WARNING: Given that the identity of each one of the killers is a Walking Spoiler, this is a Spoilers Off page. Everything below the general character description will openly spoil The Reveal from each movie. You Have Been Warned. With that in mind, please keep tropes for each killer before each reveal on the respective character pages so as to not spoil the twist on those pages.

Note that this page only covers the Ghostface killers from the films. The Ghostfaces from the MTV series, Resurrection and Dead by Daylight can be found here, here and here, respectively.

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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.

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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: One of the most disturbing killers in the series (which is really saying something).
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.
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.

Nancy Loomis

Nancy Loomis (alias: Debbie Salt)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/089bc73e_9e82_4f7b_9d77_3030cfaa42aa.jpeg

"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.

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.
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, 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.
Crazy-Prepared: Currently, Mrs. Loomis is the one of the only two Ghostfaces to bring her own pistol as the other Ghostfaces acquire guns by stealing them from dead cops. The other is Detective Wayne Bailey, who has his own gun due to his profession as an NYPD officer.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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, known for her role as Annie Brackett in John Carpenter's Halloween.
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:
"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.
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.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Prior to turning on Mickey. It's subverted when he's revealed to have survived, however (albeit not very long).
"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.
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.

Roman Bridger

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/377fca53_1084_4492_9b42_700030b9ce6d.jpeg

"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.

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. 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.
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 operated without a partner.
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.
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 Debbie'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 others 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.
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.
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.
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 favoured 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, 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, long 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.
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.
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.
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. 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.

Jill Roberts

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jill_67.png

"I was so believable today, wasn't I? I mean, I told so many lies that I actually started to believe them."

Played By: Emma Roberts

"My friends? What world are you living in? I don't need friends. I need fans. Don't you get it? This has never been about killing you, it's about... becoming you. I mean, for fuck's sake, my own mother had to die, no great loss there, so I could stay true to the original. It's sick, right? Well, sick is the new sane. You had your 15 minutes, now I WANT MINE! I mean, what am I supposed to do? Go to college? Grad school? Work? Look around. We all live in public now, we're all on the Internet. How do you think people get famous anymore? You don't have to achieve anything, you just gotta have fucked up shit happen to you. So you do have to die, Sid. Those are the rules. New movie, new franchise. There's only room for one lead, and let's face it, your ingenue days, they're over."

First introduced as the seemingly innocent victim of the latest Ghostface killings, she is eventually revealed to be far from the Final Girl she's presented as. In fact, Jill Roberts is the mastermind of the fourth film's murders. The younger cousin of Sidney, she's a fame-hungry sociopath who is envious of her cousin's fame. Jill planned on framing Trevor for the murders and emerging as the "final girl" in the eyes of the media, riding it to celebrity status as Sidney had done. Tricking Charlie into helping her, she intends to kill and frame him when she no longer needs him. She also had her 'survival' filmed so that she could upload it to social media.

