Scream ending spoilers follow.
We're back in Woodsboro for another killing spree in the excellent new Scream movie, but did you work out who was Ghostface this time around?
The new movie sees the quiet town rocked by another series of murders 25 years after the infamous original Ghostface slayings. A new killer is targeting a group of teenagers in order to resurrect secrets from Woodsboro's deadly past, bringing Sidney, Dewey and Gale back for one more battle.
As ever in a Scream movie, the new Ghostface is revealed during the bloody climax as well as their reasons for the latest killings. In case you were too hiding from the terror though, we're here to unravel how everything pieces together.
That means we're about to go into some major spoilers for Scream, so look away now if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Seriously, don't spoil it for yourself. MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT TO START.
In a first for the franchise, the opening victim survives their attack by Ghostface as Tara (Jenna Ortega) is brutally stabbed but somehow survives. This attack brings her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) back to Woodsboro, along with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid).
The first victim of the new movie turns out to be resident bad boy Vince (Kyle Gallner) who's stabbed by Ghostface following an argument with Tara's friends in a bar. It's revealed that he's Stu Macher's nephew, and he's not the only one linked to the first movie's killers: Sam is the daughter of Billy Loomis.
Sam and Tara's mother had an affair with Billy, leading to her becoming pregnant. She kept it from them and her husband, but Sam found out when she read her mother's diary. Sam is haunted by hallucinations of Billy and it's part of the reason she left Woodsboro in the first place.
After she's attacked at the hospital by Ghostface, Sam and Richie seek out the help of Dewey (David Arquette), who has split up with Gale (Courteney Cox) since we last saw him. He reluctantly agrees to help and they gather all of Tara's friends – aka the potential victims or killers – together.
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Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), niece of Randy Meeks, believes that the new killer is making their own "requel". The latest Stab movie (Stab 8, if you're keeping count) was hated by fans as it did something completely different, so Mindy theorises that the new killer is going back to basics: "It always goes back to the original."
Shortly afterwards, Tara's friend Wes (Dylan Minnette) is killed by Ghostface who also offs his mother, Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton). Having been messaged by Dewey earlier, Gale arrives back in Woodsboro to report on the new spate of killings despite his warnings to stay away.
This attack on Judy and Wes leaves Tara vulnerable at the hospital with a lack of police protection, which Ghostface takes full advantage of. Ghostface calls Sam to ask her to choose between the death of Tara or Richie, who had rushed to the hospital after Sam called him.
Luckily, Dewey and Sam arrive in time to save both of them and Dewey shoots Ghostface multiple times. Aware that he didn't shoot Ghostface in the head, Dewey heads back to the body (bad move) and is promptly brutally gutted by Ghostface, who was obviously wearing body armour. "It's an honour," Ghostface chillingly tells him.
It's Dewey's death that sees Sidney (Neve Campbell) finally arrive back in Woodsboro, despite earlier telling Dewey she was never coming back. Sidney and Gale try to persuade Sam to help them catch the killer, but Sam smartly intends to get the hell out of town with Tara and Richie.
Before they leave, Sidney puts a tracker on Sam's car and as they're heading out of town, Tara realises she's forgotten her inhaler. There's one at her friend Amber's (Mikey Madison) house, so they head there where there's a memorial party "for Wes", a meta nod to the passing of Wes Craven.
This isn't any house though as Sidney and Gale realise when they track Sam there: Amber lives at Stu's old house. Uh-oh. After Mindy's brother Chad (Mason Gooding) is attacked and goes missing, everybody starts pointing the finger at everybody else to be the killer.
Amber announces herself to be the killer though when she shoots her friend Liv (Sonia Ammar) in the head. Before she can kill anybody else, Sidney and Gale arrive and Amber pretends to be in shock. They don't buy it, but can't stop Amber from shooting Gale, not fatally though.
As Sidney goes through the house shooting every closed door she can find, she accidentally shoots Richie in the leg. Amber attacks Sidney and in the ensuing melee, Sam gets hold of Amber's gun and appears to save the day.
Shame she didn't pay attention to Dewey's advice to always suspect the love interest, as Richie then stabs Sam. Even though he was pretending it was Tara who led them there, it was Richie who took her inhaler which forced them to come to Amber's house for the big showdown.
It turns out that Amber and Richie met on a Reddit forum for Stab and bonded over their hatred for the new movie. In order to "save the franchise", they decided to create a real-life "requel" so that the next Stab movie could again be based on a true story.
Amber had discovered from Sam's mother that Billy was her father, which gave them the perfect idea: frame Sam for the murders as the killer offspring of Billy. Dewey – who was killed by Amber – had to die to bring Sidney back to Woodsboro for all of the legacy characters to be involved.
They clearly never learned their lessons from the previous Stab movies though. Sam never believed Tara was the killer, so she earlier freed her after Amber had tied her up. Tara helps her sister fight back against Richie, while Sidney and Gale take on Amber.
Sam overpowers Richie and stabs him multiple times before cutting his throat in a way that would make her father proud. Amber makes a surprise return from being shot and burned by Gale, but Tara saves them all by shooting Amber dead, finally.
Despite them both being attacked by Ghostface earlier in the night, Mindy and Chad are both shown to have survived their injuries. Gale tells Sidney that she's going to write a new book, but not about the killings and about Dewey instead. Aww.
Sidney assures Sam that she will be OK eventually, although it's fair to say it might all take some time to get over. At least both her and her sister are safe... well, until the next time somebody decides to be Ghostface again.
Scream is out now in cinemas.
Paramount Scream (2022) - Zavvi exclusive 4K UHD steelbook
Miramax Scream [Blu-ray]
£20 at Amazon
Miramax Scream trilogy [Blu-ray] [2020]
£15 at Amazon
Entertainment Film Distributors Scream 4
£2 at Amazon
Ian Sandwell
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
