The SCREAM Franchise Needs Help with its SCOOBY-DOO Endings

Nothing will top the O.G. Scream from 1996 when it comes to the Scream villain reveals.

The writers can storyboard and plot the movie all they want, but when it comes to the final twist about the identity of the Ghostface killer, it's not special anymore. It just isn't.

Billy Loomis in Scream 1996

Sorry, not sorry. 

It peaked with the terrible reveal in Scream 3. Some long-lost brother nobody knew about? Give me a break. That's an insult to the Scream legacy. The franchise should have stopped after part 3. Give it a good 20 years and then make a triumphant return with a new cast and a new story. 

But Hollywood being Hollywood, they tried to make more, which just further diluted their own brand, as it does to every franchise studios won't let die. 

I'm writing about this because, in my opinion, the Scooby-Doo mystery has gotten played out.

Seriously, how many times are the villains going to get this big reveal and then tell why they're committing their crimes? It's so tedious and cliché at this point. Not to mention the fact that each movie leaks days before its release and spoils who the Ghostface killers truly are. 

"It's a formula. A very simple formula," Randy Meeks said in his famous monologue. 

Indeed, it is. 

There must be a better way to end these Scream movies. Maybe end them with a cliffhanger, a wrong accusation, or a character dies who knew the real killer was. Something. Anything that isn't a final, unmasking of the killer.

And then only to be told some bullshit reason why they decided to go on a rampage. It's so far-fetched at this point. It really is. Something else that needs work is the location of the killers in relation to Sidney, or the main hero character. At least one of the killers will always be someone who knows Sidney already. That one killer is already in her life to some degree. That's how they've infiltrated Sidney and have gotten information to torture her life. 

Roman Bridger in Scream 3

That being said, the Roman Bridger character in Scream 3 didn't work because Sidney had no idea who he was. And if Sidney doesn't know, then why should the audience care?

The other problem is the use of a background character who only had a short scene or two to be a Ghostface killer. That doesn't provide enough screentime for the viewer to suspect that they might have a motive to hurt Sidney.

The first Scream worked because the Billy character was properly fleshed out. You know his intentions, his family life, and his backstory. Stu was just there for the ride. You could remove Stu from the story and, with a little extra writing, could just have had Billy as the lone killer.

Scream is at a precipice right now. The criticism over the latest entry (Scream 7) and its bad writing and poor reveal is something the franchise must improve upon if it would like more sequels.