Tropes

Allegorical Character: Jill is essentially a cynic's interpretation of a movie remake. Jill may be a modern, updated version of Sidney, but she will never live up to Sidney.
All for Nothing: In the end, she not only doesn't get away with her scheme but one of her victims, Kirby, survives and gets the attention Jill wanted.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: She seems to only have her mother, and no father, but what happened to him isn't clear.
Antagonistic Offspring: She is this to her mother, who is oblivious to how little her daughter cares for her.
Arch-Enemy: She views Sidney as hers since she grew up in the wake of the latter's notoriety for surviving previous Ghostface murder sprees and grew to resent her for this. Jill even saves Sidney for last in her planned murders, which further solidifies the special enmity that she holds for her.
Attack the Injury: She stabs Sidney in the stomach during her reveal at Kirby's house, and later punches that same wound when she attacks Sidney in the hospital.
Attention Whore: To the point of convincing Charlie to help her kill all of her friends and her mother, just for a few minutes of fame. She steps it up even more when she needlessly kills Charlie simply because she wants all the attention to herself as the Sole Survivor.
Ax-Crazy: When she's revealed to be Ghostface. She's arguably the most overtly insane of all of the Ghostface killers — even Stu wasn't as crazy as her.
Bad Boss: She kills her own underling, Charlie.
Bad Influencer: Her motivation is social media stardom, and she films and stages everything in order to achieve that.
Barbaric Bully: Her savagery that tops the previous killers, her disposing of Charlie much to his devastation, the way she inflicts wounds on herself to better look like an authentic survivor of a bloodbath, her being emotionally and verbally abusive, and a bad temper to boot definitely qualify her as such.
Beauty Is Bad: She's attractive, attention-seeking, and murderous.
Be Careful What You Wish For: She wanted fifteen minutes of fame, and she got them, literally. She's hailed as a heroic survivor for a very brief period of time, until Sidney kills her and presumably exposes her as a murderer and a liar.
Beneath the Mask: Pretends to be a normal, nice schoolgirl being targeted by killers when she in fact is the killer targeting innocent people.
Berserk Button: Being told what to do, as she only shoots Officer Hicks after the latter gives her what she wants (her gun) and tries to calmly defuse the situation by giving her an order.
Beyond Redemption: Made very clear from Jill rebuffing Sidney telling her that she's not going to get out of her predicament and Jill later ignoring an attempt by Officer Hicks to defuse the situation by shooting her.
Big Bad: Of the fourth film. Her desire to reach Sidney's fame is what drives her to massacre her friends, and she quickly turns on her partner to frame him for the killing scheme.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Like most Ghostfaces, she is seemily very kind before The Reveal that is a cold blooded murder.
Blatant Lies: She is constantly telling lies. She even is amused by the amount of them.
Jill: I told so many lies today, that I actually started to believe them.
Boom, Headshot!: Threatens to do this to Dewey if Judy doesn't give her gun to her.
The Bully: Towards Sidney and anyone around her, as she's prone to insulting and unleashing her bad temper against others in her way.
Bully Brutality: Jill is prone to lashing out, kicks Trevor in a rage, even shooting him in the crotch before killing him, and verbally abuses Sidney and later her friends when they find out the truth, before trying to off them too to tie up loose ends.
By the Hair: She has Trevor's corpse rip some of her hair out to falsely convince detectives that he had grabbed her there while alive and trying to kill her.
Cain and Abel: She's Sidney's younger cousin and is trying to kill her.
Card-Carrying Villain: Jill is revealed to love being, proudly proclaiming that "Sick is the new sane."
The Chessmaster: She is able to use Charlie as a means of misdirecting her role as one of the killers by having him cut her and appearing terrified when he's murdering someone or trying to attack her.
Clashing Cousins: She's out for Sidney's blood, but not before she kills everyone else to make herself the Sole Survivor in the spotlight.
Combat Pragmatist: Jill knows she can't defeat Dewey in a fair fight so she knocks him unconscious with a sneak attack.
Composite Character: While Jill tries to invoke being an Expy of Sidney in a "reboot" of the original killings, she obviously subverts that while incorporating traits of all the Ghostface killers before her.
- Like Billy, she's a wrathful bully who killed all her friends including both her love interests.
- Like Stu, she is the more insane of the duo who killed her ex because he dumped her for someone else.
- Like Mickey, her main motive is fame.
- Like Mrs. Loomis, she betrays her accomplice and intends to pin all the murders on them after killing them.
- Like Roman, she is a matricidal, envious relative of Sidney.
Consummate Liar: With the exception of Charlie, she lies to everyone by framing herself as a normal teenager who is being gone after by the new Ghostface. Her lies extend to Charlie, as she fakes a romantic interest and desire in being his partner so that he will assist her in the murders.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist
- To the original film's main Ghostface, Billy. While Billy and Jill are both acquainted with Sidney before the events of their respective films, Sidney feels intimacy with Billy while being much more distant with Jill. Sidney has suspicions about Billy being the killer, but never suspects Jill until the latter makes her murderous identity known. Although Billy and Jill both enjoy horror films, the former's love for movies plays into his speech to Sidney whereas Jill just finds them enjoyable. Both corner Sidney and reveal their plans to her, but Jill stabs Sidney and kills Trevor in front of her, in contrast to Billy only threatening her with a gun and having already killed all of his victims before the reveal. Although both inflict harm on their partner, Billy never tries to kill Stu (only wounding him to go along with their plot to pose as victims) whereas Jill kills Charlie.
- To Scream 2's main Ghostface, Nancy Loomis. Mrs. Loomis is one of the oldest Ghostfaces while Jill is one of the youngest. Both assault Dewey, though Mrs. Loomis attempts to kill him (and fails) while Jill only renders him unconscious and uses him as leverage over Judy and Gale. Although both kill their male partners, Mrs. Loomis takes on a mother-son relationship with Mickey that sees the latter helped with his college funding while Jill pretends to be romantically interested in Charlie. While Mrs. Loomis was motivated by the death of her son and wanted to avenge him before retreating to a life of anonymity, Jill has no sympathetic motivation and wants to achieve fame after posing as a victim. Both are defeated by the combined efforts of Sidney and her friends, but Mrs. Loomis is killed after trying to make a compromise with Cotton while Jill shows no interest in getting anything less than what she wants.
- To the third film's Ghostface Roman Bridger. Roman is an established film director with fame whereas Jill seeks notoriety. Roman works alone and kills all of his cast while Jill works with Charlie and only directly kills some of her friends. Both played a role in causing the death of their own mother, but Roman only did the planning for Billy to commit the act while Jill murdered her mother. Although both are related to Sidney, the latter has never met Roman before the film whereas she's already acquainted with Jill. While both hold Dewey hostage, Roman attacks him head-on (causing him to lose consciousness after a fall) while Jill renders him in a similar state through a sneak attack. Roman appears to reconcile with Sidney (when faking his death) and is killed by an associate of hers (Dewey) while Jill never expresses remorse for her actions towards her cousin and is directly killed by Sidney.
Cop Killer: Subverted. Jill seemingly shoots Judy dead, but Judy is able to stand back up and disclose that she was wearing a Bulletproof Vest.
Corrupted Character Copy: Of Sidney: a dark-haired Final Girl whose cheating boyfriend turned on her and killed everyone around her. Unlike Sidney, who is an innocent victim and a badass Action Girl, Jill is the primary Ghostface, and sadistic and petty.
The Corrupter: Considering how well her lies of wanting a romance with Charlie worked on him, she's heavily implied to be the reason he's a participant in the murder spree.
Crazy-Prepared: Jill seems to be able to come up with solutions anytime parts of her plan do not go the way she intended. After the initial shock of Sidney still being alive wears off, she leaves her room and sneaks to Sidney's with the intent of finally killing her.
Curb-Stomp Battle: She easily gets the better of Sidney by stabbing her when she is running from Charlie and has her pinned until delivering (what she thinks is) a fatal wound later on.
Dark Action Girl: This is best exemplified at the hospital, where she takes on Sidney, Gale, Dewey, and Judy by herself, and comes close to killing them off.
