The Ultimate Ranking of the "Scream" Franchise

By: Christopher James

What is the best Scream movie? Who is the best Ghostface? What movie has the best opening? Read to find out!

The Scream franchise isn’t just a top-notch series of slasher films. It’s a chronicle of the changing tropes within the horror genre. Over 26 years, the five Scream films have expertly scared the pants off audiences, while also commenting on sequel, trilogy and reboot culture. The fifth film, confusingly or pointedly just titled Scream, opens this week in theaters. Glenn Dunks already gave us his full review. Like him, I’m also a huge fan of the series and excitedly binged the franchise again this week with friends.

With every new film, I fell more and more in love with the saga of scrupulous reporter Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox), the dopey yet charming Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and the ultimate “final girl” at the center of it all, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). In the background of all the movies is the "Stab" franchise-within-a-franchise, a slasher series that's always about the previous film and continues to mythologize Sidney Prescott and the rest of the Woodsboro gang. All of the films, do a great job introducing new characters, new kills and new tricks for the shifty, gumby-esque Ghostface.

So what’s the ranking of the five Scream movies? SPOILERS ahead for the first four films (we’ll refrain from spoilers for the 2022 film, but if you want to go in super cold, don’t read yet!).

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Review: Scream '22

By Glenn Dunks

Movies made predominantly out of a requirement for fan service can go one of a few ways. They can give audiences just what they wanted (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies), they can give audiences what they didn’t know they needed (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies), or they can be a complete and utter dog’s breakfast (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies).

The Scream franchise isn’t as long-running or as mythologized as iconic horror brands like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or A Nightmare on Elm Street. But what it does have that those series do not is a consistent core—both in characters (Sidney, Gale and Dewey) and tone (comically meta slasher)—that has remained unwavering across 25 years and five individual movies. Fan service here then is actually quite tricky...

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