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Google PlaySo much has already been said about horror movie franchises like Scream. The franchise has been the gift that keeps on giving to slasher film fans and that continues with the release of Scream VI, starring Melissa Barrera, Courteney Cox, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and more.
Let the record show that I am indeed a proud Scream scholar. But unlike fans of the franchise whose honorary Woodsboro citizenship extends back to Ghostface’s 1996 debut, mine didn’t begin in earnest until much later. Let’s just say that by the time I watched the original batch of Wes Craven-directed sequels, I was already a bonafide adult with acutely existential angst.
A series of full-franchise re-binges followed, as did a still-insatiable desire to learn as much as possible about how a script written in three days (and originally titled Scary Movie) started a bidding war that would ultimately lead to a surprise revival of the slasher genre.
Kevin Williamson’s script did more than merely resuscitate, however, as its tight writing and self-aware characters challenged audiences to reconsider their expectations without sacrificing genuine scares, well-earned laughs, and—as the franchise progressed—an increasingly tragic emotional core.
It’s been said more than once that there was a shared sense among many on the set of the original Scream that something special was happening, an awareness of greatness-in-progress even. I believe that. But it’s hard to think how anyone involved could have imagined the franchise would still be operating in top form nearly 30 years later.
Scream achieved this for a multitude of reasons—Craven’s masterful eye, remarkably spot-on casting decisions, and decidedly shrewd marketing all irrefutable facets in their own right—but there would have been no invitation to Woodsboro without Williamson’s taut and playful original script.
Ahead of the release of Scream VI, which marks the first film in the franchise to not feature Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, I’ve taken up the arguably arbitrary but no less hyper-alluring duty of ranking the previous five films. Although it’s very firmly this writer’s opinion that all of the Screams fall squarely within the notably dropoff-free range of very good to indisputably great, I have ranked the five Scream films using the unfortunately ubiquitous “worst to best” approach below. [Ed Note: This piece will be updated to include Scream VI following its release later this week.]