Death by Irony: While Jill was able to defeat Sidney at Kirby's house after a sneak attack gave the former the upper hand, Jill is killed via gunshot to the chest after a sneak attack from Sidney gave her the upper hand.
Decoy Protagonist: A blatant Expy of Sidney, and was even heavily hinted as her possible successor as The Hero of the franchise, only to be revealed as Evil All Along and the fourth film's Big Bad.
Deliberate Injury Gambit: Allows Charlie to slash her arm in order to make herself look like a Ghostface target.
Determinator: She is really driven when it comes to killing her intended victims, just because she wants Sidney's fame and to be the center of attention.
Didn't See That Coming: She is shocked to find out Sidney survived the stabbing she gave her at Kirby's house.
Didn't Think This Through: Jill assumed that a couple of stab wounds would be enough to keep the famously hard to kill Sidney down for good, despite having access to a gun that could have finished Sidney in an instant. Once she realizes that Sidney did indeed survive, Jill is left scrambling to silence the witness she blabbed all of her plans to.
Disproportionate Retribution: Jill murders Trevor and frames him for her murders as revenge for cheating on her (which includes shooting him in the groin and shouting, "I am NOT the girl you cheat on!"). While Trevor's infidelity was not her motivation for becoming the new Ghostface, she specifically targets him as a patsy because of it. Her reason for targeting Sidney, on the other hand, is simply because, like Roman, she's jealous of her fame and wants it for herself, despising her cousin for all the attention she got and feeling overshadowed as a result.
Distaff Counterpart: To her immediate Ghostface predecessor Roman Bridger, due to their status as evil, jealous relatives to Sidney.
Dramatically Missing the Point: Jill complains to Sidney that Trevor was a worse boyfriend than Billy because Trevor didn't make her famous, never mind the fact that Billy was a killer.
Driven by Envy: Her jealousy of how much attention Sidney was getting drove her to wanting to replicate it, by killing others and making herself appear to be the survivor.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She not only fits the physical description, but is also a terrifying serial killer.
Engineered Heroics: The 2011 Woodsboro killings are the result of Jill wanting to be recognized as The Hero like Sidney, to the point of starting another Ghostface spree for her to play the role of the Final Girl survivor.
Establishing Character Moment: When Jill stabs Sidney in a sneak attack and then smiles after she pulls off her mask, which reveals her as one of the killers, it establishes Jill as sadistic and taking joy in hurting others.
Even Evil Has Standards: Before killing Gale, she consents to allowing her a last word. Though, this is mostly due to her feeling like she is guaranteed rather an actual standard on her part.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She is bitterly jealous of Sidney's fame and seems to believe Sidney enjoyed it, despite it only coming about due to the death of her mother and her friends. The idea that Sidney might absolutely hate her notoriety and having such traumatic events define her life is something Jill can't seem to fathom.
Evil Counterpart: To Sidney. She is set up to be a Sidney expy, and has a lot in common with her as a young woman...until she's revealed to be Ghostface. One might argue that she's also a Distaff Counterpart to her cousin, Roman.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: She takes joy in hurting others and is visibly happy to admit how sick what she's doing is.
Evil Is Hammy: Especially in the scene where she's self-harming to make herself look like a victim of the killer, and when she behaves like a stuck-up Fun Personified Alpha Bitch diva after The Reveal.
Evil Is Petty: Goes batshit insane and kills her friends and mother because she wants to be famous.
Eye Scream: Sidney pokes her in the eye to escape from being strangled.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: She's played by then-family film and television genre actress Emma Roberts.
Fake Relationship: She has one with Charlie as she clearly doesn't reciprocate his feelings given that she kills him.
Fake Ultimate Hero: Jill plans to stage herself as the heroic Final Girl of the new murders. She nearly gets away with it, but is killed in the hospital and presumably exposed as a fraud afterwards.
Fame Through Infamy: Though unlike Mickey, she wants recognition not as a killer, but as the hero who stopped a massacre, having seen her cousin Sidney become famous for her ordeal and ride that to appearances in movies, talk shows, and books.
Faux Affably Evil: Puts up a nice girl façade to hide her true monstrous colors, and then brags to Sidney after The Reveal like some fun-loving party girl having the time of her life, just before she stabs her to put the final touches on her murderous con.
Femme Fatale: Jill is an attractive girl who does not take cheating well nor has an issue with taking a life. Both of the boys that she at first shows romantic interest in, her former boyfriend Trevor and her fellow Ghostface Charlie, end up dying by her hand.
15 Minutes of Fame: As she is taken from Kirby's home, Jill achieves this with the media describing her as a survivor of the new murder spree. When it comes out that she was behind the killings, presumably shortly after her death, the positive attention to her evaporates.
Final Girl: Subverted. Her goal is to usurp Sidney's position as the new Final Girl of the Ghostface massacres and ride it as her claim to fame... by donning the mask herself.
Foil:
- To Dewey Riley. Dewey is an older friend of Sidney who has a close relationship with her and has risked his life to save her while Jill is the younger cousin of Sidney who is distant to her and wants to kill her. Dewey is an officer who cares about his subordinates while Jill is a law-breaker who only cares for herself and is fine with the deaths of her friends. Dewey is in love with Gale and cares greatly for her well-being while Jill pretends to be romantically attracted to Charlie and cares so little for him that she ends his life herself.
- To Gale Weathers. Both are dark-haired residents of Woodsboro, although Jill was raised there while Gale became a resident only after marrying Dewey. Both aspire to write, though Gale struggles with finding a topic to write about while Jill wants to falsify a tale of her survival in the new Woodsboro murder spree. Both set up methods to record, though Gale does this to catch footage of the happenings and possibly the killers as a means of stopping them while Jill wants recordings so she can watch her murders repeatedly. While both have had friction with Sidney at various points, Gale at her worst still tried to help Sidney against Ghostface (particularly Billy and Stu in the original spree) whereas Jill at her best simply wants her dead.
- To Kirby Reed. Both are high-schoolers and interested in horror movies. Kirby is an ardent driver while Jill is never shown operating a vehicle. Both display a dislike of Trevor, although Kirby's distaste is limited to her rhetoric whereas Jill plots a revenge scheme to frame and murder him. Both arouse the attraction of Charlie, though the latter feels that Kirby took too long to reciprocate an attraction to him, and has no problem stabbing her, while being completely smitten with Jill and being stabbed by her. They also differ in their fates, as Jill dies while Kirby survives.
Foreshadowing:
"You think it's all about you."
For the Evulz: While the main Ghostfaces before her had Freudian Excuses, flimsy as they were, Jill has none, and openly admits she's evil, committing multiple murders purely to get 15 Minutes of Fame.
Jill: That's sick, right? Well, sick is the new sane.
Green-Eyed Monster: It's quite clear that she's envious of the attention and fame her cousin got for surviving the previous Ghostface killings, despite Sidney never wanting it in the first place.
Jill: Do you know what it was like growing up in this family? Related to you? I mean, all I ever heard was Sidney this, and Sidney that, and Sidney, Sidney, Sidney. You were always just so fucking special! Well, now I'm the special one.
Hair-Trigger Temper: As Trevor finds out the hard way, do not make her angry.
Hate Sink: A narcissistic sociopath who murders all of her friends in a killing spree, just so she can gain 15 Minutes of Fame as a Sole Survivor out of jealousy for her cousin. Until Richie and Amber from the fifth film topped her, this was quite possibly the most disgustingly petty excuse out of all the Ghostfaces. She even sadistically murders her own mother and her partner for good measure. Once Jill realized that Sidney was recovering in the intensive care unit, she tried to kill her herself so her secret wouldn't be revealed.
He Knows Too Much: After finding out that Sidney survived her initial stabbing, she attempts to do away with her in the hospital in order to finally tie up loose ends and prevent her from revealing what really happened. She also attempts to off Dewey, Gale, and Judy to desperately cover up her tracks when they realize the truth and come to Sidney's defense.
Hero Killer: After unmasking herself, Jill murders her ex-boyfriend Trevor before admitting that she was the Ghostface who killed her own mother Kate Roberts. She also comes close to killing Sidney, Dewey, Gale, and Judy by herself at the hospital.
