Warning: This article contains spoilers for Scream 2022
Actress Neve Campbell gives her reaction to the brutal death of a key character in Scream 2022. Campbell stars as the lead character of the Scream franchise, Sidney Prescott, who has appeared (and survived) in all the films thus far. The new film finds Sidney as a married mom who is lured back to the town of Woodsboro when a new series of Ghostface murders start up nearly a decade after their last occurrence in Scream 4.
Campbell began her tenure with the franchise in 1996's Scream, which co-starred Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Matthew Lillard. As the series progressed, new actors were introduced and often killed off, leaving very few survivors to last from movie to movie, save for a select few. For 2022's Scream, the last of the main legacy cast was comprised of Campbell, Cox, and Arquette. Arquette plays Dewey in the series, a Woodsboro sheriff who was also married to Cox's Gale Weathers, who is the latest legacy character to end his run with Scream.
In Scream, Dewey is now retired and divorced, seemingly down on his luck and not doing well. The sudden resurgence of Ghostface murders in Woodsboro forces Dewey back into action, helping a new wave of victims, which ultimately leads to Dewey's demise at the hands of Ghostface. Speaking to Variety, Campbell says that the brutal death of Dewey was devastating and she's still not sure it was the right call to kill him off, saying:
I was devastated. I still have trouble wrapping my head around it. I still question whether it was the right choice, because from what I’m hearing, there are a lot of fans who are really upset..
Campbell says that she, Cox, and Arquette were aware of Dewey's demise beforehand and were "sad about it." Campbell says that Cox tried to tell directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to "shoot it both ways" in order to give themselves options when they got into editing, citing that it was a familiar tactic that original Scream director Wes Craven would employ, especially for the more "beloved" characters of the series. When asked about how Craven would feel about the success of the new film, Campbell says she thinks he'd be "tickled pink" about it, saying, "He’s giggling from the grave right now."
Killing off Dewey is a bold move for the film and while some fans will be torn about his loss, it does maintain some momentum for the series, which traditionally left viewers on their toes, never feeling like anyone was really safe. Dewey meeting his end continues to prove that theory, as it shows that even the most beloved of characters are subject to the chopping block. If Scream's success leads to another film in the series, then both Campbell's Sidney and Cox's Gale will face the same odds. If the Scream series wants to keep its momentum, then those odds are pretty grim for at least one of them.
Source: Variety