Movies: Recurring Characters (Sidney Prescott | Gale Weathers | Dewey Riley | Sam Carpenter) | Ghostface (Scream 4 Mastermind) | Scream (1996) | Scream 2 | Scream 3 | Scream 4 | Scream (2022) | Scream VI
TV Series: MTV Series | Resurrection
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Characters exclusive to Scream (1996)
Students
Casey Becker
Casey Becker
"Listen, it was Jason! I saw that movie twenty goddamn times!"
Played By: Drew Barrymore
A high schooler trying to spend her weekend night with her boyfriend, Steve, watching movies. The first character seen in the series.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: She desperately pleads with her killers to spare her and her boyfriend. It doesn't work.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Her death is not pretty. The killer psychologically tortures her, even forces her to watch as her boyfriend Steve gets Gutted Like a Fish, stabs her in the chest, strangles her to the point where it crushes her vocal cords so she can't call for help, stabs her again several more times, and drags her still-living body to a tree, where her parents find her corpse hung by the neck with her intestines hanging out.
- Dead Guy on Display: Ghostface hangs her from a tree, using her guts as rope.
- Dead Star Walking: Started the series tradition of having a big-name actor (Drew Barrymore) in the opening scene, only to kill them off within fifteen minutes.
- Decoy Protagonist: Initially treated as The Hero of the film, she becomes the inaugural 'prologue victim'.
- Defiant to the End: Not that it does much good, but she doesn't go down easy, nailing the killer in the crotch even after being stabbed and trying to escape, then yanking off his mask.
- Disproportionate Retribution: It's implied Stu and Billy killed her because she broke up with Stu, for which torturing and killing her seems a little excessive.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Casey wears purple pants and has a polite, genteel manner until Ghostface starts really tormenting her.
- Gutted Like a Fish: She's the recipient of the treatment. This and her boyfriend's death provided the Trope Namer.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has blond hair, and according to the script was intended to seem sweet and innocent.
- I Want My Mommy!: Heartbreakingly, she spends her last moments crying out for her mother. To make it worse, she's too badly injured to raise her voice above a weak whisper. Had she still had some of her strength left and been able to scream, she may have been saved—or at least, her killer might have been brought to justice sooner.
- Kill the Cutie: She was stabbed by Ghostface.
- Missed Him by That Much: While running from Ghostface, Casey almost reaches her parents, but the damage inflicted to her throat prevents her from calling out to them. As a result, her parents enter the house, unaware of Casey's predicament.
- Nice Girl: From what little we know of her. She even treats the weird phone calls like a joke at first. Which makes her Cruel and Unusual Death all the more heartbreaking. It also makes one wonder why she went out with Stu in the first place.
- Sacrificial Lamb: The first character who appears in the movie, and the second one to be killed in the first scene, after her boyfriend, Steve.
- Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Played for Drama. During Ghostface's 'trivia game', she claims that she saw Friday the 13th (1980) "twenty goddamn times" when Ghostface tells her that she was wrong and that Jason wasn't the killer. It turns out she'd only seen the sequels, as Ghostface informs her before gutting her boyfriend Steve like a fish.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Casey has a demure and innocent demeanor and a fairly modest wardrobe, but also grabs a knife, decks the killer a couple of times and delivers a Groin Attack during their struggles, even after being wounded. It's not enough to save her.
- Take a Third Option: After Ghostface asks Casey to guess if he is at the patio door or the front door, Casey wisely decides to escape through another door that Ghostface doesn't mention. While said decision doesn't save her, it was her best option since Billy and Stu were covering the front and patio doors.
- Won't Get Fooled Again: She quickly realizes that Ghostface's trivia game is rigged and refuses to play Ghostface's game after the trick question regarding Friday the 13th.
Steve Orth
Steven "Steve" Orth
Played By: Kevin Patrick Walls
Casey's boyfriend, who was unlucky enough to become Ghostface's hostage. He has the dubious honor of being the very first on-screen victim in the series.
- Adapted Out: He’s left out of the opening scene of Stab.
- Big "NO!": Screams this at Casey when she agrees to play Ghostface's game.Steve: [muffled] Casey! No! No! NO! CASEY!
- Bound and Gagged: Ghostface has him tied up with his mouth gagged to force Casey into the "game" to save his life. She fails.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Brutally disemboweled by Ghostface.
- The Unintelligible: Steve does speak, but his speech is muffled by his gag.
Tatum Riley
Tatum Riley
"Don't go there, Sid; you're starting to sound like some Wes Carpenter flick."