High-Voltage Death: Subverted. Jill appears to die when she is shocked from behind by Sidney with a defibrillator, but gets back up a short time later.
I Did What I Had to Do: She sees her killing of her friends and other innocent people as justified given it will help make her look more sympathetic as the only person who was not killed.
Idiot Ball: For someone who was able to pull off such a well-thought-out and intricate plot, blowing her facade by claiming she and Gale had "matching wounds" was pretty boneheaded. Justified since her plan had succeeded much farther than any Ghostface prior, so she probably got too overconfident.
Improvised Weapon: Jill takes the cake among the Ghostfaces when she successfully takes out an armed Dewey with a bedpan before taking his gun.
I Never Said It Was Poison: She unknowingly reveals herself as the killer by mentioning that she and Gale have "matching wounds". Considering that the details about Ghostface's assault on Gale were never released to the public, the only way Jill could know this was if she attacked Gale herself.
I Have No Son!: A cousin variant: it's implied by Sidney's words after she kills her that she no longer sees Jill as her cousin, but as a murderer who got what was coming to her.
I Just Want to Be Special: Her reason for being a Ghostface is to stage a murder spree where she can portray the sole survivor and become famous for her supposed trauma. She even tells Sidney "now I'm the special one" to show her resentment towards her cousin for overshadowing her.
I Just Want to Have Friends: Subverted. While she has people like Kirby who seemed to genuinely like spending time with her, Jill couldn't care less about this and would rather have fans.
In the Back: Jill is initially incapacitated when Sidney hits her with a defibrillator from behind.
Irony:
- The seemingly wholesome new Final Girl turns out to be the killer this time.
- Killing Sidney's publicist Rebecca was Jill's envious way of impeding Sidney's fame, but Jill didn't know that Sidney just fired Rebecca minutes before the attack, rendering Jill's murder of Rebecca mostly pointless.
- The ending of Scream 4 has Jill get her much-desired fifteen minutes of fame... immediately after she's dead and set to be exposed as a murdering psychopath.
It's All About Me: Jill is willing to kill all her friends and her mother in a twisted attempt to become famous like her cousin Sidney.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Although she initially appears to be critical towards Sidney, she does try to bond with her. After The Reveal, however, it all turns out to be an act. She even goes as far to kill Charlie, who was her accomplice, so that she can claim all the fame to herself, which subverts Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
Just One Little Mistake: If she had not made a remark about Gale's wounds, which only her attacker would know, Dewey would have not caught on to her being the killer and its very likely she could have killed Sidney before anyone arrived to aid her.
Karmic Death: Gets electrocuted and shot by Sidney after spending the whole night trying to kill her, as well as murdering her own mother, who was also Sidney's aunt.
Kick the Dog: Her brutal murder of Trevor, who only wanted to make up with her, and confessed that he really did love her before she shot him.
Kick Them While They Are Down: After learning that Sidney is still alive in the hospital, Jill attempts to kill Sidney in her ICU room, after she's already critically injured her. Unfortunately for her, Sidney refuses to go down that easily.
The Killer in Me: Jill is the secretive version of this trope. Scream 4 seemingly sets her up as the new Final Girl to replace Sidney, only to reveal that she was one of the killers all along.
Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jill isn't too far behind Roman in this department. She commits matricide, and tries to kill Sidney, her own cousin.
Laser-Guided Karma: A retroactive example. Jill's end goal was to gain fame for being the Final Girl of a massacre. The fifth film reveals instead that Kirby, whom Jill intended to kill as part of this plan, survived her wounds, and is implied to have gained fame from her survival, further emphasizing that Jill's plan amounted to nothing in the end.
Legacy Character: Invoked; she wants to be seen as Sidney's successor as the sole survivor of Woodsboro killings to bask in fame and adoration.
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Downplayed. While both she and her mother Kate have issues with Sidney overshadowing them, Kate isn't a murderous psychopath like her daughter.
Light Is Not Good: She wears light shirts that are usually white or some variation of blue but is anything but heroic.
Love-Interest Traitor: Jill had previously dated Trevor, who spends the movie trying to reconcile their relationship. Jill manages to also be this for Charlie, as she planned to betray him and take all the fame for herself.
Made of Iron: The girl scratches herself, pulls out her hair, stabs herself in the shoulder, runs her face into a glass picture frame, and then throws herself through a glass coffee table in order to give herself convincing wounds. At the hospital, she's still able to start up another rampage, nearly killing Sidney and Dewey. A defibrillator to the head only momentarily slows her down. It isn't until she's shot directly in the heart that she stops. She's probably the toughest killer yet, and she's just a teenage girl!
Manipulative Bitch: She fools almost everyone into thinking she was an innocent victim targeted by Ghostface, when the truth couldn't be further from that.
Mask of Sanity: As her appearances up to The Reveal show, Jill is adept at appearing and acting completely normal, barring occasional, brief lapses in composure. However, when she finally drops the act, she proves to be completely and utterly insane, and a danger to everyone around her.
Matricide: While it's unclear whether Jill or Charlie stabbed Kate while wearing the Ghostface costume, the fact remains that Jill deliberately orchestrated her mother's death.
Meaningful Echo: When she finishes inflicting injuries on herself, Jill lays down next to the seemingly deceased Sidney with their faces turned toward each other. After finally being killed by the latter at the hospital, and falling to the floor, her corpse is on the side of Sidney with their faces turned toward each other again.
Meaningful Name:
- Her name is similar to "Billy," which hints at her true nature.
- Her first name is a Shout-Out to Jill Johnson, the protagonist of When a Stranger Calls. In fact, she shares many similarities with the 2006 remake version of Jill Johnson, which plays into Scream 4's remake theme. Like Johnson, Roberts is a high schooler who just broke up with her boyfriend for cheating on her and receives threatening phone calls from a serial killer. This double as an Ironic Name though since Roberts is one of the killers herself rather than the hero.
Meaningless Villain Victory: Although Jill was able to either kill or incapacitate everyone at Kirby's home and briefly get the attention she wanted, she still failed to kill Sidney and was later found out for her misdeeds.
The Napoleon: Emma Roberts is 5'2" and portrays a psychopathic killer.
Narcissist: You know how people think they are the main character of their own story? Well Jill realized early on that she isn't, and that drove her batshit insane. So she decided to try and actualize herself as the main character of her own story by killing her friends to "reboot" her cousin's survival story with her as the new Sidney. Her Evil Gloating is also so self-congratulatory on her own performance as the "good girl", it was as if she won an Oscar and was giving the least humble acceptance speech ever.
Near-Villain Victory: Out of all the Ghostfaces so far, Jill comes the closest to nearly killing Sidney and getting away with her murders. It's only due to not finishing the job properly, unwittingly revealing she knew about Gale's stab wound despite it never being revealed to anyone, and grossly underestimating how much of a fighter Sidney is that she's ultimately thwarted at the endgame.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her telling Dewey that she and Gale can write a book with their matching scars causes Dewey to realize a short time later that she is the killer and thereby bring about the sequence of events that cause her defeat.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Between kneeing Sidney in her stab wound, hitting Dewey in the head, and shooting Judy, Gale ends up being the only person able to stand when Jill is finally killed.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: With the exception of Sidney, Jill always tries to kill her targets as quickly as possible, and only may stop to make a deal or command.
Not Quite Dead: With Gale stalling for time, Sidney is able to sneak up to Jill and electrocute her with a defibrillator to the head, briefly knocking her out. As Sidney and Gale are checking on Dewey, Jill grabs a glass shard and tries to sneak up behind Sidney. Sidney grabs Dewey's gun and turns around to shoot Jill in the heart, finally killing her.
Obfuscating Stupidity: She pretends to not understand why Ghostface has returned when speaking to Sidney when she secretly is fully aware as one of the two killers.
Offing the Annoyance: After becoming annoyed with Trevor, she finally kills him after stating her intent to frame him for the murders.
