Whats your favorite scary movie?
The resulting carnage remains one of the most chilling moments in slasher cinema.
Despite the impressive amount of quality control in this franchise though, not all entries are of equal stature.
While the 1996 movie is an undisputed classic, has there been a Scream sequel to match it?
Join us below as we rank the Scream movies from worst to best and find out!
Scream 3 (2000)
The weakest link in the Screamfranchise is without question its third installment.
Watched back to back with its two predecessors,Scream 3is noticeably less tense.
In fact, its kind of silly.
And theres another (and bigger) problem with this movie.
Could violent media be breeding more violent kids?
Scream (2022)
Its strange to put a movie we genuinely like so low on this list.
She certainly doesnt know shes in danger of being stabbed seven times!
This sets the table for what is a clever deconstruction/embrace of modern franchise reboots.
Those ideas and sisterly bonds would be better fleshed out by the movies immediate sequel.
Theyre also unleashed to indulge the gore in a way Craven never was in his day.
Its actually kind of brilliant.
Sidneys an author, taking her book on surviving the last three films on the road.
In its way, its as funny and clever as the original was.
And in spite of everything, the reveal of the killer(s) is a real shock.
So why didnt it do better at the box office?
Scream VI (2023)
The newest and most operatic Scream film is a difficult one to place.
The fun stops when the tools of Ghostface suddenly echo a far more plausible horror in modern American life.
Indeed, its because of moments like that we ultimately rankScream VIin the top three.
It also lacks the strong satirical ingenuity showcased by both the 2022 film andScream 4.
And it makes that knife scarier than ever before.
In the end, its just a bloody good slasher.
Perhaps the best in decades.
Scream 2 (1997)
The first sequel toScreamprobably shouldnt have worked.
And to its studio, it was.
Fortunately, screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven had higher aspirations.
It undoubtedly helped that Williamson already outlined a second (and third!)
movie during that fateful weekend when Williamson began writing the first one.
Despite all the creative hurdles though,Scream 2also set the standard of what the franchise would become.
Kennedy is also a standout Randy with an oh-so-90s soul patch and justifiable fear ofShowgirls.
At times its like a rom-com where someone dies every 15 minutes.
This arguably set the tone of what Scream became just as much as the 96 picture.
It made you want to go back and rewatch the classics and find new appreciation for them.
The subgenre had become tiresome, something to joke about rather than admire.
But it took its actual story very seriously.
The opening scene ofScreamis a mission statement.
A mysterious voice chats to her about her interests, and starts quizzing her about movies.
Specifically, scary movies.
The conversation becomes increasingly sinister, and then violent.
Its well-crafted with great dialogue, and a spectacularly gory payoff.
Not everyone loved it at the time, of course.
Lots of older horror fans hated it.
But its fast-talking angsty teen protagonists resonated with a younger section of the audience.
Ive said it before, but Williamson has a particular knack for writing dialogue.
It might not sound entirely natural, but it sounds cool.
Its how you want to talk when youre a teenager.
Neve Campbell was already famous forParty of Five, and here shes a perfect mixture of vulnerable and capable.
He looms into every other actors physical space, insinuating a subconscious menace.
The other key component is that this masked killertalks.
It was not a first in the slasher genre, of course.
Before Ghostface Cravens most famous contribution to horror was a guy called Freddy, after all.
Jason Voorhees was a glorified zombie on steroids.
Theres a reason nearly 30 years later, hes never left the series.
Of course the Scream series has never really left our culture either.
And there are few slashers that considered what that means with such wit and intelligence asScream.
