It’s Scream 7 release day, and with that, fans are likely looking back at all the highs and lows of the popular horror franchise. Even when the Scream films falter in some way, they’re still highly entertaining and tend to deliver for the fanbase. Back when the first film was released in 1996, it began to popularize the surprise killer reveals during the climax that came complete with the killer talking head or heads detailing all of their motives. With Scream 7 set to debut its own killer reveal to the masses this weekend, it’s time to rank the Scream killer reveals ahead of the seventh installment.

6. Scream VI – Detective Bailey, Quinn Bailey, & Ethan Landry

Getting revenge on behalf of the family is nothing new for the Scream franchise (see Scream 2), so it makes sense in theory that Scream VI’s motive, which was intended to be the second part of a new trilogy, went that route following the release of 2022’s Scream. In Scream (2022), Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) was one of the killer Ghostfaces and this time around, it’s Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato), and Ethan Landry (Jack Champion) who are revealed to be the Ghostface killers because Sam (Melissa Barrera) violently took out Richie, who happens to be Detective Bailey’s first-born son and their brother. The reveal gets points because you don’t completely see it coming (except maybe Mulroney’s involvement, because something about him does seem a bit off). Quinn appears to have been murdered early in the film, and Ethan, who happens to be Chad’s (Mason Gooding) roommate, doesn’t seem all that imposing whatsoever. The element of surprise is there, it’s just that the reveal and explanation don’t land with the intended weight it’s hoping for, because while Quaid was good as Richie, his character wasn’t quite worthy of three family members turning a main character’s life into a living hell. Frame of reference? Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) was worthy of having a family member come and wreak havoc in Scream 2 because his character simply resonated more. Again, it’s not a terrible conclusion, and all three actors are having one hell of a time; it just doesn’t have the impact the creatives were likely hoping for.

5. Scream 3 – Roman Bridger

Scream 3 tends to be the least favorite of the franchise for a lot of Scream fans, and some of that comes down to the ultimate reveal of the film’s killer and how it undoes some of the narrative elements established in the first movie. The killer is ultimately revealed to be filmmaker Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), who is the director of Stab 3 and also happens to be Sidney’s (Neve Campbell) half-brother as a product of the sexual assault that Maureen Prescott (Lynn McRee) suffered during her Hollywood days. The reveal itself is surprising because, upon first viewing, it’s hard to suspect Roman and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) does discover his “dead body” (complete with checking his pulse), but what doesn’t totally work is what it means for who was really pulling the strings in the first film. It’s revealed that four years before the events of Scream 3, Roman tracked down Maureen, who wanted nothing to do with him. Feeling rejected, he began stalking Maureen and filming her as she paraded around with the men she was cheating on her husband with, including Billy Loomis’ (Skeet Ulrich) dad.

After showing Billy the footage, this is what sets off the murders in Woodsboro from the first film. Roman’s ultimate goal, now that he has lured Sidney out of hiding, is to frame her for his murders because, well, he’s jealous that she received mommy’s love and all of the “fame” associated with being everyone’s favorite victim. Foley gets points for selling Roman’s motivations as he’s quite good during the reveal, but what the revelation ultimately does is dilute the motivations of Billy and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) because it shows they weren’t completely in charge of what they were doing. The dark element of Roman being a product of rape is a surprising move, given the Scooby-Doo nature of Scream 3’s structure (which became a necessity after the Columbine Massacre, which caused the studio to want something less violent and dark), but it doesn’t feel necessary to tie Roman’s current plan to what happened in Scream. That being said, Roman remains the franchise’s only solo Ghostface killer, so that feat alone deserves some credit. It’s not a trainwreck by any means, but it could’ve been executed without diminishing events of the past.

4. Scream (2022) – Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman

When the Scream franchise was resurrected in early 2022, one of the pressures other than living up to what Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson created was likely presenting a climax with a killer reveal that would surprise and motivations that would make sense. Radio Silence duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, alongside screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, actually don’t disappoint in terms of the motive, which works very well in today’s climate, but it stumbles a bit in terms of surprise with one of the killers, but that ultimately isn’t their fault. The Ghostface killers are ultimately revealed to be Sam’s (Barrera) boyfriend, Richie Kirsch, and Tara’s (Jenna Ortega) best friend, Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison).

They explain that they are big fans of the Stab movies who met online, and their murderous rage is a product of being upset with the creative direction of the recent eighth installment. Their goal in setting off a new string of murders is to inspire the filmmakers to create a brand new installment based on the true events of their murder spree, and to get away with it, they’ll frame Sam, who happens to be the long-lost daughter of the first film’s murderer, Billy Loomis (Ulrich). It’s a nice callback to the first movie that Sam’s boyfriend turns out to be one of the killers, but it was easy not to suspect him because Jack Quaid is just so damn likable that you just can’t see him doing it, until it becomes very clear he’s capable of it.

On the other hand, while it’s great to see Madison here before she went off to Oscar glory with Anora, it’s painfully obvious she’s going to be in on it. It’s not a fault of her acting or anything to do with her performance; it’s just that her essence gives off the idea that she could have some homicidal tendencies, so her involvement isn’t all that surprising. The motive, however, completely works in today’s internet culture, where fans get keyboard courage and are pissed when their favorite franchises don’t go their way. It’s creepily not all that far-fetched that this could happen, and that’s why, in the end, the killer reveal in Scream (2022) works.