Oh, Crap!: Her reaction when Dewey tells her there's a chance Sidney might survive her injuries.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: She seems to have this attitude toward Sidney, as her stabbing of the latter causes Charlie to back off from trying to attack Sidney further, and she only tries inflicting a fatal wound after she has already killed Charlie.
Parental Issues: Implied given we never see her mention her father and she had no problem killing her mother.
Pay Evil unto Evil:
- Her Bad Boss murder of Charlie, who was her partner in her killing spree.
- There's also her kill of Rebecca Walters, who was behaving very callously about the murders.
Pintsized Powerhouse: She's able to lift and throw Sidney, and then beat Dewey senseless with a bedpan.
Playing the Victim Card: One of the most pathetic of the Ghostfaces in regards to her attempts at doing this. Jill clearly believes her life was far worse than Sidney's because she isn't famous. At one point, she claims that Trevor was a far worse boyfriend than Billy because his cheating on her didn't thrust Jill into the limelight. She is blissfully unaware of the obvious cognitive dissonance.
The Prima Donna: While Jill's scheme to become famous ultimately failed, her behavior during her reveal scene evokes this, between gloating about how perfect she was in her role as the Girl Next Door, killing Charlie so she can hoard all the attention as the Sole Survivor, and making it clear to Sidney that she intends to take the spotlight away from her.
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: To Trevor. She personally kills him (after shooting him in the balls), and planned to frame him for her crimes.
Psychopathic Womanchild: She's basically a sadistic 7-year-old child all grown-up whose plan amounts to is starting another massacre so she can get so much as a second of fame, a hopelessly banal and childish motivation for so much carnage.
Pull the I.V.: As soon as Dewey leaves her hospital room, she pulls out her IV and gets up from her bed in a final bid to kill Sidney.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: She makes a point of shouting that she wants her turn at fame when describing her motive to Sidney.
Sadist: She films all her murders to watch over and over again. She also clearly enjoys watching Sidney crumble after she stabs her with a look of sheer satisfaction coming over her.
Sadistic Choice: Presents Gale and Judy with the choice of either giving them Judy's gun or she shoots the unconscious Dewey.
Saying Too Much: Jill's idle remark about her and Gale's "matching stab wounds" turns out to be her undoing, as it clues Dewey and Gale onto the fact that Jill knows where Gale was stabbed, something only one of the killers would know.
Secret Relationship: She convinces Charlie that they have this, only revealing her true intentions to Sidney shortly before Charlie's death.
Self-Disposing Villain: Between killing the other Ghostface (Charlie), and stabbing Sidney non-fatally which allows her to relocate to a hospital and around others who can help her fight back against Jill, Jill causes more damage to her own cause than the protagonists.
Self-Harm: Does this to authenticate her role as the survivor of a murder spree committed by Trevor and Charlie.
Self-Made Orphan: She kills her mother Kate, simply so she can emulate Sidney's own loss of Maureen.
The Sociopath: Even more so than any of the previous Ghostfaces, and a worse Bad Boss then the previous Big Bads towards their right-hand man. Even Roman wasn't as diabolical as her. Think about it for a second.
Jill: I mean, for fuck's sake, my own mother had to die, no great loss there, so I could stay true to the original.
Sole Survivor: Subverted. She wanted to be the only one who survived the assault at Kirby's house but Sidney and Kirby both survive too.
Sickbed Slaying: She tries to do this to Sidney when she realizes she has survived her injuries and can tell everyone the truth of Jill's role in the murders.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Invoked by Jill when she kills Charlie to take the spotlight as the Sole Survivor for herself. Jill also has twice as much screen time post-reveal as Charlie, who dies within five minutes of announcing himself as a killer.
Stealth Insult: Jill consoles Sidney for Rebecca's death, but in reality, she is actually taunting Sidney for getting someone else killed.
Sidney: I'm so sorry about Olivia.
Jill: [beat] I'm sorry about your publicist.
Suddenly Shouting: She has this during her exchange with Trevor after her true nature is revealed, and when she explains her motive to Sidney.
Superior Successor: She gets further in her plans than anyone else before her. She even stabs Sidney! Just not fatally.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- While she initially looks like an Expy of Sidney, she actually turns out to be this to Sidney's half-brother Roman, especially with her motivation for wanting Sidney's fame for herself.
- She can also be regarded as one to Billy, since her scapegoat plan is more or less the same as his, and she betrays both of her lovers.
Tap on the Head: Delivers one to knock out Dewey after the latter runs into Sidney's room to stop Jill from killing her.
Teens Are Monsters: And quite possibly the most monstrous of them all in the series.
Third Act Stupidity: Jill rants about her plot to Sidney instead of killing her and making sure she stays dead. She decides that one stab to the gut is enough and doesn't bother with performing a Double Tap on Sidney, which allows her to be transported to a hospital and receive medical attention that ends up saving her life.
Tranquil Fury: She speaks calmly before stabbing Sidney with the intent of killing her. She repeats this tone of voice when confronting her in her hospital room.
Ungrateful Bastard:
- Sidney wanted to protect Jill from Ghostface and even stayed around to make sure she and her friends were safe. She was rewarded by being stabbed by her cousin.
- Both Dewey and Judy were the leading officers to find the injured Jill after she made injuries to herself and she likely could have died if her injuries went untreated. She later attacks both of them that night when they arrive to protect Sidney from Jill.
Unholy Matrimony: With Charlie, until she kills him too.
Victory by Endurance: She only wins the confrontation at Kirby's house because the latter and Sidney pass out and she assumes them to be deceased.
Villain Protagonist: Played with. Scream 4 gives Jill plenty of screen time and narrates a good portion of the story from her perspective, but the Woodsboro survivors still get a good amount of focus too.
Villain Respect: Jill seems to have this for Sidney. While she shoots Judy for giving her orders, and inflicts pain on both Dewey and Gale with no concern for their understanding of her, she takes the time to tell Sidney of her plot while the two are alone together in Kirby's home and never calls her out of her name like she does with Gale.
Villain with Good Publicity: If only very briefly. The ending of Scream 4 shows several reporters praising Jill for surviving the "Woodsboro Massacre Reboot" but it can be inferred that the truth of her being Ghostface all along came out not too long after, considering that four people witnessed Jill's true colors and survived her attempts to silence them.
Villainous Breakdown: In the end, after her plan falls apart, it turns into a desperate He Knows Too Much, with implications of Taking You with Me.
Jill: Is this how it's gonna be, Sid? The ending of the movie was supposed to be at the house. I mean, this is just silly.
Sidney: Consider this an alternate ending. You're never gonna get out of this, Jill.
Jill: Of course I will!
Villainous Valour: A thoroughly unsympathetic case. Like the previous killers, she doesn't know when to give up, hunting down Sidney just for her 15 Minutes of Fame to satisfy her selfish Greed, even if she has to endure an enormous amount of physical punishment. Rather than making her a badass however, the intention is more to show her as snarling and bloodthirsty rabid dog at heart, well beyond any possibility of redemption.
Viler New Villain: Compared to the Ghostfaces of the original trilogy, she lacks a desire for revenge for a loved one like Billy and Mrs. Loomis, being content with being known for her crimes like Mickey, or frustration over not having a meaningful relationship with someone like Roman.
Virtue Is Weakness: She invokes this when threatening to shoot Dewey to get Judy to give her the latter's gun, as she knows how much his wife Gale cares for him and would do anything to keep him safe.
We Can Rule Together: Jill sells a version of this to Charlie to make him complicit with her killing spree, though she had no intention of following through.
Why Won't You Die?: Has this response when she confronts Sidney in her hospital room.
Jill: You just won't die, will you? Who are you? Michael fucking Myers?
The Woman Behind the Man: She is behind Charlie's actions as Ghostface.
Woman Scorned: Tells Trevor that she's not the girl one should cheat on before killing him.
Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Jill mutilates herself in order to make people think she was a victim.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Tries to kill Sidney after using her in a plot to mimic the latter's encounters with Ghostface so she can become famous.