Played By: Rose McGowan
Dewey's younger sister and a student of Woodsboro High School, she is Sidney's dependable best friend.
- Action Girl: To this day she is still the character (outside of the main cast) to put up the best fight against Ghostface, namely hitting him repeatedly with beer bottles and flipping Ghostface onto his back.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: She is this to Dewey, as he points out their mom says she needs to respect him while he's in uniform, but she does anything but.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Tatum is portrayed as being a lot girlier than Sidney, and in multiple scenes, her shirts expose her belly button.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: She dies after her head gets punctured by the garage door frame; even Ghostface is noticeably shaken watching it.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has a dry remark for every occasion.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Her death, which wasn't even the death Ghostface intended for her.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: "Oh, you wanna play psycho killer?
Can I be the helpless victim?" - Fiery Redhead: Well, Fiery Strawberry Blonde. In any case, Tatum's a spirited and energetic girl.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Despite being a major character in the first film, she's rarely discussed by Sidney or Dewey in the sequels. Possibly justified as she was Dewey's sister and Sidney's best friend, and neither character would be happy reliving that memory.
- Having said that, she is briefly mentioned by Jennifer's bodyguard Steven Stone in Scream 3, and in a deleted scene in Scream 4. Then Scream 5 reveals that Dewey has her ashes on his mantle.
- Girlish Pigtails: Wears her hair in braided pigtails sometimes.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She sleeps with a stuffed toy rabbit.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Her death scene had to be trimmed down to avoid an NC-17 rating. Instead, it's punctuated by the blowing of a light bulb and a Sickening "Crunch!".
- Grievous Bottley Harm: As mentioned above, she starts chucking beer bottles at Ghostface when he corners her.
- Groin Attack: Nails Ghostface in the beans with a beer bottle.
- Help, I'm Stuck!: She attempts to escape Ghostface through the cat door on the garage door. She somehow gets stuck in the middle, which Ghostface exploits by opening the garage door and crushing her to death in the frame.
- I Want My Mommy!: Cries out "Mom!" right before her death.
- The Lancer: Sidney's caring and supportive, yet more outgoing and sarcastic, best friend.
- Ms. Fanservice: An attractive young woman who can be seen in some flattering and form-fitting outfits.
- Nice Girl: She's snarky but generally a good person, and a loyal, caring friend to Sidney.
- The Nicknamer: She's the reason why the killer is called "Ghostface", giving him that nickname during their confrontation in the garage. Before that, the killer's outfit was called the "Father Death" costume.
- Plucky Girl: She's very feisty and quick to volunteer help.
- Sacrificial Lion: As Sidney's closest friend, she gets a lot of screentime. Still ends up as the first person to die in the third act.
- Your Head A-Splode: Specifically, Your Head Gets Crushed Between A Garage Door And The Edge Of The Roof.
Billy Loomis
William "Billy" Loomis
"It's all a movie. It's all one great big movie. Only you can pick your genre."
Played By: Skeet Ulrich
Sidney's boyfriend who is frustrated by her reluctance to have sex with him.
- Dude, Not Funny!: In-universe, when he chastises Stu about his comments on gutting: "Hey. It's called tact, you fuck-rag."
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Billy is a bit of an asshole, but he does care about his girlfriend even after Sidney gets him arrested by the police. He even gets Stu to shut up after Stu goes into unnecessary detail about gutting someone while they're eating lunch.
- No Kill like Overkill: Stabbed four or five times by Ghostface.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is William, but everyone calls him Billy.
- Red Herring: Seemingly every clue points to him being the killer... but is he?
- Say My Name: After getting stabbed by Ghostface, he groans "Sid" before crumpling to the floor.
- Sex Signals Death: Gets stabbed after having sex with Sidney.
- Troubled, but Cute: He's the 'bad boy' out of the group, and definitely a quite handsome one.
- White Shirt of Death: Wears a white shirt the night of the finale and doesn't survive the night.
Stu Macher
Stuart "Stu" Macher
"Yeah, you're going to love this one. It's a scream, baby!"
Played By: Matthew Lillard
One of Sidney's best friends who loves picking on Randy. He was Casey's boyfriend before she broke up with him to date Steve.
- The Bully: Downplayed. While Randy can give as good as he gets, Stu is the clear instigator. He does know about Randy's crush on Sid and enjoys rubbing his face in how unlikely it is it'll ever go anywhere between them.
