The horror genre has greatly impacted many industries in the last few decades because of the popularity of the occult, slasher movies and a love for all things gruesome. Horror is reportedly the sixth most popular film genre since the 1990s. New directors and technology all took on different elements of the genre creating many sub-genres of horror films like alien, vampire and paranormal films.
Horrors’s impact on other entertainment industries
As genre popularity increased and peaked at different times, the horror genre rebranded itself every decade with a new phenomenon to make money.
In every technology industry, this type of rebranding has become essential in staying relevant. Movies can do this a year in advance with marketing and promos. However, in other industries such as the online gaming industry, rebranding is strictly based on the time of year and technological elements. Online casinos, for example, have had to rebrand to include cryptocurrency because of its popular use. For seasonal rebranding, they may even rebrand with new games, and graphics online. For Halloween, they may offer limited edition Halloween tokens for dedicated players. When players play bitcoin casino games, for example, they may gain access to exclusive horror content that they can play with Bitcoin through creepy-themed tournaments. In some cases, this may even involve popular horror franchises! Some casinos that use NFTs may even let players create spooky avatars during Halloween for costume contests!
Circling back to the rebranding of horror, Scream and its Ghostface killer reveals have become a cult classic in the horror industry for the last 25 years. It has produced multiple sequels, killers and its own DLC.
Well, while it may not be directed directly to the franchise, Scream has had somewhat of a rebranding with video games like Dead by Daylight which has its own Ghostface DLC that players can play on console. However, the franchise itself has been able to rebrand with the complexity of its killer reveals.
While horror fans may disagree, we will rank our top 5 Ghostface killers in the Scream franchise. Brace yourself and see if your favourite has made it.
1. Billy Loomis, Scream, (1996)
Sidney Prescott was right when she said, “Don’t fuck with the original”, because Billy Loomis is the original. While the reveal may not have been the most groundbreaking, it certainly was one of the most evil. Billy is the closest he possibly could be to Sidney as her boyfriend. And Skeet Ulrich plays that all-American bad boy so well.
The shot of Billy holding up the bloody knife and licking it is spine-chilling when you see it for the first time. While he may be only one of two Ghostfaces revealed in the first film, he is the most memorable. Wes Craven went for a simple horror twist here, and it paid off. Loomis is one of the most believable and less theatrical Ghostfaces, and that’s why he’s at our number-one spot.
2. Nancy Loomis, Scream 2, (1997)
This reveal was off-the-scale brilliant. We have plenty of crazy women in the horror space, but the good old you’re just like your mother of Nancy Loomis tops it all. Played by Laurie Metcalf, Nancy Loomis blends into the background of her news reporter persona only to cover her killing spree tracks. What makes her reveal great and only second to her son is how she is unapologetic about it.
Nancy Loomis has no redeeming qualities because she’s a bad mother who abandoned her son, she denies Billy’s wrongdoing, and she even kills innocents who had nothing to do with Billy’s death.
Sidney acts in self-defence when she shoots him, and Nancy Loomis still sees her son as God’s gift. It’s a brilliant way to tie in the killer genes to the Loomis family and to realise where Billy gets his batshit crazy from! Although her motives as a Ghostface killer are questionable, it’s just crazy enough that it works.
3. Jill Roberts, Scream 4, (2011)
Jill Roberts is the kind of pint-size killer you’d expect in a teen horror flick to be a mean girl, but would you necessarily expect her to be a murderer? Horror legend Emma Roberts plays this character beautifully. There’s no elaborate plan that Jill has to kill those who wronged her like the Loomises, no actually, she just wanted to be famous.
Jill tells Sidney as she stabs her that she is jealous of the attention Sidney got after being attacked by Ghostface and wants some of her own. It is believable at a time when social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were taking off.
Other than that, Jill has a pretty gruesome death considering she’s not pure evil. She’s electrocuted by some defibrillator pads and then shot by Sidney as they fry her.
4. Stu Macher, Scream, (1996)
We had to add the goofy Stu to this list and that’s mainly just because of Matthew Lillard’s incredible portrayal of the mentally unstable high schooler. Stu is the class clown and that’s why it’s kind of bizarre that he ends up being our second scream. It’s a perfect way for the movie to reveal that Billy had help, and who better than his best friend?
Stu is simply fuelled by the need for chaos and as avid horror watchers, the boys want to recreate it in real life. Don’t forget his death via a TV drop to the head is a hysterical way for him to die.
5. Richie Kirsch, Scream 5, (2022)
Scream 5 was the love letter to the franchise as fans eagerly anticipated the release of Scream 6. and so is Richie’s reveal Jack Quaid shines in this re-do of the final girl’s boyfriend being our killer. He is calculated, as he fakes a relationship with Billy Loomis’ secret daughter, Sam Carpenter, and recruits his girlfriend as his accomplice. Kirsch is sick in the head and his motive? Rectifying a bad horror movie in real life. That’s it!