Richie Kirsch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_ritchie.png

"Thank God you're okay. Because I really, really wanted to be the one to kill you."

Played By: Jack Quaid

"Because nobody takes the true fans seriously, not really. They just laugh at us, and why? Because we love something? We're just a fucking joke to them! How can fandom be toxic? It's about love! You don't fucking understand, these movies are important to people."

An obsessive fan of the Stab films, Richie was so outraged by the most recent film that, together with Amber Freeman, he concocted a plan to set the series back on track. Believing that the best Stab movies are Based on a True Story, he travels to Woodsboro to commit a new killing spree to provide source material for a new movie to wash away the stench of Stab 8. Richie is also the first Ghostface of the films whose motives aren't tied to Sidney in any way, even though he manages to get her involved.

Abhorrent Admirer:
Richie: Sidney Prescott! Y'know, I'm a really big fan!
Sidney: Go fuck yourself.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He tries to plead with Sam when she is about to kill him. It doesn't work.
The Alibi:
- At the hospital, he states he was watching Netflix in Tara's room while Ghostface attacked Sam. Since Amber was at the police station while Ghostface attacked Sam, Richie was indeed lying about his alibi.
- In addition, he takes a leaf from Stu's book by later claiming that he was with his girlfriend during Ghostface's first attack. It's implied that this alibi isn't exactly airtight because in the opening, the Ghostface that slipped inside Tara's home stands silently behind Tara while she receives another threatening phone call from "Charlie", suggesting that "Charlie" is outside and isn't the Ghostface inside the house.
Allegorical Character: Richie is one for the requel. He is technically not remaking the first Ghostface rampage, but he is so devoted to the idea of Revisiting the Roots that it may as well be a remake. For further unoriginality, Jill already did Richie's Woodsboro idea a decade earlier.
Sidney: [To Richie on the phone] You might actually be the most derivative one of all. I mean, Christ, the same house?
All There in the Script: The original script clarifies that Richie killed Wes, since it comments that he tries to kill Sam the same way he did to Wes.
Ambiguous Situation: Unlike all the other Ghostfaces, it's unexplained why Richie enjoys killing people. But it's clear that he has some mental disorders who is fascinated with violence and murder and his father encouraging his love of Stab movies probably didn't do favors for his mental stability either.
Apologetic Attacker: As a big fan of Sidney, Richie apologetically explains to her that she has to die because her survival of yet another Ghostface rampage will break Suspension of Disbelief.
Richie: I'm so sorry, Sid. We can't let you live, either. I mean, surviving this many times, it'll just be ridiculous.
Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Scream VI retroactively establishes that Richie had sufficient funds to acquire a truly staggering amount of memorabilia from both the Stab movies and the various Ghostface rampages, up to and including the actual murder weapons and costumes of his predecessors, which must’ve cost a pretty penny in bribes to get ahold of.
Arch-Enemy: His betrayal of Sam makes him her arch enemy. Unlike previous masterminds, he has Nothing Personal against Sidney; he just wants a better Stab movie. Even after Richie is dead, Sam isn't free of him; Richie's family target her for killing him, and they repeatedly use his image and memory to torment her.
Batman Gambit:
- After Tara gets a question wrong, he makes the threat to kill Amber, luring Tara to the front of the house where he is standing. After failing to break into the house, he knocks loudly on the front door to divert Tara's attention while Amber prepares to enter the house through an alternative entrance. Once Amber is inside, he calls Tara again, distracting her long enough for Amber to ambush her.
- He pulls the same trick again by telling Judy that he's about to kill Wes in the shower, but in reality, Richie is hiding on the front porch, preparing to waylay Judy.
- On a larger scale, his murders of Judy and Wes are supposed to draw the police away from the hospital so that Amber can attack Tara without any interference.
Beard of Evil: Half of the Big Bad Duumvirate, and sports a chinstrap beard.
Benevolent Boss: The first in the film franchise to be this towards his cohort, never once mistreated nor disposed of her in the film.
Big Bad: Of the fifth film. He's attempting to revive the Stab franchise by masterminding another killing spree that will inspire a "re-quel". Being the Billy Loomis Expy, Richie is behind most of the phone calls, manipulates things behind the scenes, and his personal relationship with Sam makes him the more climactic Ghostface in the final act.
Boom, Headshot!: Though Richie is likely dead after the several stab wounds inflicted upon him by Sam, she still shoots him in the head to make sure.
Bullying a Dragon: It's an integral part of his plan to attack the mentally unstable daughter (and granddaughter) of serial killers and her loved ones, while pinning the murders on her. He didn't consider that this might horribly backfire. He even taunts her. Sam lampshades this before she stabs him in a manner befitting a Ghostface, saying you should "never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer".
The Cameo: He appears in some behind-the-scenes footage of his own Stab Fan Film that plays during the finale of Scream VI.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To all of the previous Ghostface killers, as he is the first besides Jill to lack any kind of sad backstory or what they see as a justification for their crimes, being motivated solely by his fandom of the franchise inspired by those killings. He is also the first killer to have no association with Sidney or ties to her past prior to the films, only caring about her part of his scheme, in fact going so far as to be fond of her in his own twisted way. Also, he's less mean spirited than his predecessors and not a true Hate Sink due to him being Laughably Evil and Faux Affably Evil non-stop even during his Villainous Breakdown and being the first mastermind who's a Benevolent Boss towards The Dragon.
- Specifically, he's one to Billy Loomis. Both are psychotic main Ghostfaces and the boyfriend to the main character, each with a plan in mind to frame somebody for the murders. However, their motives and demeanors are different. The irony is that his girlfriend Sam is Billy's daughter, so whilst Sam, an actual relative of Billy's, ends up not being like him, her boyfriend essentially plays the same role he did. Also lampshaded somewhat when Richie says, "I know it's a bummer that it's me, but it's really what's best for the movie." What better choice for a Ghostface wanting to make a real-life "re-quel" than being the traitorous love interest?
  - Billy was already suspicious and arrogant before the final reveal, whereas Richie is much nicer, more supportive, and far more unassuming.
  - Both manipulated their girlfriends, but Richie is far more direct about it. Billy planned to frame Sidney's father Neil as the cherry on top of his revenge scheme to destroy Sidney's family, the same way he blamed Sidney's mother Maureen for destroying his. Richie, meanwhile, planned to frame his girlfriend Sam directly, using her Dark and Troubled Past and familial connection to Billy to make her look like the real killer. Both also get killed by their girlfriends at the end of the film.
  - Billy's motive was personal, predicated upon Sidney's mother cheating with his father and his mother leaving him, leading to Billy killing Maureen and starting the killing spree with Stu as an elaborate revenge ploy. Richie's motives are not nearly so personal, instead being because he hated the eighth Stab film and wanted to provide new real-life inspiration for the series.
  - Billy and Stu seemed tight-knit, but were willing to hurt each other for the plan, and also had different reasons for doing what they did; while it was personal for Billy, Stu got roped in out of a mix of peer pressure and For the Evulz. Richie and Amber are less close, having a vaguely romantic relationship, but are more united by a shared motive, and don't hurt or betray each other.
  - Billy reveals that he is Ghostface before Stu does. On the other hand, Richie takes Stu's place in the reveal order and uses the voice changer like Stu does to confirm that he is indeed Ghostface.
  - After they're dead, both Billy and Richie had a parent try to avenge them, but in Billy's case, it was his mother, who was heavily implied to be more motivated by being blamed for Billy's murderous tendencies than genuine grief, and who brought in a stranger to both help her and serve as a fall guy, while in Richie's case, it was his father, who is genuinely motivated by grief and was aided by his two surviving children, to whom he was genuinely loyal and vice-versa.
- To Mickey from Scream 2. Both make a point of seeming like very charming, perfectly nice guys, and their motives are revealed not to be born from any troubled past, but from petty personal gain. However, while Mickey committed murders for his own benefit, Richie did so (in his own mind, at least) for the good of other fans. And while Mickey was far younger than Mrs. Loomis, who led him on and turned on him as soon as she could, Richie is quite a bit older than Amber, is the leader in their dynamic, and the two never turn on one another. And while Mickey planned on getting caught to gain fame, Richie plans to frame Sam for the killings, and expresses no desire for fame.
Cop Killer: He kills Sheriff Judy by stabbing her multiple times in the torso.
Corrupted Character Copy: As the dark-haired, apparently kind-hearted boyfriend to the Final Girl protagonist who is new to Woodsboro and ignorant of the Stab movies, he bears a close resemblance to Derek from Scream 2. Unlike Derek, though, Richie is actually the killer the whole time and is faking his attraction to Sam.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Sam stabs him 22 times, including through both of his cheeks, then slits his throat open, causing him to slowly choke on his own blood. Then she pumps him full of lead to finish him off, just to make sure. His father Wayne claims in the sixth film that seeing a photo of his mutilated body is what convinced him that Sam needed to pay for what she did.
Didn't See That Coming: His murders of Judy and Wes were supposed to draw the police away from the hospital, allowing Amber to kill Tara without much risk and giving him an easy alibi at the motel. However, Sam quickly realizes that the police aren't guarding Tara and calls on Richie to check on Tara, throwing a wrench into this plan and forcing he and Amber to improvise.
Didn't Think This Through:
- Richie doesn't think of the potential consequences of driving his girlfriend Sam, who has mental illness and a history of murderers within her paternal family, over the edge at the end of the movie, especially after he threatens the life of her younger sister. Unsurprisingly, Sam gets the upper hand, and stabs and slashes him to death when given the opportunity.
- Richie's attempt at sowing seeds of distrust between Sam and Tara falls through, since he fails to realize that Sam's bond with her sister is far stronger than her bond with him. She has only known him for six months, but she has known Tara her whole life.
Dirty Coward: He acts tough when he's in control of things and doesn't think twice about murdering scores of people, but once Sam has him at the business end of his own knife, he crumbles into a pathetic welp.
Domestic Abuser: Revealed to be a murderer when he stabs his girlfriend Sam. Worse, he then reveals that their relationship was predicated on Sam being Billy Loomis's illegitimate daughter, which was central to his plan to make her the Fall Girl for his and Amber's crimes.
Double Tap: Even after Sam stabs Richie to death 22 times and slits his throat with his own knife, she makes sure to finish the job by shooting his corpse three times, ending it with a headshot to top it off.
Ephebophile: It's implied via dialogue that, in addition to his other crimes, he is in a romantic relationship with his 17-year-old partner Amber, as they refer to each other as "baby" during the climax of the movie. Richie is in his late 20s. Sam outright calls Amber Richie's girlfriend in Scream VI.
Even Evil Can Be Loved: Amber is clearly affectionate towards Richie, and after he's dead, his father and younger siblings are hell-bent on utterly ruining Sam for killing him.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: One of his legitimate admirable qualities is not only his Villainous Friendship with Amber is seemingly genuine, but there appears to be Unholy Matrimony Ship Tease between the two.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: What eventually sinks his plans. He tries to manipulate Sam into turning against Tara by believing she could be the killer and was planning to go after her as well. This clues Tara on to the fact that he is really the killer. The idea that Sam would trust her sister over him, her boyfriend of only a few months, seemingly never occurred to him.
