Definitive Ranking Of The 'Scream' Franchise
Image Source: Boston Globe
Wes Craven’s Scream franchise is easily one of the most popular and well-recognized horror franchises of all time. The franchise made Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich two of the most beloved slashers in horror history and gave us one of the best modern-day final girls ever! As the franchise nears its 30th anniversary (only three years away!), let's rank each film in the franchise.
Warning: This list contains spoilers!
6. Scream (2022)
Image Source: Entertainment Weekly
This is the only movie on this list that I consider a bad film. Scream is my favorite horror franchise, and to say I was excited about this film is an understatement. Unfortunately, the creators of this film decided to give in to fan demand and created an almost identical film to the 1996 original, and the result is reminiscent of the 1998 Psycho remake with Vince Vaughn. The kills were disappointing, and the death of Dewey Riley was infuriating.
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5. Scream 3 (2000)
Image Source: IMDB
Scream 3 is easily the most polarizing film on this list. I love this movie, and I really enjoyed the fact that we got our first change in the Ghostface killer dynamic. Before this film, we always had two killers, so getting to have a single Ghostface made the film more interesting, and it made the killer more terrifying. I love the Hollywood setting, and getting to see Sydney attacked while exploring locations from her past was really cool.
4. Scream 2 (1997)
Image Source: Cinema Blend
This is one of the best horror sequels ever! It brought all of the terror and charm of the first film and gave us a bigger body count and way more blood. I loved how they played on the stereotypes of horror films and made us and Sydney believe that her boyfriend was once again behind it all. Gale’s chase scene in this film is easily one of the best chase scenes in the entire franchise.
3. Scream 4 (2011)
Image Source: Cinema Blend
This movie does not get enough credit for how amazing it is. Wes Craven did an amazing job at bringing in actors that were popular at the time and making fun of films like Valentine’s Day that was more focused on stuffing names into a film than creating a good film. My favorite thing about this film, though, was the fact that Wes made every single actor film a death, and a killer, reveal scene. 2011 saw an uptick in leaked scripts thanks to the boom in social media, so he made sure that if there was a leak in the film, he could fix it and still give fans a twist. He went as far as to give Entertainment Weekly a “first look” set of images, and none of them were from the final film!
2. Scream VI (2023)
Image Source: CNN
Honestly, this movie is a tie for first, but for the sake of this list, I made it number two. This movie is everything that a reboot should be, and it made the disaster of Scream (2022) forgivable. The film gave us an entirely new and fresh formula by not only having four total Ghostfaces featured in the film but also by giving us multiple inconsistencies to suggest that there may have been more people operating than we realized. This film has the best act three of any of the films in the franchise. It also had the best line out of any of the films: “Who gives a f— about the movies!”
1. Scream (1996)
Image Source: Variety
Although Scream VI does tie with this film for me, no horror film will ever top it. This movie created an entirely new subgenre within the horror industry and first introduced fans to the fact that horror films have rules. Scream reignited the horror genre when it seemed to be starting to fizzle out, especially the slasher subgenre. The film also gave fans some of the most beloved horror characters of all time, and after almost 30 years, it is still one of the most popular horror films ever.
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