Ranking the Scream movies

Since it’s Halloween time, I wanted to make my first official list on this site, something related to the horror genre. Scream movies have been coming out since 1996 with varying degrees of success and fandom. My household loves Halloween and having recently re-watched all 6 of these, this seems like the perfect place to start. At this point, I will assume that you have watched these so don’t be upset by the spoilers included in the list you see below.

If you would like to see my rankings without any spoilers, please close your eyes and scroll to the bottom of the page. Otherwise, without further ado, here are my rankings of all six Scream movies ranked from worst to best.

6. Scream 4: Bringing up the rear is Scream 4. At this point, all of the old tricks just don’t work anymore. There is always a new reason to try to kill Sidney and/or her family and friends. Why she would even come back to Woodsboro is a little crazy in itself after the first three movies. The whole Dewey/Gale relationship has also run its course at this point, but they are somehow still together. I like some of the new characters that are introduced, but where this one really fails is when Jill goes crazy in the hospital and tries to kill her in her room making everything she did up till then pointless if she would have gotten caught doing it. Overall, it’s a good thing that they introduced a new “starting lineup” in the new Scream movies after this, it needed a boost to bring it back to life.

5. Scream 6: Picking up shortly after part 5, Scream IV follows the four survivors from the previous chapter as they are now trying to live their lives and go to college in New York City. Ghostface of course finds them and starts a whole new reign of terror. For some reason, the killers are not able to really kill anyone this time around. Lots of stabbing and fake deaths occur, but only a few make an impact as both the big four main characters and the lone older character (Gale Weathers) survive with only a few “minor” stab wounds. It was a nice surprise to see Kirby from part 4 return, but in the end, this one falls a little short of what the “reboot” started back up.

4. Scream 3: I went back and forth between 3 and 5 in this spot and that may change a week from now, but for now, it stays here. A very classic start to this one with Liev Schreiber reprising his role of Cotton and immediately getting killed in the first sequence of the film. I like the layers that this one has with the murders happening on the set of the movie about the murders… very meta for a 2000 slasher film. Lots of great side characters in this as well which means lots of fresh meat for Ghostface. Where this one takes a slight downturn is when the murderer is unmasked, and we find out who he really is and why he is doing what he is doing. Plus, Dewey and Gale yelling and trying to get in the whole time was a little silly.

3. Scream (5): So, Scream in 2022 (or better yet Scream V) gets the slight nod here because of great mix of a new and fresh cast (including Jenna Ortega, Melissa Gooding, and Jack Quaid) as Tara, Sam, and Richie along with the original trio (Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette) coming back as Sidney, Gale, and Dewey. We even get a cameo of Billy Loomis reprised by Skeet Ulrich. The story itself isn’t overly amazing. After many near misses, Dewey finally gets it in a horrific (and unnecessary) way, which of course brings Sidney back to town again. She joins forces with Gale and the new teenagers being hunted to try to track down who the new Ghostface is. This one kept me guessing more than the others even if the reason behind the murders is the silliest one yet. In the end, the did a great job of passing the torch to the new group while not destroying everyone from the past.

2. Scream 2: Taking place about a year after the original movie, Scream 2 finds Sidney now in college with fellow survivor Randy when some more murders start to happen. Things seem to be revolved around the release of the new “Stab” movie which was based on what happened at Woodsboro the prior year. As things start to heat up, both Dewey and Gale are brought back together to help track down who is the new Ghostface. As her new and old friends start to die off one by one, she is forced to face her past once again. This is a good follow-up story to a slasher filck with some new cast of characters (most of whom don’t survive) and the original three from the beginning. Lots of intense scenes, Sidney and Hallie crawling out of the police car is nerve-wracking to say the least. It easily takes second place on this list.

1. Scream: Now for the best Scream movie. Yes, all the way back to 1996 when it all started, is also the best one of them all. The franchise started with a bang with Drew Barrymore was killed off in the opening sequence. I still remember seeing that for the first time and couldn’t believe it. From there we get introduced to a whole cast of characters that will either continue to appear in the other films or their character’s names will be mentioned as relatives or archival footage throughout the next five movies. Even when the murders were revealed, it was a shock to us all. There were actually two of them all along! It was a very nice twist to a very long ending sequence that saw most of the cast get taken out at Stu’s house party. Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven did an amazing job starting off with something that would lead to almost three decades of Ghostface and “Stab” sequels. So, congrats to Scream (the original) for taking first place in my non-consequential ranking.

Keep scrolling for non-spoiler rankings…

“There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie.”

Randy Meeks

“Do you like scary movies?”

Ghostface

6. Scream 4 (2011)

5. Scream 6 (2023)

4. Scream 3 (2000)

3. Scream (5) (2022)

2. Scream 2 (1997)

1. Scream (1996)

Please comment below and let me know what your favorite Scream movie is or how you would like rank them. Thanks and come back soon for a new list.