- Evil Laugh: He likes parodying these.
- Large Ham: With his laid back and "party dude"-like attitude, he really seems to enjoy hamming it up.
- Lean and Mean: He's very tall and wiry, and quite an obnoxious, tactless jerk at times.
- No Sense of Personal Space: At one point, he plays with Randy's earlobe while Billy threatens him.
- Overly-Long Tongue: One of his Character Tics is sticking out his tongue, which covers his chin.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Seems to be his role in the film, with his whacked-out behavior.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: He insists there's no way a girl could have killed Casey and Steve because of how physically demanding it would be to disembowel them. Tatum calls him out on this.
- Tempting Fate: He really doesn't mind blurting out "I'll be right BACK!", even knowing it's against Randy's survival rules.
- Thin-Skinned Bully: Has no problem teasing Randy for his crush on Sid. However, he quickly gets defensive when Randy reminds him that Casey dumped him for Steve.
- Tiny Girl, Huge Guy: He is over half a foot taller than his girlfriend, Tatum.
- Too Much Information: He tells his friends the specifics of gutting someone... in front of Sidney, whose mom was brutally murdered in a similar fashion a year before.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Billy and Randy, especially the latter. Billy calls him out for his lack of tact while he and Randy frequently trade sarcastic barbs.
Cheerleader
Cheerleader
Played By: Leonora Scelfo
One of the two girls whom Sidney overhears in a Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults.
- Cruel Cheerleader: She wears a cheerleading uniform and mercilessly and cruelly insults Sidney (even suggesting that she's the killer) while applying some makeup and also shows a Lack of Empathy for the murder victims and suicidal teens.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Unlike her brunette friend, the blonde cheerleader is very frank, gossipy, and lacking in social graces.
- No Name Given: The movie credits refer to her as "Cheerleader in Bathroom".
Girl in Bathroom
Girl in Bathroom
Played By: Nancy Ann Ridder
One of the two girls whom Sidney overhears in a Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: The girl is much more friendly and nervous than her friend, wears a purple sweater and has a purplish shade of lipstick.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Unlike her blonde friend, the brunette is more sensible and friendly.
- Morality Pet: She views the cheerleader's jabs at Sidney to be over the line and does her best to admonish her friend.
- No Name Given: The movie credits refer to her as "Girl in Bathroom".
- Sexy Sweater Girl: She wears a sweater that accentuates her curves.
Party Guests
Party Guests
Played By: Troy Bishop (Expelled Teen #1), Ryan Kennedy (Expelled Teen #2), Aurora Draper (Party Teen #1), Kenny Kwong (Party Teen #2), Justin Sullivan (Teen on Couch), Kurtis Bedford (Bored Teen), Angela Miller (Girl on Couch), and about 20 extras (Girl sitting next to Randy, Girl in Gold Sweatshirt, and miscellaneous guests)
Kids who attend the party at Stu's house right before the climax. Most of them listen to Randy's famous speech about horror movie rules.
- All Men Are Perverts: Several male guests boo especially loudly when Randy explains Sex Signals Death and the last female guest (besides Sidney) at the party leaves right before the sex scene in Halloween due to how eager the boys are to watch that.
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: The five guests who haven't gone home already (including the two expelled pranksters) don't seem to mourn Stern Teacher Principal Himbry in the slightest and race off to see his body before the cops cut it down.
- Comically Missing the Point: The dark-haired girl thinks that Jamie Lee Curtis never got toplesss scenes in horror movies because she "couldn't afford a decent pair [of breast implants]" rather than due to Curtis playing protagonists in movies where Sex Signals Death is at play.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Most of them boo when Randy mentions the Sex Signals Death trope, with the boys booing louder and throwing popcorn at Randy.
- Implied Love Interest: Downplayed, given how Randy is clearly crushing on Sidney and is stated to be a virgin, but Randy has an arm around an unnamed, uncredited female party guest (the one wearing a black shirt with some flower sequins) while they watch Halloween (1978), and she lets him rub her head as they laugh about a Jump Scare. However, she is also seen hugging a boy in a baseball cap when he arrives at the party, making her interactions with Randy more ambiguous.
- Additionally, the girl in the gold sweatshirt is dancing with Randy when Sidney and Tatum arrive, although Randy quickly leaves to greet Sidney.
- No Name Given: They are all unnamed.
- Perpetual Smiler: The girl in the black shirt is constantly smiling and enjoying the party.
- The Prankster: Two of the guests are the students that Himbry expelled for dressing up as Ghostface.