Evil Gloating. Yes, and overly and excessively, since he has highly overestimated the talents he's gloating about.
Evil Is Not a Toy: While he doesn't actively try to bring out Sam's darkness, he still messes with her, knowing she's mentally unstable, and also tries to set her up as the murderer by invoking nature over nurture for the narrative of his "movie". And when she finally does give in to her nature, she directs it exclusively at him.
Evil Laugh: Belts one out when he thinks he has the upper hand against Sam.
Evil Virtues: One of the few admirable things is that his Villainous Friendship with Amber is genuine and is a Benevolent Boss towards her.
Faux Affably Evil: Even after he reveals himself as one of the killers, Richie retains his friendly and affable demeanor, gently apologizing to Sam, but assuring her it's the best for the "movie", and fanboying over Sidney. His Villainous Friendship with Amber also seems genuine.
Foreshadowing: In the hospital, he's seen watching a YouTube commentary video bashing Stab 8, indicating his interest in the Stab franchise (and personal dislike of Stab 8), despite professing not to be a horror fan. Additionally, he references Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th, despite his claims that he doesn't watch those types of films.
Freudian Excuse: It's revealed in Scream VI that his father, Wayne, is just as much of a psychopath as him, becoming the next Ghostface. And Wayne used to actively encourage Richie in pursuing his obsession for Slasher Film. While his father clearly loved him, it's safe to say he may be to blame for what his son ended up doing.
Genre Blindness:
- Subverted when it comes to horror films. Before The Reveal, he's presented as a total newbie to horror who's never seen any of the Stab films. He's actually a very die-hard fan.
- Played straight when dealing with Sidney and Gale, who have arguably been in worse positions than their situation with Richie and Amber, but always come out on top.
Giggling Villain: He can barely contain his glee after outing himself as the second killer, and giggles into the voice changer while taunting Sam about how it "really was the best choice for the movie."
Greater-Scope Villain: Of Scream VI, on account of the Kirsch family (consisting of his father Wayne, brother Ethan, and sister Quinn) targeting Sam in revenge for her killing Richie in self-defense.
Hero Killer: Richie murders Judy^note and Wes. He also would have killed Mindy if not for Sam's intervention.
Hidden Depths: Scream VI reveals that he actually made his own films.
Hypocritical Humor: Richie angrily exclaims that Hollywood is running out of ideas even though he and Amber are planning to inspire a requel, a new movie trend that is considered by many to be the very definition of "running out of ideas".
Impromptu Tracheotomy: He kills Wes by shoving his knife into Wes's throat. Averted in the original script in which Richie instead puts a bullet in Wes's head after winning the Gun Struggle.
Informed Flaw: In an interview, Radio Silence stated Richie let Amber do most of the grunt work as he was afraid of getting his hands dirty, and that Amber was the real mastermind but was content to let Richie believe it was his idea. However, nothing in the film supports this, as when the time comes for The Reveal, Richie is shown to be equally willing to get personal and violent as Amber and gives the traditional Motive Rant, with no indication that Amber is the one in charge. The climax more or less depicts them on equal footing. On the other hand, the sixth movie credits Richie as the real mastermind with the 2022 Woodsboro murders referred to as "Richie's movie".
Inspirational Martyr: He's this to his family and the public who thought he was an innocent victim in the sixth film after his death.
Laughably Evil: He's pretty entertaining for a depraved killer.
The Loins Sleep Tonight: In his very first scene in the fifth film, Sam implies via joke that Richie has erection problems. Although Richie is a physically healthy man in his late 20s, there's certainly a lot of reasons he could have erection problems (e.g. lifestyle factors, medications, anxiety, stress) — but the biggest one is that he might not actually be attracted to Sam at all, considering that he just wanted to brag about sleeping with a serial killer's daughter and he's revealed to be in a relationship with Amber. In Scream VI, Sam brings this back, taunting Wayne (Richie's dad) about Richie having a "limp dick" (after Wayne claims that Richie was "virile").
Loony Fan: With heavy emphasis on "loony". He was such a fan of the Stab franchise, he collected various bits of memorabilia from both the films and the real-life killing sprees that inspired them, and directed some fan films of his own. While he already didn't like the direction the franchise took past the original trilogy, Stab 8 was such a betrayal to him, he embarked on a killing spree.
Love-Interest Traitor: He openly admits he dated and had sex with Sam to break her emotionally later as Billy Loomis's daughter.
"You know what the best part of fucking Billy Loomis's damaged daughter was? Making her feel loved, just so I could take it away from her. Pretty fucked up, huh?"
Mad Artist: He happily describes the murders as the "movie" he and Amber are writing and treats the events of the movie like mere plot points instead of real, serious murders.
Manipulative Bastard: He spent six months earning Sam's trust with the endgame of framing her for one of Ghostface's rampages. He also tries to turn her against her own sister to throw suspicion off himself.
My Death Is Just the Beginning: His death only martyred him, spawning his family to become killers as well in the sixth film.
Never My Fault: While this is a pretty standard attitude for a Ghostface to have, Richie takes it to pathetic levels. He blames his entire spree on the latest Stab film's negative reception and that people called the fandom's virulent reaction toxic.
Nothing Personal: How he feels towards Sidney unlike the previous Big Bads, but still needs to kill her to make his Evil Plan work.
Oblivious to Their Own Description: Richie, without a hint of irony, asks how a fandom can be toxic... while covered in blood after committing or being an accessory to a dozen murders or attempted murders, and while planning to kill the very person he's talking to, all because he didn't like the most recent Stab movie and wants to inspire one more to his liking.
Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He's in his late twenties, in contrast to Sidney in her forties and Dewey and Gale in their fifties.
Playing the Victim Card: During his Motive Rant to Sidney, he tries to cast himself as a victim because he didn't like the latest Stab movie. He also goes off on a long tangent about how angry he is about his section of the fandom being dismissed as toxic for their virulent criticism of the film, blissfully ignorant that he is the epitome of a Loony Fan.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Apart from being literal serial killers, he and his family are also misogynistic. He also refers to Tara as Sam's "gimpy little sister."
Posthumous Character: Richie plays a small but significant role in VI, appearing in video footage that he made before his murder. As his family are also avenging his death, his shadow looms large in other ways.
Psychopathic Manchild: To the point that he even makes Jill Roberts look positively mild by comparison. To put that into perspective, it takes a special level of immaturity to commit numerous brutal murders just because you really didn't like a horror film. Sam calls Richie "pathetic" and a "man-baby" to get a rise out of his vengeful family in VI.
Ruined FOREVER: invoked His motivation in a nutshell. Richie was a huge Stab fan, and hated the direction the franchise took in its later installments, with Stab 8 being the straw that broke the camel's back and made him decide to take the franchise back to its roots by inspiring his own "re-quel".
Sadist:
- The attack on Judy Hicks is particularly brutal and drawn out. It begins with Richie calling Judy and threatening the life of her son Wes to the point where Judy is tearfully pleading for his life. Then when Judy arrives home and tries to save Wes, Richie jumps out and stabs her multiple times until she dies. Richie next proceeds to kill Wes For the Evulz even though Sheriff Judy's death alone would have been a good enough distraction for the cops.
- He and Amber both accuse Liv of being the killer during a tense moment at Amber's house after Mindy gets attacked. Since they had planned their third act killer reveal at the party well in advance, this could only be just to enjoy Liv desperately pleading her innocence. Then, Amber shoots Liv dead only moments later.
Screams Like a Little Girl: His screams when Sam gets the upper hand and stabs him repeatedly are unusually high-pitched and effeminate.
Skewed Priorities: Even after he gets stabbed multiple times and is facing certain death with a pissed-off Sam standing over him, he's still concerned about the narrative he's trying to create.
"What about my ending?"
Slashed Throat: This is how he dies at Sam's hands in the end.
Slut-Shaming: Richie insults Sam for being a sexually active young woman during the Motive Rant. After having had sex with her himself.
Smug Snake: Richie thinks himself a murderous mastermind whose foolproof plan will go off without a hitch, but he's not as tough or smart as he thinks he is. He believed Sam would side with him over is own sister, and is genuinely caught off guard when she opts to free Tara instead of suspect her as one of the killers.
The Sociopath: Aside from being a Benevolent Boss towards Amber out of their Villainous Friendship, he definitely fits this trope, based on his sadistic nature, superficial charm and manipulativeness, his immaturity, his poor impulse control and how he gets off on killing and torturing others for his own amusement.
Straw Fan: An extreme version of a dissatisfied and entitled fan.
Stylistic Suck: Revealed in the sixth film to have written and directed fan films of the Stab movies, all of which are depicted as cheap-looking and poorly acted.
Tempting Fate: "The villain dies at the end! Those are the rules!" Immediately after this, Sam manages to get the jump on him and stab him to death.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Out of all the Ghostfaces' deaths, Richie's deserves special mention for the sheer brutality that Sam inflicts on him; she stabs him a total of 22 times, kills him by slitting his throat, and shoots his corpse three times (the third being a shot to the head) to ensure his death.
Too Clever by Half: While a lot of Richie's plan to capture the new and old characters and frame Sam for their murders goes fairly smoothly, the one part that ends up derailing his scheme is when he tried to convince Sam that Tara was the other Ghostface and had lured her back to Woodsboro to die. While she briefly hesitates when she sees Tara tied up in a closet, Sam ultimately trusts her sister more than Richie and cuts her bonds. This one mistake ends up derailing the villains' scheme, and ultimately leads to their deaths.
Villainous Breakdown: While he isn't exactly sane once he is revealed to be one of the killers, Richie seems to be in control once he reveals his plan to kill off the remaining heroes and frame Sam for it. This changes once things go off the rails when it turns out that Sam freed Tara from her bonds and Sam starts fighting back, with him childishly whining that she is spoiling his "movie's" ending. Once he is on death's door, his last words are to pathetically whine and ask what will happen to his ending. Sam then gives him the ending he deserves.
Richie: Stop. Fucking. Up. My. ENDING!
Villainous Legacy: Like Billy Loomis before him, Richie's actions inspire others to carry on work. The sixth film's Ghostfaces are all fixated on him; Jason and Greg wanted to finish his work by killing the Carpenter sisters, while Bailey, Quinn, and Ethan are all out to avenge his death at Sam's hands.
Villainous Valor: Not only he's a Determinator like his predecessors to see the success of his scheme go through, but still keeps his Villainous Friendship with Amber up even when their plan is getting foiled.
Villain Respect: Despite being an accessory to his murder, Richie has to give it up to Dewey for being so Genre Savvy.
Richie: You really should've listened to Dewey! He nailed it in one! (points to himself) Look at the love interest!
Villains Never Lie: Richie correctly argues that going back to Amber's house for Tara's second inhaler is a bad idea; he just leaves out that he's part of the reason why.
Villain with Good Publicity: Posthumously; thanks to rumors started by his sister Quinn, in Scream VI Richie is seen by some as an innocent victim framed and manipulated by Sam, supposedly the real mastermind of the Woodsboro killings.

