Andrew Grevas
Throughout six Scream films, there have been a combined 13 killers to don the mask. Some of them legendary, some overshadowed by their Ghostface peers throughout the years. A few with familial motives, a handful with desires for fame, and others with almost no motive at all, which makes them even more scary. But who is the best? Who is the worst? For fans of this franchise, these are the most debatable questions so here today we must settle it once and for all, with this Scream killers ranked list.
13. Ethan Bailey (Scream 6)
The Bailey family has become integral to the lore of this franchise at this point, with Ritchie donning the mask in Scream 5 and then his siblings and father attempting to avenge his death (and finish his work) in Scream 6. Family importance aside, Ethan is the least impressive killer in the franchise. Ethan has zero confirmed kills and can only really be traced back to the scene where his sister Quinn fakes her own death. It’s a good scene but in a list of Scream killers ranked, you need at least one confirmed kill and more than one good scene to move up the list.
12. Jason Carvey (Scream 6)
The opening to Scream 6 was one of the more clever opening sequences in franchise history, where Ghostface kills, unmasks, and then gets killed by a different Ghostface. Jason orchestrated the clever murder of Laura Crane to start the film. Even though he would only survive a few minutes after that murder, the scene was memorable enough to rank him ahead of the eternally boring Ethan in the list of Scream killers ranked.
11. Charlie Walker (Scream 4)
Poor Charlie. He just wanted to be the new Randy! Unfortunately, he was no Randy. Charlie was desperate enough to partner with Jill on a killing spree with the end goal of setting himself up as a lovable Randy-like figure for the world at large, but it didn’t work out that way. Charlie came off as a pretty generic teenager in the Scream lineage. He wasn’t a suspect which made his reveal a surprise but he wasn’t a suspect because the character was painfully dull and unimaginative. Scream 4 was a creative low for the series and if it wasn’t for the fact that Charlie had 3 confirmed kills, he might have been at the bottom of the Scream killers ranked list.
10. Detective Bailey (Scream 6)
While Detective Bailey gets some credit for grooming Ritchie to be a killer and spearheading the plan with his other children, Quinn and Ethan, he doesn’t rank well as a killer himself. He’s a tough one to grade in the fact that his actions are really important to the overall narrative, like stealing police evidence to help Ritchie build the tremendous Ghostface shrine. He does have 2 memorable kill scenes—Sam’s therapist and most likely the opening scene, killing Jason and Greg. This makes Detective Bailey a good but not great Ghostface here in our Scream killers ranked list.
9. Debbie Loomis (Scream 2)
Even though the whole family revenge plot is an integral part of Scream lore, the reveal of Billy’s mom as the one pulling the strings in Scream 2 hasn’t aged well. Debbie gets credit for killing a legacy character (Randy) and also her role in the overall narrative, which is what kept her from being lower on the Scream killers ranked list. As a Ghostface her accomplice did almost all the work and her only real purpose was the showdown at the end. Looking back on it, it feels clumsy that Debbie wasn’t outed by literally anyone prior to the reveal. She was in broad daylight for 3/4’s of the film, I mean c’mon! And why would she want to kill Sidney? It was Debbie’s husband who had the affair and Debbie’s son who started killing people. So Billy got the crazy from his mom?
8. Quinn Bailey (Scream 6)
Quinn ranks higher than her father and brother Ethan for a few reasons. First, she was almost certainly behind the scenes in Gale’s apartment, which was the best scene of the whole film. Second, there have been a lot of fake-out deaths in this franchise, but Quinn was assumed dead for more than half of the film. That’s dedication and shows the disturbing lengths she will go to as Ghostface. Quinn was also likely the one on the subway car, getting some slashes in on the “Core Four.” She was definitely the most brutal of all the Scream 6 killers.
7. Mickey Altieri (Scream 2)
When Scream 2 came out, I remember thinking that Mickey was a great killer. As the years went by, the character feels less impressive to me but Timothy Olyphant’s performance makes up for any flaws with the character. Mickey is a strange hybrid of characters from the original film: He has Randy’s genre nerd mindset, Billy’s coldness, and Stu’s over-the-top mannerisms, which are truly psycho. In some ways, Mickey was harmed by the pairing with Debbie. The final scene made him feel less effective, which was unfortunate considering how impressive his kill count is (5) and how brutal he was.