- Recurring Extra: Two guests (a girl in a gold varsity sweatshirt and blue skirt who is dancing when Sidney and Tatum arrive and a girl in a black shirt with flower sequins and a pink skirt who sits next to Randy during the movie) are present in most of the scenes throughout the long party sequence but don't have any audible dialogue and aren't credited.
- Social Circle Filler: They mainly exist so it isn't just Sidney and the various suspects at the party, and so that it will be harder to keep track of everyone with so many characters underfoot.
- Squee: Several of them, boys and girls, watch Gale's show and are really excited when she drops by the party.
- Tempting Fate: Despite having some awareness that a real-life horror movie is playing out in their town, the seven credited teens and three others all laugh and drink beer when Randy says alcohol and drugs are horror movie no-nos. They also laugh when Stu says "I'll be right back" after Randy calls that another thing to avoid.
- Those Two Guys:
- The pranksters pull a hammy prank together and are always hanging out together at the party later on.
- The two credited female guests are rarely seen apart and do things like gush over Gale visiting the party and talk about a horror movie with each other (although one of them heads home slightly later than her friend).
- Token Minority: One Asian-American guest who doesn't get much dialogue is one of the two non-white characters in the credits (along with a briefly seen African-American reporter).
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: One female guest is wearing overalls, but their pink overalls and she also briefly gushes about watching Gale on the news.
- The Watson: Along with Stu, the nine guests who haven't left yet serve as people for Randy to educate about the rules of surviving a horror movie.
Young Girl in Video Store
Young Girl in Video Store
Played By: Bonnie Wood
A high school student and one of Randy's customers at the video store.- Disapproving Look: She shoots a troubled look at Randy after he loudly screams out that "EVERYONE IS A SUSPECT!"
- Nice to the Waiter: She politely thanks Randy for helping her find a movie when she can remember the star and genre but not the title.
- Spear Carrier: She only gets one scene and a couple lines of dialogue while providing Randy one of several moments to show off his horror movie knowledge.
- True Blue Femininity: Her shirt, jeans, and necklace are all blue, and she is upset about someone making a scene over the murders and polite outside of that moment during her brief screen time.
School Staff
Arthur Himbry
Principal Arthur Himbry
"Remember, your principal loves you. And I want you to be safe."
Played By: Henry Winkler
The principal of Woodsboro High School.
- Badass Teacher: As rough as he is, he's no-nonsense when it comes to keeping his students safe: getting on the intercom in a passionate plea for them to get straight home after classes, and later suspending classes after there's speculation that the killer might have made it into the school at one point. He even lays down the law on students who were pretending to be Ghostface. Shame he wasn't able to survive the real thing.
- Dies Wide Open: His eyes are seen flickering around after he's stabbed by Ghostface, before they finally stop moving and remain open.
- Foreshadowing: He tells the two pranksters that they ought to be disemboweled and hung from a tree like Casey as retribution for their prank. He himself winds up getting disemboweled and hung from a goalpost.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Like Casey Becker, he is gutted and his body hung, this time on a goalpost on the school's football field.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sure, he's harsh for expelling two students for the Ghostface prank, but considering that two of their schoolmates had been killed by Ghostface while another came very close to suffering the same fate, his treatment may not seem so inconsiderate.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bit creepy with Sidney, and expels two students for an admittedly tasteless prank while telling them he'd like to see them suffer the same fates as the victims, but he's not a bad guy overall and clearly cares about the well-being of those under his care.
- Look Behind You: Ghostface hides behind his office door until Himbry closes the door and turns his back. Once he does, Ghostface strikes.
- No Sense of Personal Space: He weirdly strokes Sidney's chin while talking about keeping her safe. This gesture creeps out Sheriff Burke, who then gives Himbry a concerned look.
- Not So Above It All: Himbry expels two students for running around in Ghostface masks, but is later seen wearing the mask and doing silly impressions in front of a mirror before he is killed.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He makes a point of telling students to head home right away for their own safety, and later suspends class entirely when there's a real possibility of the killer being among them.
Mrs. Tate
Mrs. Tate
Played By: Lois Saunders
The English teacher at Woodsboro High.- Spear Carrier: She only gets two lines in one short scene (although in the original script, she also gets a Politically Motivated Teacher speech, saying that the tragedy of Steve and Casey's murders makes her sorry that school prayer isn't permitted). The original script for Scream (2022) implies that Liv is related to her, but the final film instead implies Liv is a relative of Casey Becker's neighbors.
