Sidney Prescott is the iconic final girl of the Scream franchise, and here's how many versions of Ghostface she's personally killed. The slasher subgenre had almost entirely burned itself out by the end of the '80s, and the horror genre itself experienced a noticeable lull in the first half of the '90s. Scream helped change that in 1996, with the movie introducing a meta-textual comic element to the formula, with Scream's characters all being aware of classic horror tropes. Kevin Williamson's smart script combined with Wes Craven's visceral direction ensured Scream was both witty and terrifying, and its success helped give horror a much-needed boost.
Scream 2 and Scream 3 quickly followed, with the latter originally intended to close out the series and the story of Neve Campbell's survivor Sidney. The success of parody franchise Scary Movie - which primarily made fun of the Scream movies - also helped cement the idea in Craven's mind the series needed a long break. Craven and Williamson returned for 2011's Scream 4, which commented on new horror tropes and trends, but while its initial reception was slightly tepid, Scream 4's reputation has grown over time. The most recent installment was 2022's Scream, a legacy sequel pairing Sidney, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette) with a new generation of teens being stalked by Ghostface.
Scream was the first entry not helmed by the late, great Craven, but it was a more than worthy follow-up. While Sidney didn't play a main role, she was still an important part of the story and helped defeat the killers in the finale. Over the course of the five Scream movies to date, there have been nine killers who've donned the Ghostface killer mantle. Of course, every effort they've made to kill Sidney has failed, and in the case of four of them, Sidney offed them personally.
One of Sidney's most memorable moments from Scream's finale is when she stands over the seemingly dead body of Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), her former boyfriend who turned out to be a twisted serial killer. Billy leaps up at Sidney suddenly, only for her to quickly shoot him in the head, starting the series preoccupation with finishing off Ghostface with a headshot. While some fans theorized Billy's accomplice Stu (Matthew Lillard) survived - and he was, in fact, originally set to return for an early version of Scream 3 - the original Scream suggests he's very dead when Sidney drops a TV on his head and electrocutes him.
Sidney killed both versions of Ghostface in the first movie, but in Scream 2 - which contains a big killer clue - she gets some help. It's actually Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) who kills the first Ghostface, who is revealed to be Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), Billy's vengeful mother. While she's already dead, Sidney shoots her in the head anyway to be totally sure. Sidney also shoots - alongside Gale - the second killer Mickey (Timothy Olyphant). While she fought fiercely with Scream 3's killer Roman (Scott Foley), who is revealed to be her half-brother, it was Dewey who delivered the killing shot.
Scream 4 is where Sidney scored her last Ghostface kill. Her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) is revealed to be one half of the sequel's Ghostface double act, and in the hospital set finale, they have an epic fight. Sidney first shocks Jill in the head with defibrillator pads, before later finishing her off with a shot to the chest. In all, Scream's Sidney Prescott killed four out of nine versions of Ghostface, though if Stu ever returns, that number would fall to three.