Ranking All The Scream Opening Kills

By Flora Irvine-Hall

Image from people.com

WARNING- This article contains spoilers for Scream 1-6!

*Ghostface voice* What’s your favourite opening scene from the Scream franchise?

Horror films and in particular slashers are difficult. While it’s easy to get folks to flock to the cinema and get their butts on seats, if you don’t grab their attention within the first minute you’re in danger of your film being a flop.

One franchise that certainly knows how to open things with a bang are the Scream films.

This is of course just my opinion but it’s also very correct.

6. Scream 3

Image from Creepy Catalog

The voice changer element of  the third films Ghostface is very prevalent in today’s world with the use of AI but from a film made in 2000, it just seems rather goofy. Of course, Scream is supposed to have an element of goofiness to it but in this case  the goofiness just took away the suspense from the opening kill. Having Cotton Weary, a character who was in the first two films  as the opening kill is a bold mood on paper but the murder of Cotton and his wife could have had an even bigger impact if he had gotten a bigger role. While this isn’t a terrible opening, it is pretty forgettable.

WATCH THE SCREAM 3 OPENING BELOW

5. Scream 4

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The opening of Scream 4 seems to be rather divisive. Some people love how outlandish and meta it is while others just seem to get rather irritated by it. And as much as I admire Kevin Williamson for trying to do something different, I’m probably more in the latter camp. Having one fakeout opening scene would have been fine but having two is a little overkill. Trudie and Sherri’s deaths in the first fake out are strong and are pretty effective due to the fact that they’re played by Shenae Grimes-Beech and Lucy Hale who were at the time in two very popular teen shows. The second fake-out is certainly amusing. Chloe’s dialogue is a fun callout to all the hardcore Scream fans and Rachel’s death is both dark and hilarious.  The real opening kill however, is rather anti-climactic. For one thing, Marnie having an off-scream death is a total let down.  While the parallel with Jenny’s death and  Tatum’s death via the garage door is clever, after the fakeouts I was just expecting something bigger.

WATCH THE FAKEOUT OPENINGS FROM SCREAM 4 BELOW

WATCH THE (REAL) OPENING OF SCREAM 4 BELOW

4. Scream 5

Image belongs to Scream Source via X

Technicially speaking, this opening scene should really be last seeing as Tara doesn’t actually die. But the back and fourth of Tara’s conversation with Ghostface , the mention of elevated horror and Jenna Ortega’s scream queen abilities being on full display, I had to give this opening scene its flowers. You can really feel Tara’s fear and her blood-curdling screams go right through you in the best way. The shot of her being stabbed through the hand is particularly gruesome. The cutaway from the final stab and the fact that she doesn’t actually die is where it  does have to lose some points but otherwise it’s a great opening scene.

WATCH THE OPENING FOR SCREAM 5 BELOW

3. Scream 6

Image from Cinemablend

Laura’s bird-cry like screech as the knife plunges into her chest is bone-chilling and shows that Samara Weaving can make always leave a lasting impact even with very little screen time. Then there’s the sort of fakeout element of the opening which in my opinion works much better here than in the fourth. When Ghostface takes off the mask to reveal an unnamed character that we later learn is called Jason it’s a total jaw dropper. As the audience we think that for the first time ever we know who the killer is from the get-go. But Kevin Williamson had another trick up his sleeve. When Jason goes back to his apartment and is on the phone to who thinks is his partner in crime Greg doing the Ghostface voice, it’s revealed that they’re doing this to finish the movie Ritchie was creating in Scream Five. But then things take a very deadly turn when Jason finds Greg’s mutilated body in the fridge. Before he has any time to process his dead friend, another Ghostface comes out of nowhere and kills Jason. So while Jason and Greg might have been Ghostface killers, they are not the main Ghostface killers.

WATCH LAURA'S DEATH BELOW

WATCH JASON'S DEATH BELOW

2. Scream 2

Image from Viddy Well

The decision to have the openings kill in a cinema following all the hype from the first one is genius. The portrayal of crazed and insensitive true-crime fans, the meta element of having a movie within a movie, the camp recreation of the first kill from the original Scream, this opening scene has it all. After Phill is brutally stabbed through the skull and the Ghostface killer sits next to Maureen, who she thinks is just Phill in a Ghostface mask, we as the viewers can only watch through our fingers and brace for the  first impact of Ghostface’s knife. Seeing Maureen be repeatedly stabbed while the rest of the cinema is in oblivious and animalistic chaos is a horrifying but spectacular piece of cinema.

WATCH THE OPENING FOR SCREAM 2 BELOW

1.      Scream

Image from HuffPost

It might be a bit of a copout to say that the original is the best but a lot of the time it’s true. Even those who haven’t seen the scream movies probably have some knowledge of this iconic scene. When the film was first released in 1996, viewers flocked to the cinema, thinking that America’s sweetheart and household name Drew Barrymore was going to be the films main protagonist. So when her character Casey was killed off in the first twelve minutes, they were shocked. The switch in tone from  the slightly flirty dialogue when Ghostface first calls Casey, to the sudden feeling of dread when Ghostface says “I wanna know who I’m looking at” makes your blood run cold. The way Ghostface gets more verbally violent as the popcorn starts to overflow and the genuine terror portrayed by Drew Barrymore will have you glued to the screen regardless of how many times you’ve seen the film. The  horror trivia game that Ghostface plays with Casey as well as the tongue in cheek discussions about horror tropes is also a very witty and fun element of the film. Carla Hatley, who plays Casey’s mother is probably only on screen for around two minutes but in this short amount of time she still manages to wow with her acting abilities. Her gut-wrenching scream when she sees Casey’s mutilated body hanging from a tree is a sound you’ll never be able to get out of your head. There are lots of great horror openings. But none are as great as the opening of Scream.

WATCH THE OPENING SCENE OF SCREAM BELOW