Both Billy Loomis and Stu Macher wear the Ghostface mask and kill many victims in the first Scream, but who kills the most in Woodsboro and why?
Summary
- Billy and Stu's reign of terror as Ghostface in Scream had a significant impact on the slasher genre, becoming as important as iconic villains like Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger.
- The victims in Scream, such as Casey, Steve, and Principal Himbry, are chosen for specific reasons tied to Billy and Stu's personal motivations and larger agenda.
- Tatum's death, trapped in a garage door, is attributed to Billy, with his absence from the party and subsequent appearance giving a strong indication that he was waiting for her. Stu's involvement is seen as playing a hosting role.
The slasher genre was slashed beyond repair until the arrogant teens Billy Loomis and Stu Macher took up the mantle of Ghostface in Wes Craven’s 1996 blockbuster Scream. With its self-aware humor and intriguing plot twists, Scream’s success led to a multimedia franchise that continues with legacy sequels like 2022’s Scream and 2023's Scream VI. While many actors donned the Ghostface mask over the years, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard’s performances remain iconic. Ulrich played the protagonist Sidney’s charming beau, Billy, who reveals his ulterior motives in Scream's blood-soaked finale. Lillard’s Stu similarly shows his true colors in the third act as Billy’s loyal accomplice.
While their collective efforts as Ghostface don’t amount to too many kills, the reign of terror Billy and Stu cause with the 1996 Woodsboro murders is enough to make the entire town lock its doors. So, even if other horror slasher villains have a higher kill count, Billy and Stu’s Ghostface remains as important to the genre as Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger. But considering that both don the same attire and wield the same knife in their barbaric acts, it can be confusing as to who kills who. Instead of reckless murders, each of these victims is chosen specifically for a larger agenda rooted in Billy’s over-the-top revenge.
6 Maureen Prescott - Billy Loomis And Stu Macher
Sidney Prescott thinks of her mother, Maureen, as “the perfect mom,” but little does she know that Maureen’s unfaithfulness is what triggers the string of murders plaguing Woodsboro. When Maureen begins an extramarital affair with Billy’s mother, Billy blames her for his mother leaving. Personally affected by this act of cheating, he conspires with Stu to stab her to death. While her death is never depicted on-screen, Billy confesses by the third act that both he and Stu conspired to kill her together. Maureen’s demise is influential in the three sequels to Scream, with every killer tracing their homicidal intentions to her.
As to why Stu helps Billy kill people in Scream (starting with Sidney’s mother), this remains a hotly debated topic among fans. While future victims, like Casey, are still chosen for Stu’s personal motivations, he mostly tags along with Billy for the thrills. Some dedicated Scream aficionados have pointed out that Stu’s overzealous personality throughout the movie is a giveaway of how big a red flag he turns out to be. He has no personal reason to assist Billy in killing Maureen, but as his fascination with horror movies implies, maybe brutally killing others offers Stu a sense of excitement.
5 Casey Becker - Billy Loomis
High-schooler Casey Becker is the first character introduced in the Scream franchise, and she endures as the first movie’s scream queen. After indulging in a concerning tête-à-tête over the phone, she gets stabbed multiple times by a man wearing the Ghostface mask. If this isn't brutal enough, her disemboweled corpse is found hanging from a tree the next day. Even though it’s Billy who kills her, the reasons behind this murder are linked to his friend Stu. Stu harbored romantic feelings for Casey, and she dumped him from another high-schooler named Steve Orth instead. The rest is easy to deduce.
4 Steve Orth - Stu Macher
While Billy is busy murdering Casey inside her house, Stu involves himself in the killing of her boyfriend, Steve Orth. Unlike his other victims in Scream, Stu clearly has personal reasons to kill Steve, as he's jealous of him. Unable to process Casey’s attraction to Steve, he proceeds to brutally torture him by tying him to a chair on Casey’s patio. And when Casey offers an incorrect answer to some Friday the 13th trivia on the phone with Billy, Stu gladly kills her boyfriend. While Casey’s body is disemboweled, Steve is gutted multiple times with Stu’s hunting knife.
3 Principal Arthur Himbry - Billy Loomis
Even high school principals face the wrath of Ghostface’s knife in 1996's Scream. Woodsboro High School’s strict Arthur Himbry is sympathetic toward Sidney’s personal tragedy and even expresses anger toward pranksters wearing Ghostface costumes. Sadly, Billy in his Ghostface avatar catches up to him halfway through the movie. When the school is closed for a city-wide curfew, Billy takes Principal Himbry by surprise and stabs him two times in the chest and then two times in the stomach. Billy then guts him and hangs the slain Principal up on the football field’s goalpost. Himbry’s corpse serves as a warning to the residents of Woodsboro that nobody is safe.
But for Billy, Himbry's murder is mainly to cause a distraction. Despite the curfew that night, most of Billy’s classmates are busy drinking and partying. As Billy’s endgame is to kill Sidney, he wants to ensure that he gets some alone time with her as Ghostface. With Himbry’s corpse hanging on the goalpost, many of the teens ditch the party and rush to the murder scene. With Sidney alone, Billy plans to return to seek his vengeance. Obviously, his plan doesn't work, as Sidney survives the original Scream.
2 Tatum Riley - Billy Loomis
Sidney’s best friend, Tatum Riley, tries her best to unmask Ghostface (Billy again this time). However, after much struggle, she dies by getting trapped in a garage door. This makes her the first Scream character to not be murdered by a knife. Tatum’s constant presence in Sidney’s life threatens Billy’s plans. Hence, she has to be eliminated for his plan to succeed. The perfect ruse is Stu throwing a party at his place. Even though he's dating Tatum at the time, he has no remorse sending her to fetch a few beers from the garage (where he knows Billy will be waiting for her).
Decades after Scream's release, the question of who actually kills Tatum continues to polarize fans, but there’s a large consensus favoring Billy as the killer. This is mainly because Billy isn't at the party before Tatum’s murder, implying that he's patiently waiting in the garage. Stu, who is busy with hosting duties, couldn’t have afforded to be away from the party for that long. The final giveaway is that after Tatum’s murder, Billy shows up at the party and gives Stu a menacing double eyebrow raise. This gesture can be interpreted as Billy communicating to Stu that the job is finished.
1 Kenny Brown - Stu Macher
While Billy kills more victims in Scream than Stu, his deranged accomplice has the last laugh for killing news cameraman Kenny Brown. Dutifully aiding ambitious reporter Gale Weathers, Kenny is in his news van during Stu’s party. While Gale is out for a walk, Kenny stumbles across footage that shows Ghostface about to kill Woodsboro High student Randy Meeks. But with Sidney screaming outside, Stu (as Ghostface) gets distracted and steps out himself. Before Kenny can rush to alert Randy, Stu catches up with him and slit his throat. Kenny only has a brief supporting role in Scream, but his heroic sacrifice is remembered by fans.