Detective Wayne Bailey

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1660e299_9bb5_4153_b4b2_b83b27038f93.jpeg

"There's a very special bond between a father and his first son."

Played By: Dermot Mulroney

"It wasn't until I saw that photograph of what you'd actually done to him that I knew. That I knew you had to fucking die! You had to be punished! Along with anyone else who stands in our way!"

An NYPD detective who is revealed to be Richie Kirsch's biological father, and the father of his two accomplices, Quinn and Ethan.

Affably Evil: Out of all the Ghostface masterminds, Wayne is the only one that genuinely believes in retribution, never allowing his emotions to get ahead of him. Even when it does, it comes across as being sincere, and when both of his children appear dead, he goes ballistic. During his attempt to kill the Carpenter sisters, he acts like a Fun Personified goofy dad having family fun time with his children, laughing it up with them too. In his last moments, he even thanks Sam for sparing him with the fatal blow.
Ambiguous Situation: It's not explained if the dead body he uses to fake his daughter's death was yet another victim he murdered.
Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: He acquires an abandoned movie theater and converts it into a shrine to house Richie's massive collection of memorabilia about the Stab franchise and the previous Ghostfaces. It is never established how a police detective is able to fork up the several million dollars such a large property would cost in Manhattan.
Avenging the Villain: The 2023 Ghostface murders in New York City are carried out to avenge Richie's death at Sam's hands. Then he upgrades to avenging Ethan and Quinn after they are dispatched.
The Bad Guys Are Cops: The head Ghostface of Scream VI is a cop, using his power to go around New York on a rampage.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to portray Sam as a Ghostface, just like her father and grandmother. When Sam does don the costume, it's to kill Bailey just as savagely as he and his children murdered several other people.
Benevolent Boss: Like Father, Like Son, he never mistreats nor disposes his own children who are his accomplices. After his children are killed, he tries to avenge them.
Big Bad: Of the sixth film. He's behind the revenge plot against the Carpenters, Sam especially, for the murder of Richie in the previous film. He's also the first Ghostface to have more than one accomplice, as well as the first police officer to be one of the killers.
Big "NO!": Gives an almighty one just before Sam (in full Ghostface costume) turns him into a human pincushion.
Bullying a Dragon: Bailey knows better than anyone what Sam is capable of when she's pushed too far, yet his plan is to keep pushing her. When things go awry, it costs Bailey his two remaining children and earns him a death even more brutal and bloody than Richie's.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- To Nancy Loomis from the second film. Whereas Nancy was an absentee mother for most of Billy's life, Wayne is more supportive of Richie to the point he enabled his obsession with the Stab movies by helping him create his shrine, despite not fully understanding them himself. Whereas Nancy groomed Mickey to be her accomplice and plotted to have him as the fall guy, Wayne enlists the help of his two remaining children and doesn't betray either of them. Lastly, when the self-righteous mother act is peeled away, Nancy's outrage over Billy's death is really over how Billy's killing spree reflected on her parenting and insists she was a good mother despite running out on him after an affair, while Wayne openly admits to not being a perfect father and his grief, by comparison, is depicted as genuine, if twisted, and motivated by love for his late son.
- To his own son, Richie. Richie was a horror movie fanatic who carried out a killing spree in the hopes of inspiring a new Stab movie after despising the most recent one, and his accomplice was Amber, with whom he was heavily implied to be in a relationship. Richie also targeted Sam because he thought that, since she was Billy Loomis' daughter, she would make the perfect "villain" for his planned movie. Bailey, by contrast, never really got horror movies and is out to avenge his dead son, a far less petty motive than Richie's, and he's assisted by his two college-age children. His campaign against Sam has nothing to do with Billy (although her parentage does make a convenient weapon to use against her), and instead, Bailey wants her ruined and dead for killing Richie. Both Richie and his father wanted to make Sam the villain of their story, but their motives were completely different.
Corrupt Cop: "Corrupt" is probably the kindest way to describe Bailey, a Serial Killer who is trying to frame Sam for the murders he and his kids committed. He even taunts Sam that his word will be believed over hers, since he's a police officer.
Corrupted Character Copy: Of Dewey, a fellow police officer who lost his family to a Ghostface massacre. Unlike Dewey, Bailey's family was the Ghostface in question, and Bailey himself turns to the other side of the law to try and avenge them.
Crime of Self-Defense: Just like Nancy Loomis before him, Wayne couldn't care less that Sam killed Richie in self-defense, nor does he care that Richie planned to frame Sam for his and Amber's own murders.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Sam tops her efforts in the fifth film with Richie, Wayne's own son, by stabbing him as little as thirty-two times, before stabbing him through the eye for good measure.
Didn't Think This Through: He wants to avenge his son by going after the justifiably ruthless Sam who killed him. He doesn't think twice about dragging his remaining children into a dangerous revenge plot which inevitably gets them all killed.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Bailey is motivated by his eldest son's death at Sam's hands, and he works well with his two younger children as well, going ballistic when he sees Sam kill Quinn.
Even Evil Has Standards: While killing Jason and Greg was for pragmatic reasons, not moral ones, Bailey still expresses disgust for Jason's sociopathic reveling in having murdered an innocent person, throwing Jason's own words in his face while eviscerating him.
Evil Counterpart: To Kirby Reed. Both are cops who came close to a Ghostface killer and survived (though Kirby was attacked by Charlie, while Richie is Wayne's son). However, Kirby is a hero, while Bailey is the lead Ghostface of VI.
Evil Old Folks: He's by far the oldest Ghostface yet, considering that all of his three kids are adults. He's also one of the most brutal, as shown with his murders of Jason and Greg, as well as the bodega massacre.
Evil Virtues: Love and loyalty; Bailey is motivated by grief for his eldest son and is still a loving father to his other two children, and unlike other Ghostface teams (except, fittingly enough, Richie and Amber), they're all genuinely loyal to one another.
Eviler than Thou: He's confirmed to be the one who disembowels Jason in the opening kill, and his Pre-Mortem One-Liner establishes he's not out to make a movie, nor does he care about doing so.
Jason: But... We have... To finish... The movie!
Ghostface: WHO GIVES A FUCK ABOUT MOVIES?!
Eye Scream: After viciously stabbing him no less than thirty-two times, Sam finishes Bailey off by driving her knife through his eye.
Firing One-Handed: He shoots and kills the bodega store owner with a shotgun with one hand.
Frame-Up: Bailey's ultimate plan is to frame Sam for both his and Richie's killing sprees before killing her, intending to not only end Sam's life, but completely destroy her reputation.
Hypocrite:
- He taunts Sam over the phone for being "a liar and a killer", which is pretty rich coming from a Killer Cop who poses as Sam's ally and who viciously kills several innocent people.
- Despite seeming genuinely disgusted by Jason murdering Laura for a deeply petty reason, Bailey kills multiple innocent people himself just for getting in his way or being peripherally involved in Richie's death.
- Wayne's aforementioned disgust that Jason is murdering people because he's just a Loony Fan of the Stab franchise rings hollow when his son Richie (who Wayne is dead-set on avenging) was motivated by the exact same reason.
- He himself is not a fan of the Stab movies, considering them "a little dark". Among other things, he dismembered Greg and stuffed his body into a fridge. Granted, Greg did have it coming, but still.
Killer Cop: He's the one responsible for orchestrating the Ghostface killing spree that terrorizes the Big Apple.
Laughably Evil: After The Reveal, he acts like a goofy dad despite being a killer.
Manipulative Bastard: Initially convinces Sam that Kirby is the killer by saying that she's not an FBI agent anymore and she's been off the deep end for months.
Misplaced Retribution: Sam acted alone in killing Richie, but Bailey also wants to kill Tara, Gale, Chad, and Mindy, who never laid a finger on Richie (the latter two spent Richie's death scene barely alive after Amber and Richie nearly killed them).
Noble Demon: Downplayed, but Bailey is the only Ghostface to ever express any moral problems with one of the people he kills, and he's a genuinely loving, if rather uneven and, by his own admission, imperfect, father, making him the most comparatively noble Ghostface (admittedly a very low bar, but still).
Outliving One's Offspring: Richie's death is what drove him to kill in the first place. Then, his daughter Quinn gets gunned down by Sam — the very same person who killed Richie (in self-defense) — in front of him. Narrowly subverted by his youngest son Ethan, who dies moments after his father.
Papa Wolf: Much like Nancy Loomis before him, Wayne Bailey loved his eldest son and seeks to kill Sam in retribution for her killing of Richie in self-defense.
Parental Favoritism: Bailey clearly favored Richie, saying there is no bond greater than one with the eldest son... right in front of Ethan, his other son. Additionally, for his cover, he treats Ethan like a stranger while not lying about his relationship with Quinn.
Pay Evil unto Evil: He murders Jason and Greg, two wannabe Ghostfaces who plotted to murder the Carpenter sisters. Bailey even taunts Jason with his own words about how it felt to murder someone.
Pet the Dog: Despite his hatred of Sam, he seems to sincerely thank her when she nearly avoids giving him the fatal blow.
Pragmatic Villainy: The main reason he had Jason and Greg killed off, with a touch of genuine disgust for their motives. Despite sharing the same target, their agendas wouldn't have aligned by the end, and Bailey didn't want a pair of bratty film students killing Sam before him and his family could.
Revenge Myopia: Bailey wants to avenge his son's death, which is fine by itself. However, along the way, he and his children murder several people who are totally innocent, and they conveniently ignore that Sam killed Richie in self-defense.
Shotguns Are Just Better: As noted here, he was responsible for the bodega attack, making him the first Ghostface to use firearms in-costume. Justified, as he's a police officer and would know how to use a firearm.
Spear Counterpart: To Debbie Salt/Nancy Loomis. Both are parents in hiding seeking vengeance for their deceased murderous sons, specifically by hunting down and killing their ex-girlfriends and killers.
Tempting Fate: Bailey repeatedly taunts Sam about her murderous lineage and her own capacity to kill. Once she's been pushed far enough, Sam ends up unleashing that darkness on Bailey and his two remaining children.
Villain Ball: After he sees Sam kill Quinn, Bailey charges at her despite being armed with a gun that had at least one round in it.
Villain Has a Point:
- A teacher giving you a mediocre grade (not even a failing grade; it was a C-) is a ridiculously petty motive for murder, as Bailey rightfully points out to Jason.
- Bailey and his children insist on calling Sam a killer; given their and Richie's actions, the accusation is laughably hypocritical, but given how savagely Sam killed both Richie and eventually Bailey himself, it's hard to argue that there's not a grain of truth to it.
- During the standard Motive Rant, Bailey admits that he isn't a perfect father; it's a major understatement, but it's also clearly true.
Villainous Parental Instinct: Bailey admits to not being able to understand Richie, but he still loved him and hates Sam for killing him and became Ghostface for revenge.
- He also shows no interest in betraying either Ethan or Quinn, which is extremely rare among Ghostfaces. He also notes that it was Sam's extreme measures in killing Richie that convinced him to exact revenge.
Villainous Valor: He gives it his all to make good on his word to avenge Richie, then immediately upgrades to avenging his other fallen children Quinn and Ethan after they are taken out against Sam.

Sandbox / Scream Ghostface Masterminds

William "Billy" Loomis

Played By: Skeet Ulrich

Nancy Loomis (alias: Debbie Salt)

Played By: Laurie Metcalf

Roman Bridger

Played By: Scott Foley

Jill Roberts

Played By: Emma Roberts

Tropes

Richie Kirsch

Played By: Jack Quaid

Detective Wayne Bailey

Played By: Dermot Mulroney

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Sandbox / Scream Ghostface Masterminds

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William "Billy" Loomis

Played By: Skeet Ulrich

Nancy Loomis (alias: Debbie Salt)

Played By: Laurie Metcalf

Roman Bridger

Played By: Scott Foley

Jill Roberts

Played By: Emma Roberts

Tropes

Richie Kirsch

Played By: Jack Quaid

Detective Wayne Bailey

Played By: Dermot Mulroney

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Index

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