It's not like the past: Dewey really isn't coming back.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Examples:
- Throughout the film, more characters beg, cry and plead to Ghostface when it seems like they’re at their end. It serves as a harrowing reminder that many of the victims in these movies are just teenagers who are utterly terrified of meeting such a grisly fate.
- Tara being played by Jenna Ortega, who was nineteen when the film was released (and was about eighteen during filming), really emphasizes the youth of the victims in this movie. While most of the victims in the first movie were teenagers, all the actors were old enough to drink and looked it. Ortega being an actual teenager makes it impossible to forget that Tara is a child being terrorized by two complete sadists—one of which turned out to be her best friend—and fearing she might die horribly.Tara: (tearfully to Sam) I was so scared!
- After keeping up a brave face for her friends after being attacked by Ghostface, Tara collapses into tears when she is left alone in her hospital room with her sister Sam.
- Crossed with Heartwarming: In hindsight, with the notable exception of Amber because of later on, Sam's reunion with Tara's friends who Sam had known since they were all younger, specifically her hugs with Wes and Mindy. Sam clearly cares for them all and them for her. The idea that any of them would be doubted later, and that ultimately all Tara's friends except for Chad and Mindy would get killed, is pretty sad.
- The scene where Sam confesses to Tara that she’s in fact the illegitimate daughter of Billy Loomis. She also tells her that when she discovered the truth, she immediately confronted her mother over the matter, unaware that her father was right behind her when she did. That night, he left, and the Carpenter family has been splintered ever since, with Sam leaving an estranged Tara behind to go to Modesto.
- Sidney, Gale, and Dewey sound so weary and resigned when they get news that murders have sprung up again in Woodsboro. They've gone through this four times already in their lives, and have suffered through so many losses, you get the feeling they're somewhat numb to the terror. They speak to the teens like old soldiers, shell-shocked from years of death.Sidney: You ready?
Gale: For this? Never. - Despite being not as beloved as the original trio, Judy Hicks’ death is still a rather depressing ordeal. For context, she’s called by Ghostface, who threatens the life of her son, Wes, while she’s going to grab dinner. Judy immediately books it back home and is sprinting up the steps when Ghostface appears from behind a bush and kills her by stabbing her violently and repeatedly in the chest.
- While racing home to save Wes, Judy can only tearfully plead for his life, mentioning that he's a good kid who's never hurt anyone.
- And just to rub salt on the wound, they also kill Wes by slowly stabbing him in the throat.
- It's especially sad as the brief glimpse of their relationship is enough to tell us that it's a very close and loving one.
- By the start of the film, Dewey and Gale have separated and he’s been forced out of his position as sheriff. He also reveals that the various injuries he’s suffered from over the course of the franchise have taken a heavy toll, resulting in permanent nerve damage and what's implied to be a subsequent alcohol dependency.
- After four films and twenty-five years of being one of the franchise's main characters, fending off killers and surviving multiple serious brushes with death to the point of having a seeming immunity from it, it all culminates with his ultimate fate in this film, a brutal gut-punch to audiences that hammers in, as Amber says in the climax, that this movie "has fucking stakes" — the murder of Dewey.
- Even more devastating is that Dewey doesn't get the luxury of a relatively simple or pain-free death. In fact, he gets quite the opposite — two knives, one in his chest, one in his back, with both being slit open vertically (essentially carving him), resulting in one of the most gruesome deaths in the entire franchise. The fact that we see him in visible and audible agony throughout doesn't help.
- Gale’s reaction. When she realizes who it is getting wheeled out in a body bag, she breaks into tears and has to be physically restrained by Sam and Richie to be stopped from charging towards his corpse. It’s especially gutting how the scene serves as a reminder of Scream 2, and how Gale was so elated to find Dewey on a stretcher alive.
- Even worse than that is the fact that she called Dewey just as he was about to shoot Ghostface, creating a distraction which resulted in the killer (Amber) getting the upper hand. Now, she has to live the rest of her life without her one true love, regardless of whether or not she knows she was inadvertently responsible for setting his death in motion.
- An even bigger twist of the knife in hindsight is realizing that one of the people holding back and "comforting" Gale is one of the killers.
- Sidney also arrives in Woodsboro shortly afterward, having heard the news. She may have a family to protect, but the death of one of her closest friends no doubt leaves her shaken for the rest of the film.
- By the end of the film, Liv’s story ends up being this. She ends up being brutally rejected after trying to hook up with Chad because he genuinely thinks she could be the killer, causing her to storm out heartbroken. And then she gets unceremoniously shot in the head by Amber afterwards.
- What’s worse is that she likely died thinking that her boyfriend was also dead, and that everyone just assumed she was the guilty one for the simple fact of being not that close to them, as well as her having Chad’s blood on her hands after she found him injured.
- On Chad’s side, while he barely survives the night, he has to live with the fact he’ll never see his girlfriend alive again, never getting the opportunity to make up with her.
- Liv worries out loud several times about how people see her as boring and forgettable. This was primarily thrown in to give her a Red Herring motive for becoming Ghostface, but unfortunately, her worst fear is likely to come true, thanks to the killers adding her to the already lengthy tally of victims. News hounds and Stab fans will concentrate on the killers and survivors while she will be forgotten as an unimportant victim/character.
- Sam's hallucinations of Billy Loomis. They're like a mix between her dark side trying to get out and a subconscious wish to have a relationship with her deceased father.
- It's not just Amber's horrible betrayal of Tara that's disturbing and sad, it's Richie's betrayal of Sam, too.
- For Wes.
- The first two movies had flash-cut shots of Ghostface acting menacing before the end credits. Here? A flash of Ghostface honorably wiping his blade with his head bowed in a respectful fashion, to honor the horror legend who enriched horror fans' lives over the years.
