mother's love and the fame of surviving two Ghostface killing sprees. Sidney, by contrast, had no idea Roman even existed until he unmasked himself as Ghostface at the climax of the third film.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Downplayed. While he intentionally put Billy and Stu up to murdering Maureen, he had no idea that they would continue their killing spree a year later, which in turn led to the series of murder sprees in subsequent films.
• Villainous Breakdown: Sidney's "The Reason You Suck" Speech dismantling his selfish motives triggers one in him, causing him to essentially throw a violent, high-octane childish tantrum.
• Villainous Legacy: Less so than Billy and Stu, but being the Greater-Scope Villain for most of the original trilogy has allowed Roman to have the largest legacy in the franchise, as his actions birthed the Ghostface identity, which has survived long after Roman himself died.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: A deconstruction. His backstory is heartbreaking, being a child of rape and his own mother wanting nothing to do with him despite it not being his fault. His reaction, though, is to kill everyone who had nothing to do with his circumstances, until the last scene where he kills the person actually responsible, John Milton ^note  as tragic as Maureen's rejection of him is, it isn't worth killing her over . Since he chooses to embrace this identity, he sees himself as a Woobie, while others see him as a monster. Even when offered sympathy at the end, he is so far gone he doesn't accept it, and tries to kill Sidney again.

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