One of the things that separates Scream from other slasher franchises is the mystery element, since Ghostface is someone different in each installment. Other slashers have one consistent killer, whether it’s Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, or Jason, meaning we always know who is committing the murders.
In Scream, there have been more than a dozen Ghostface killers across the six movies, with Scream 7 on the horizon. Picking the best Ghostface is difficult since some are truly great, but for my money, the greatest Ghostface comes from the franchise’s most underrated film, Scream 4.
Jill Looked Like She’d Be The New Final Girl
One thing that Scream does so well is the way it subverts expectations and turns horror movie tropes on their head. That was a big reason for the franchise’s success from day one. That trend continued with Scream 4’s creative opening scene, but the best way it did that was through Jill Roberts.
Jill, played by Emma Roberts, is Sidney’s niece, and she’s tormented by Ghostface throughout the movie. Considering it had been more than a decade since Scream 3, it felt like the franchise was introducing Jill as the successor to Sidney’s role. She was going to be our new final girl in the series.
Just when it seems like we’re getting to that point of the movie, the rug gets pulled out, and it’s revealed that Jill is actually Ghostface. This made for one of the best shocks in the entire franchise and it’s the best involving a Ghostface. It’s not something we see coming, yet it’s brilliant when you think about it.
The Motivations For Jill’s Kills Were Fresh
After three installments, it was clear that Scream 4 needed to do a few things differently to really work. Along with Jill going from apparent final girl to killer was her motivations. In previous Scream films, the Ghostface killers were always motivated by revenge against Sidney.
In 1996’s Scream, Billy was the mastermind because of the affair that his father had with Sidney’s mother. In Scream 2, Billy’s mother Nancy, is one of the people behind it all. Then in Scream 3, it was revealed that Roman is Sidney’s half-brother, upset that her mother rejected him for his whole life.
Scream 4 avoided anything like that, even though Jill is related to Sidney. Instead, Jill was jealous of the fame Sidney gained from surviving massacres and intended to set herself up to look like the survivor this time so she could get the glory and fame. It’s a selfish motivation that was fresh for the series.
On top of that, Jill’s motivations were ahead of their time. In 2011, the world’s obsession with social media and fame wasn’t what it is today. This kind of character would be more likely found in something from a decade later, but Jill helped set the table for them.
Jill Killing Charlie Was A Great Twist
A theme here is that Scream 4’s Ghostface is the best because of how it subverted expectations. On top of Jill’s final girl status and motivations was the way she handled her accomplice. To this point in the franchise, the killers worked as a team, whether uneasy partners or not.
Billy and Stu stabbed each other but so they could both seem like survivors, Nancy and Mickey didn’t harm each other, and Roman worked alone. Jill’s partner was Charlie, who believed they’d come out as survivors together, similar to Billy and Stu. However, Jill had other plans.
Jill turned on Charlie, killing him in cold blood. She always planned to betray him and set him up as Trevor’s accomplice, who she was framing for the whole thing. Jill felt that being a sole survivor would make her a bigger star. The twist was perfectly done, and to this day, she remains the only Ghostface who did this.
No Ghostface Comes Closer To Winning Than Jill
Jill’s plan was actually kind of perfect. In fact, she came closer to winning than any other Ghostface in history. They all backed the heroes into a corner and had a major faceoff with them in the end, yet Sidney and her buddies always came out on top. Again, Scream 4 put a twist on that formula.
During the big showdown after the Ghostface reveal, Jill stabbed Sidney and left her for dead. We then watched the extent of her madness, throwing herself through tables and running into glass to give herself the injuries needed to sell her story as a survivor of this massacre, not the perpetrator.
Jill even lined herself up to lie perfectly next to the seemingly dead Sidney. Alas, when Jill awoke in the hospital, she learned that Sidney was still alive. Her attempts to kill Sidney in the hospital failed and led to her own death, but the mere fact that it got so far showed how closely she came to achieving her goal.
Only A Few Other Ghostface Killers Could Rival Jill
Since Scream relies so heavily on the Ghostface reveal, several have been really good. Billy and Stu stand out since they were the original, and their scene together is iconic. For many fans, they’ll never be topped as the franchise’s greatest killers. For the reasons stated, Jill just edges them out for me but they’re great.
The other Ghostface who should be in the conversation for the best is Amber from 2022’s Scream. Her partner, Richie, is good, but he’s someone whom the audience kind of suspected from the start. Amber came from out of nowhere and the reveal as she shoots her friend point-blank is genuinely shocking.
The reveal isn’t the only thing that makes Amber’s Ghostface great, either. She is also the only person in franchise history to kill one of the big three, as she’s the person who murders Dewey. Still, even with that under her belt, there are just too many ways that Jill is the best Ghostface in Scream history.
- Release Date
-
April 15, 2011
- Runtime
-
111 minutes
- Writers
-
Kevin Williamson
- Producers
-
Bob Weinstein, Cathy Konrad, Ehren Kruger, Harvey Weinstein, Iya Labunka, Marianne Maddalena, Matthew Stein