- Stiff Upper Lip: She looks upset about the recent murders but is very proper and dignified with her words.
Fred
Fred the Janitor
Played By: Wes Craven
The Woodsboro High janitor.
- Creator Cameo: He appears for about ten seconds and is played by the franchise's first director.
- Grumpy Old Man: He looks fairly old and quickly gets irritated when he thinks Himbry insulted him, calling his boss a prick even after Himbry says he was talking to someone else.
- Shout-Out: His first name, his wardrobe, and his job as a maintenance man are one to Freddy Krueger.
The Press
Kenny Brown
Kenny Brown
Played By: W. Earl Brown
Gale's cameraman.
- All There in the Manual: The fifth movie reveals that his full name is Kenny Brown.
- Big Eater: Almost always seen snacking on something.
- Deadpan Snarker: To put up with Gale, he'd have to be.Gale: Jesus! The camera, hurry!Kenny: My name isn't Jesus...
- Dying Moment of Awesome: The last thing he does before dying is to point Sidney to an escape route so she can get away from Ghostface.
- Gutted Like a Fish: This is how Gale claims he died in her book. She admits to Joel she made it up for dramatic effect, and that he actually died from his throat being slashed.
- Hidden Depths: He seems to care more than Gale about how their story will be saving the life of a genuinely innocent man.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Leaves the safety of his van in an attempt to save Randy from Ghostface. The second he remembers that the camera has a delay and Ghostface isn't necessarily still with Randy, he gets his throat slashed.
- Oh, Crap!: When he remembers the 30-second delay on the camera and turns around to find Ghostface right in front of him. He's killed seconds later.
- Slashed Throat: How Ghostface kills him.
Law Enforcement
Burke
Sheriff Burke
Played By: Joseph Whipp
The sheriff of Woodsboro, and Dewey's boss.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Burke is a former smoker who resumes smoking due to anxiety over the murders.
- Everyone Is a Suspect: Sheriff Burke is a Ghostface suspect due to wearing the same kind of boots as Ghostface and being absent during the climax.
- Nostalgia Filter: Burke says that twenty years ago, he wouldn't think a kid like Billy could be their killer, but he is less sure with modern youth culture.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Burke firmly investigates Billy and Mr. Prescott based on the evidence, but keeps an open mind to their possible innocence.
Parents
Mr. Becker
Mr. Becker
Played By: David Booth
Casey's dad, who arrives home at the end of the opening scene
- Caring Gardener: The Beckers' lawn has a lot of flowers, which they pause to admire although Mr. Becker complains about one flower's smell. As noted by Mrs. Becker, Mr. Becker is responsible for watering the flowers.
- May–December Romance: Implied. Mr. Becker looks about a decade older than his wife.
- Only One Name: His first name is never mentioned.
- Outliving One's Offspring: He outlives his daughter, who is one of Ghostface's victims.
- Papa Wolf: After learning that someone is attacking his daughter, Mr. Becker stays in the house to try and save her while telling his wife to flee to a neighbor's house.
- The Stoic: Upon seeing his daughter's corpse, he keeps calm and immediately runs to her body.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He and his wife are never mentioned after the opening, so there is no telling how they reacted to the news that Casey's ex was one of the killers.
Mrs. Becker
Mrs. Becker
Played By: Carla Hatley
Casey's mom, who arrives home at the end of the opening scene.
- Broken Bird: Mrs. Becker goes into hysterics when she realizes that Casey is in danger and starts screaming hysterically after seeing Casey's body.
- Caring Gardener: She is proud of how good the flowers look in her garden.
- May–December Romance: Implied. Mrs. Becker looks much younger than her husband.
- Only One Name: Her first name is never mentioned.
- Outliving One's Offspring: She outlives her daughter, who is one of Ghostface's victims.
- Title Drop: A more subtle example. She screams after spotting Casey's corpse.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She and her husband are never mentioned after the opening, so there is no telling how they reacted to the news that Casey's ex was one of the killers.
Mrs. Riley
Mrs. Riley
Played By: Frances Lee McCain
Tatum and Dewey's mother.
- Good Parents: She acts warmly toward Tatum in her one scene and Dewey mentions that she tries to make Tatum respect him while he's on duty.
- Outliving Ones Off Spring: At the end of the first film, she's still alive but her daughter isn't.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She is never mentioned after the halfway point of the first film and her reaction to Tatum's fate and Dewey's adventures in the subsequent films is unknown.