3. Scream 2 – Mickey Altieri and Debbie Salt/Nancy Loomis

Scream 2 had a lot to live up to following the word-of-mouth success of Scream, so it had to be difficult to land on who the killers would be and their motivations. Rumor has it that a script leak had them change direction, which would’ve seen Derek (Jerry O’Connell) and Hallie (Elise Neal) involved in the murder and mayhem, but what the audience received, given the reported script changes, turns out to be well executed and a surprise that at least ties itself to the first movie in a meaningful way. One of the Ghostface killers is revealed to be one of Sidney’s (Campbell) friends at college, Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), who is working alongside Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), who happens to be Billy’s (Ulrich) mother.

Mickey was found by Mrs. Loomis online through websites catering to would-be serial killers. He intends to kill Sidney, get arrested, and then blame his violence on the movies as he becomes famous during his trial. Mrs. Loomis, who has been posing as a reporter named Debbie Salt reporting on the recent murders at Windsor College, has a more personal motive, and that happens to be that Sidney killed her precious baby boy.

Tackling this individually, I suppose it’s not surprising that one of the killers turns out to be Mickey since he’s largely missing from the film following Derek’s singing to Sidney in the cafeteria until his reveal during the climax. Upon initial viewings, it’s not incredibly noticeable, so the element of surprise is still present. As for his motives? It’s very much of the time when the film was released. The media was already blaming real-life violence on movies, television, and video games, so having someone wanting to drive that home makes sense, considering the world we were living in at the time.

Mrs. Loomis’ motivations are simple but effective. Her son is gone because of Sidney (although justified), and she feels some way about it. A lot of it is also her own guilt for abandoning him following Maureen sleeping with her husband, which resulted in their family coming undone. Another element of her involvement that works is, even though she has been parading around campus as Debbie Salt, Sidney herself never sees her, so it’s believable that she would be none the wiser that she was present. Gale (Cox) comes across her several times, and, even though she has seen pictures of her, it’s all explained away by Sidney during the reveal by her saying she got some work done. Sometimes, the reasons for the plot directions don’t need to be all that deep for them to work.

2. Scream 4 – Jill Roberts and Charlie Walker

Scream 4 has emerged as the fan-favorite of the franchise despite a rocky start when it first premiered in theaters back in 2011. One of the elements of the film that has gained considerable traction since its initial release is the reveal of one of its Ghostface killers. Admittedly, this plays fast and loose with the element of surprise since Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) turning out to be one of them wasn’t a shock (he looks like the type), but what makes up for his reveal is the ultimate revelation that Sidney’s (Campbell) very own cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), who has seemingly appeared like a victim of Ghostface, is the mastermind behind all of the torment Sidney endures in this fourth installment.

The moment of her reveal comes as a pure shock once she unmasks herself, and it allows Roberts, the actress, to go into some fun places as she explains why she has decided to take on the Ghostface persona to dispatch her cousin. Her motivations come right down to pure jealousy regarding the fame Sidney has received following surviving her various brushes with potential death. To achieve her own fame, she will become the victim of the killings that she executed and will frame her boyfriend, Trevor (Nico Tortorella), in the process.

Jill’s motivations, which honestly make Scream 4 a bit ahead of its time in terms of gaining fame by doing nothing, are cleverly explained with one of her lines as she says, “How do you think people become famous anymore? You don’t have to achieve anything. You just gotta have f***ed up s**t happen to you.” Jill ultimately betrays Charlie and murders him, and the movie makes it appear that she has achieved what other Ghostfaces haven’t achieved by killing Sidney. Of course, that turns out not to be the case, but Jill’s reveal as one of the Ghostface killers not only ranks as one of the best reveals, but she still stands up as one of the killers, period. Charlie is a means to an end to help her achieve her goal, but it’s Jill’s psychological motivations for what she’s doing that steal the show.

1. Scream – Billy Loomis and Stu Macher

It might be cliched to choose the first killer reveal as the best, but once you go back to that first watch of Scream, it all comes back to you that you most likely didn’t know where things were headed and who the killer or killers would actually be. On top of being a solid horror movie satire in many ways, it’s also a smart murder mystery that offers up suspects but quickly gives you reasons to believe there’s no way they could be involved. It’s all revealed in the end that the killers are Sidney’s (Campbell) boyfriend, Billy Loomis (Ulrich), and his best friend, Stu Macher (Lillard). The first mystery in Scream began a year prior when Sidney’s mother, Maureen, was murdered.

Sidney believed it was Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) who murdered her mother, resulting in him being falsely accused, but, as it turns out, it was Billy and Stu who killed Sidney’s mother because he discovered she was having an affair with his father, which caused his mom to move out and abandon him. Apparently, it wasn’t enough to just murder Sidney’s mother because they also wanted to make her suffer by making her the center of new murders that they planned to ultimately frame her father, Neil (Lawrence Hecht), for. Ignoring what the events of Scream 3 bring to this, Billy’s motivations are deeply dark and a surprisingly effective depiction of what abandonment and a broken family can do to teenagers.

Made even more chilling is their willingness to follow the tropes of horror movies. Since Sidney is the final girl and virgins tend to survive horror films while their more promiscuous friends die, part of Billy’s plan is to take Sidney’s virginity (which he does) to make her death fall in line with the cliches of the genre. Stu’s motivations aren’t profound. As he says, when Sidney asks him what he’s going to tell the cops his motive is, he simply replies, “Peer pressure, I’m far too sensitive.” In all seriousness, it’s clear in hindsight when you watch Billy and Stu’s interactions that Stu is led by Billy and is along for the ride because of his lack of a backbone. They’re the ones that started it all, and no matter how hard Scream 3 tried to dilute that, the power of Scream just won’t let that happen.

Scream 7 is now playing in theaters nationwide.