Every Ghostface Killer in the SCREAM Film Franchise, Ranked

As of Scream VI, there are twelve official Ghostface killers with various motives and kill counts. While I like to think of Ghostface as a character within itself, this cloaked murderer wouldn’t exist without this roster of psychopaths to keep the chaos going. So, who is the best Ghostface of them all? Let’s slice and dice our way back through the Scream franchise to rank all of the Ghostface killers. 

Note: We are only doing the films, not the TV series. And no, Jason and Greg don’t count as proper Ghostfaces. Let’s be serious.

12. Ethan Landry (Scream VI)

At the bottom of this Scream Ghostface ranking is Ethan Landry (Jack Champion), Richie’s biological brother. He’s so forgettable that I had to Google his fake last name. As a whole, the killers in Scream VI have the weakest motive, which is simply revenge against Sam for (rightfully) killing their family member and her psycho boyfriend Richie. 

Yes, it this the same motive that Mrs. Loomis has in Scream 2. But there’s considerably less nuance within the storyline and wayyyyy more glaring issues. (More on that later.) We get the gist that Ethan is perhaps the least favorite of the Kirsch children, but that never gets fleshed out enough in the film. 

It is a shame because that would have given him the strongest motivation to outdo Richie and feel like he’s earning his father’s attention/approval. Instead, Ethan is relatively one-note and dreadfully boring, even when he’s operating as a red herring. 

11. Detective Wayne Bailey (Scream VI) 

At the bottom of this ranking along with his bland son is Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), a father cosplaying as a lawman who seeks revenge for his psychopathic son’s death. But, while Mrs. Loomis’ masquerading as an annoying local journalist before her truly shocking reveal seems quite plausible, Detective Bailey’s story is full of plot holes. 

The idea that Gale, who is well-versed in all things Ghostface, would’ve missed finding out information about Richie’s family is very questionable. And, the thought of him concocting a fake identity and operating as a whole NYC detective gets more bizarre the longer you think about it. Plot aside, there’s nothing truly clever nor well-planned with Bailey, the undoubted leader of this killing crew. Pretty much everything is either a coincidence or a half-baked reaction to an actual plan by the film’s protagonists. Sure, the kills and attacks by Bailey and his children are brutal. But they don’t quite have the intricacy and flair of their predecessors. 

10. Amber Freeman (Scream 2022)

While it would have been more interesting for Scream V to go with the original storyline of her being Tara’s girlfriend, Amber isn’t a terrible Ghostface. She’s responsible for many of the film’s brutal and chaotic kills, which show Ghostface in a different light. And it is very fun to see Mikey Madison completely unravel in the final act. But, there’s really no substance nor solid motivation that drives her actions. 

Her antagonistic relationship with Sam is a film focal point, but it never gets quite enough fleshing outside of Amber briefly expositing about it. We saw that she at leas had some passing interest in elevated horror but it would’ve been nice to get more subtle hints that she actually was deeply into the genre.

More of that horror love and a fascination with Billy Loomis, anger over Sam abandoning Tara because she’s in a relationship with her, and a willingness to use her lover as a pawn would’ve made Amber far more effective as a Ghostface. 

9. Quinn Bailey (Scream VI)

Out of the Scream VI killers and all the “requel era” Ghostfaces, Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato) somehow manages to be one of the better ones best despite spending most of the film pretending to be dead. She’s the sex-positive roomie of Tara and Sam who actually has an engaging personality and what seems to be a genuine connection to the sisters. 

That makes her far more effective as a killer, especially considering Sam’s very paranoid and guarded nature with most people. While her kill count is pretty low, her reveal and bit of monologuing is far more effective than her counterparts. In a just Scream world, Quinn would’ve been the ringleader or perhaps the sole Ghostface with a big final fight scene against the Carpenter sisters. 

8. Charlie Walker (Scream IV)

Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) gets a lot of flack from Scream fans about his role as a Ghostface killer. But, in retrospect, Charlie may not be the best, but he’s certainly far from the worst, too. We do actually get to see the threads of his motivations throughout Scream IV. He’s a big horror film nerd and rather socially awkward, perhaps straddling the line of harmless creepy and stealth incel. He wants the attention of the girls around him, but he lacks the suaveness and good looks to accomplish that. He’s sort of the antithesis of Ghostface as an overall persona: cool, calculated, and threatening yet engaging. 

Through Jill’s manipulation, Charlie feels like he’s found a greater purpose and perhaps a true connection. He’s willing to kill to prop up Jill and turn them into a “final couple,” which isn’t super far-fetched at all from his twisted perspective. But, in comparison to Jill’s far stronger storyline and character development, Charlie comes off mostly as a pawn in her chess game.

7. Richie Kirsch (Scream 2022)

Richie would likely rank much lower on this list if it weren’t for Jack Quaid infusing the character with so much wit and affable charm. He appears to be the good-hearted yet somewhat timid boyfriend of Sam, who bucks against authority and is an agent of change with lots of autonomy over her choices, much like Sidney Prescott. 

