Sidney Should Die In ‘Scream 5’

Earlier this year it was announced that Scream 5 would be happening. One by one the OGs signed on and horror fans can now look forward to seeing original cast members Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette returning to our screens in January 2022. While I am a big fan of the franchise and can’t wait to see Scream 5, 6, 7 — I will welcome every single movie in this series — I have to say something that might be controversial. If Scream 5 is going to live up to its name, it is absolutely imperative that Sidney is killed off.

The origin of Scream is that it is a referential horror movie. It a horror movie about characters who know the rules of horror movies. The trailer featured young Sidney Prescott describing the standard horror movie bimbo “running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door” only to act out that very trope later in the scene:

This theme continues into Scream 2 as it opens with the beginning of the Stab movie franchise within a movie franchise being shown in a crowded theater. Scream 3 is all about Hollywood and horror movies. Scream 4 is so meta the characters spend most of the movie talking about how meta it is. Each movie builds off the last to make the audience think about our preconceptions of horror and what makes someone a villain or victim.

Because of this, Sidney really needs to die.

One of the biggest tropes of horror movies is that the final girl never dies. Jamie Lee Curtis is simultaneously starring in Activia commercials and still slaying Michael Myers at the end of the movie. We know she lives. There’s really no suspense. This is the very trope the original Scream flipped on its head when they cast the movie’s biggest star, Drew Barrymore, as a character who was killed off in the cold open.

If Scream 5 is going to be good, it needs to show us that it’s not going to be another endless franchise horror movie where the heroine never dies.

Going a step further, I think it would be cool if Sid died in the opening sequence like Casey Becker in Scream. This would give viewers the opportunity to root for a new final girl and a new generation of cast members. This could create storylines for the next few movies.

We know Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale (Courtney Cox) will be back for Scream 5. Marley Shelton will also reprise her role as Deputy Judy Hicks. Dewey and Gale have kind of completed their journey. They didn’t have a lot to do in Scream 4 and it feels like they are trapped in a dead end. Either these characters should also be killed off, or something drastic should happen that alters their role in future movies.

One person who could emerge as the “new” heroine? Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed. Hayden famously stated that she was moving at the end of her final scene in Scream 4, intentionally leaving room for her character to return if Scream 5 was ever made. Her horror movie loving character was fun to watch and feels like the right kind of twist to keep Scream true to its roots as a modern slasher movie.

Whatever happens, we won’t find out until January 2022. That’s if production doesn’t get further delayed by Covid. Hopefully this means the script-writing won’t be rushed and horror fans will be happy with this 5th adventure into the world of Scream.