WARNING: This post contains MAJOR spoilers for Scream 6
Scream 6 has multiple killers, but not every clue was obvious in revealing their identities. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, Scream 6 went for the jugular. After the events of 2022’s Scream, Sam Carpenter had a target on her back thanks to online conspiracists accusing her of being the real Ghostface killer who murdered Richie. The truth is far more gruesome and twisted than that.
Scream 6 included five different Ghostface killers, all of whom ultimately had the same goal. Jason and Greg wanted to kill Sam out of revenge, but their plans were thwarted by the Ghostface masterminds of Scream 6 — Detective Bailey, Quinn, and Ethan, Richie's remaining family, Sam’s deceased boyfriend and one of two Ghostface killers from Scream 2022. Some clues to the Ghostface trio’s identities were more obvious, while others were less so, including one involving Kirby. With so much going on, there were at least six clues one might’ve missed while watching.
6 Mindy’s Horror Film Rule: The Slutty Roommate Is A Victim
Women who are sexually active tend to be victims in horror films, but Quinn is instead a killer in Scream 6, which is a twist on the horror trope. The Scream franchise likes to subvert certain expectations, especially when it mentions certain tropes. In Scream 6, Mindy says one of the rules is “never trust the love interest” before killing Anika, Mindy’s girlfriend, and making Sam Carpenter’s boyfriend Danny a good guy she can trust. Quinn being having more than one lover outside of her boyfriend tricks the audience into thinking she will be a victim of Ghostface; Scream 6 delivers on that expectation before turning the tables, revealing Quinn was never a victim, after all.
5 Bailey Finding Quinn's Body Offscreen
Detective Bailey put on a good show. He wept when Quinn “died,” making sure to look affected in front of Sam and Tara. Quinn’s staged death gave Bailey an excuse to stay close to the Carpenter sisters and made it seem like he had a personal vendetta against Ghostface. However, the fact that Bailey found Quinn’s dead body offscreen is a subtle clue that hints the detective is not who he says he is. It would have been more believable had Scream 6 shown Detective Bailey finding Quinn in the aftermath of Ghostface’s killing spree.
To be sure, Bailey was always suspicious, but ensuring he arrived first at the scene of the crime teased his further involvement. Only he would be able to “discover” Quinn’s body and make sure she was nowhere to be found when the rest of the police finally arrived. The fact that Quinn’s death scene was also not made out to be as big a deal as Anika’s was also a clue that something was not right. Of course, Scream 6 was focused on Bailey looking suspicious, but Quinn’s death did throw viewers off his scent for a while.
4 Scream 2 Callbacks Point To Vengeful Ghostface Parent
Scream 6 has a lot of callbacks to Scream 2, including the college setting, and the hunt for Ghostface in broad daylight while others waited in a van (a reference to Randy’s Scream 2 death). Scream 6 taking some of its cues from Scream 2 hinted that one of the killers would be a vengeful parent. To that end, Detective Bailey follows in the footsteps of Nancy Loomis, Billy Loomis’ mother. Nancy — who pretended to be fake journalist Debbie Salt — orchestrated her Ghostface murders in Scream 2 to seek revenge on Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers.
Scream 6 alludes to that when Quinn reveals her brother, and Detective Bailey’s son, was dead, laying the groundwork for Bailey’s parental revenge. Unlike Nancy, however, Bailey encouraged Richie’s love of violent horror movies and his plans for Sam were a family affair. Hatred for Sam and a love for Billy Loomis ran deep. Scream 6 takes yet another cue from Scream 2 by having Detective Bailey attempting to frame Sam for the NYC murders, much like Nancy Loomis tried to pin the killings on her accomplice Mickey Altieri after shooting him.
3 Scream 6’s Ghostface Movie Theater Shrine
The movie theater shrine was filled with Scream memorabilia — the various Ghostface masks that were used throughout the Scream franchise and Randy’s bloodied t-shirt were just a couple of the artifacts there. When the question regarding how these things were collected, the reasoning was that cops like money, and evidence can disappear. Considering Detective Bailey is indeed a cop, he would be the only one with access to such evidence and sensitive information. Of course Bailey would go to such great lengths to make such a shrine to honor his son and stage his framing of Sam as the real Ghostface killer.
Scream 6’s Jason and Greg were just two college students; there was no way they would have been able to gather such a collection to create a Scream shrine. Bailey must have worked long and hard to get it done, too, which is probably why he, Quinn, and Ethan waited to go after Sam. What’s more, counting down to the final Ghostface mask hinted that the new Ghostface killers wanted to pin the blame on Sam. Who else would want to do that besides someone who hated her for personal reasons? They would also have had to be major fans of the real-life killings and Billy Loomis’ history.
2 Ethan Not Being Stabbed On The Train
Ethan Landry was one of Mindy’s prime suspects, namely because he was missing the night Ghostface attacked Sam and Tara’s apartment. When Mindy was targeted and subsequently stabbed by Ghostface on the train, she believed she was wrong about Ethan, after all. However, Ethan not being stabbed by Ghostface was a clue to his real identity as one of the Ghostface killers. It made no sense that Ghostface would only target Mindy when another one of Sam and Tara’s friends was also on the train. It was crowded, but it’s doubtful Ethan — had he truly been innocent — wouldn’t have noticed Ghostface moving toward Mindy when she had her eyes on him the whole time.
1 Detective Bailey Is Too Suspicious Of Kirby
Kirby returned in Scream 6, revealing that she now worked as a special agent with the FBI in Atlanta. From the start, Detective Bailey was far too suspicious of Kirby, likely because her presence threatened to ruin his plans to kill Sam and Tara. Instead of being grateful for the additional help, resources, and personal experience with Ghostface Kirby offered, Bailey was distrustful of her and did his best to push her away. Of course, that sense of distrust was meant to make Scream 6’s audience believe Kirby was the Ghostface killer, so that when Bailey called Sam about Kirby being unstable, she would turn against her. Bailey almost got away with it, too.