The light switch from frightened bystander to horror obsessed killer who rejects the idea of toxic fandom is fun to watch Quaid play, but the storyline doesn’t offer any threading to make this make sense at all. Also, he’s gross for engaging in a romantic relationship with a high school aged Amber Freeman, which makes their entire killing partnership feel very icky.  

6. Stu Macher (Scream) 

Yes, it is probably shocking to see Stu so far down on the list. It’s certainly not because Matthew Lillard isn’t great in the role. In fact, he brought far more to it than what the script intended for Stu to be. And he’s a pretty darn good wingman to Billy, who is obviously the leader.

But because he’s not as directly motivated by Sidney and he really doesn’t directly impact her as much as other Ghostfaces, both in terms of physical and emotional damage, he simply cannot be higher on this list.

5. Jill Roberts (Scream IV)

While Roman’s motive is the more emotionally resonant, Jill Roberts’ (Emma Roberts) motive to acquire fame as the new survivor is the most twisted. And it is indeed a great one that spoke very early to the warped mindset around visibility and popularity that’s fueled by a social media soaked world. This egomaniac is willing to do anything, including killing her own mother, to gain fans. That’s a Ghostface ready gal if I’ve ever seen one. 

Jill gives Sidney a run for her emotional money with the deep pain of losing her aunt to the betrayal of a family member. And, she does the most serious physical damage to Sidney, nearly killing our beloved final girl more than once. She got Charlie to do most of the grunt work and did a pretty good job of keeping her hands clean. If it weren’t for Sidney and her pesky friends, she would’ve become the next survivor sweetheart. 

4. Roman Bridger (Scream 3) 

Roman Bridger (Scott Foley) gets a lot of props as the sole Ghostface killer, even when some of his moves seem logistically impossible. His motivation is perhaps one of the most complex in the franchise as the child of Maureen’s life-changing trauma who is rejected by her. His yearning for his mother’s love and acceptance and jealousy over what Sidney had alongside his creative mind as a director are a match made in heaven for a great Ghostface.

Something feels a bit unnerving about him, but he never quite shows his hand to be a viable suspect. His behind-the-scenes machinations with Billy to set up the entire franchise makes for a true full circle trilogy with a twist that we didn’t see coming. 

And, his final fight scene and dying moment holding Sidney’s hand is such a spectacle, especially with the set piece’s dark significance to Maureen’s life. Sadly, censorship led to Roman having the more sanitized kills. Interestingly, he doesn’t interact with Sidney until the end of the film but that doesn’t put a damper on his arc. He’s a great Ghostface, indeed.

3. Mrs. Loomis (Scream 2)

Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), you will always be a queen in our hearts! If ever there were a truly shocking killer reveal in the Scream franchise, it is her. The idea of this seemingly throwaway character, an annoying journalist who irritates the great Gale Weathers, being the mother of Billy Loomis and using her fake job to move around seamlessly, is truly masterful.

She’s the grieving, twisted mother seeking revenge against Sidney and all the other Woodsboro survivors for Billy’s death. Mrs. Loomis could’ve truly gotten away with this crime if she had done a little less chatting with Sidney on stage and a lot more killing loose ends. Like Jill, Mrs. Loomis allowed Mickey to do the lionshare of the work and readily disposed of him so he could take the fall. Her delusional view of her son and final fight scene with Sidney is one for the books. 

2. Mickey Altieri (Scream 2) 

To be a truly effective and memorable Ghostface killer (or any villain in general), you have to not only deliver the slice and dice goods, but also really do serious mental damage to your target. Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) fits the bill in both categories, dishing up some truly inventive kills, like the opening movie theater scene, and emotional gut punches. He pretends to be a trusted friend of both Sidney and her boyfriend Derek. But he carefully plants seeds of doubt in Sidney’s rightfully paranoid head about Derek to the point that she cannot untie him and save his life in the final scene.

While many other Ghostfaces are driven by emotion and their respective attachments to Sidney, Mickey is just killing because he wants to cause a spectacle and create a courtroom circus. And his involvement on a twisted serial killer website indicates that he was a killer long before the events of this film. That’s terrifying. The effects of this killing spree drive Sidney into essentially hiding in the woods and seeing visions of her mother. He certainly did what needed to be done, even if he was naive about how things would all end. 

1. Billy Loomis (Scream)

Billy sits at the top of this Ghostface killer ranking list for good reason. He checks the box for brutal, calculated, and memorable kills. He’s the best Ghostface on the phone, as evidenced in Scream’s iconic opening scene with Casey Becker. And he literally crafted the overall person of Ghostface and took the steps to set everything into motion.

While his emotional drive causes him to lose the plot and focus at crucial times, he really sticks it to Sidney in the worst way. Billy gaslights her into thinking that she’s grieving too much for her mother and pulls strings to make her feel safe having a sexual relationship with him. Then, he pulls the rug from underneath her, coldly revealing details about her mother’s brutal death.

Would Billy have gotten away with it? Probably not. The guy’s ego was the size of California and he got a little sloppy sometimes. But Billy continues to be driving force in the franchise, whether it’s in-universe fans admiring him or through direct ties like with Sam Carpenter’s arc.