6. Ritchie Kirsch (Scream 5)
It feels wrong ranking Ritchie this low in the Scream killers ranked list, but the competition is tough at the top. Ritchie was charming and an example of a character you really didn’t want to be the killer. He’s likable. He feels trustworthy. When he’s revealed as a killer, it stings. Ritchie enters Billy Loomis & Roman territory as the architect of the plans and then also, containing to inspire killings long after he’s dead. The fact that his dad and siblings were the killers in the following film elevates his status among Ghostface killers. Add to that the fact he built the amazing shrine we saw in Scream VI, establishing him as a student of his predecessors, which adds significantly to his aura. Ritchie is a top-tier Ghostface.
5. Jill Roberts (Scream 4)
Despite being in the weakest film in the franchise, Jill is a Ghostface to remember and ranks fifth in our Scream killers ranked list. Jill’s high ranking stems from the final act of the film, where she unleashes a level of psycho rarely seen before. She’s legitimately crazy, violent, and hellbent on achieving her goal of becoming social media famous, at the expense of her cousin, mother, friends, and shared family trauma. Jill is credited with seven kills and I don’t think anyone will ever forget the final showdown at the hospital when the film finally gets into a groove and delivers an intense, edge-of-your-seat climax where the legacy characters felt more in danger than they ever have before. All credit to Jill.
4. Stu Macher (Scream)
Stu felt like such a surprise when he was revealed as a killer in the original Scream but once the cat was out of the bag, we got to see how truly insane Stu was. While Billy had a real motive, Stu didn’t. He, like Jill Roberts, was truly psychotic. Stu is credited with four kills but in the final act of Scream, we get to see how disturbed Stu truly is, which is why he ranks so high on our Scream killers ranked list. He was an agent of chaos who liked the idea of hurting people and creating a real-life scary movie. How terrifying is that?
3. Amber Freeman (Scream 5)
Amber completes our trend of the genuine psychos being ranked back to back to back. She’s terrifying in the same way Stu and Jill are. Like Stu, her motive is murder. She works her way into Tara’s friend group to begin her and Ritchie’s plan. From there, she becomes one of the most iconic Ghostfaces of all time, third on our Scream killers ranked list, by virtue of being the one to kill Dewey. Taking out a legacy character is no easy feat and Dewey had survived death so many times that he was beginning to feel indestructible. Yet Amber got him, in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in franchise history. Also worth noting is that Amber getting her face burned off and STILL trying to kill Sidney, Gale and Sam cements her place near the top of Ghostfaces.
2. Roman Bridger (Scream 3)
Roman to date is the only killer to fly solo, wracking up an impressive nine kills. That alone would have him near the top of Scream killers ranked list. But Roman is the reason for this entire saga, the one who planted the idea in the minds of Billy and Stu. He wanted his revenge for being an unwanted child yet his half-sister Sidney had their mother’s love and attention. Once Sidney survived Roman had to take matters into his own hands, donning the mask himself in an effort to finish the job. Roman’s reveal felt much less gimmicky than Debbie’s reveal in the film prior. The raw emotion, intensity and implied bond between Sidney and Roman felt true. It felt heavy. It felt sad, all resulting in Roman being a truly memorable Ghostface with a prominent role in the franchise.
1. Billy Loomis (Scream)
Billy ranks first in this list of Scream killers ranked. He’s the original, and even with an accomplice, Stu, and someone who we later found out inspired him, Roman, Billy still feels like the genesis of this story. When watching Scream, Billy feels too obvious of a choice to be the killer, which makes the Stu reveal so memorable and important. But Billy, with his bad boy cool, was the perfect choice. He had a threatening vibe the whole film but you also can’t help but get caught up in his charm. Once he’s revealed as a killer, he’s pure rage and violence and downright terrifying. Billy’s impact on the last two films, with the introduction of his daughter Sam, rooted those films in the past, giving us those nostalgic feelings we crave, all while moving the story forward. It was perfect.
And that’s it, the 13 Ghostface killers ranked. How will future killers hold up against them? Drop us a line in the comments and let us know what you think.
