Warning: spoilers for Scream 6.
Scream 6 has a good dose of twists and turns along with references to past Scream movies, but it also broke a couple of rules, including one of Randy Meeks’ famous survival rules, all thanks to Ethan (Jack Champion). The Scream franchise continues to ride the wave of reboots/sequels (or “requels”) after the success of Scream 2022, and for the sixth installment in the series, the survivors of the most recent Woodsboro massacre moved to New York City in hopes of escaping their traumatic past, but Ghostface knows no limits.
Scream 6 caught up with Sam (Melissa Barrera), Tara (Jenna Ortega), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Chad (Mason Gooding) a year after the events of Scream 2022, with them now living in New York City and attending Blackmore University. Unfortunately, a new Ghostface begins to hunt them, and per the new "prequel" rules, no one was safe. Among the suspects was Ethan, Chad’s roommate and new friend of the group, whose death after being revealed as one of the killers broke one classic horror rule by Randy Meeks.
Ethan Dying A Virgin Breaks A Major Randy Horror Rule
In the first Scream, Randy Meeks famously delivered the rules to successfully survive a horror movie, one of them being “never have sex”, meaning that virgins had a lot more chances of surviving. Randy even noted in the video he left in case he died that he had just lost his virginity, so his chances of surviving had reduced, and he was right as he was killed in Scream 2. Ethan referenced this rule in Scream 6 by literally saying he didn’t want to die a virgin and was later revealed to be Ghostface along with his father, Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), and his sister, Quinn (Liana Liberato), and he did die a virgin.
This specific rule could be debatable after the original Scream as Scream 4’s Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) supposedly died a virgin too, though it’s very possible he had been sleeping with fellow Ghostface killer Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts). However, Charlie and Robbie (Erik Knudsen) mentioned that the reverse of the original rules became the standard for the remake/sequel, meaning that virgins could die as well, so Charlie might have not broken Randy’s classic rule.
Ethan's Death Breaking Randy's Rules Follows Scream 6's Biggest Theme
Scream 6 follows its predecessor’s line of meta-commentary and awareness of horror clichés and trends, and its biggest theme is breaking the rules that the previous movies established as they are now in a franchise. Mindy announced the rules for the sequel/requel in Scream 6, explaining that all previous rules had been broken, meaning that legacy characters didn’t have to survive and the final girl (or girls) was no longer safe, either. Scream 6 played with the franchise’s own conventions, with all its legacy characters surviving as well as the “Core Four”, the fake death of one of the killers, and Ethan dying a virgin. Scream 6 changed the franchise while keeping its same style, and all those surprises were for the benefit of the saga.