The following article contains spoilers for Scream VI.
Folks who’ve already had the absolute pleasure of catching Scream VI will be well aware of the sequel’s nifty call-back to Drew Barrymore’s introduction in 1996’s original Scream. If you’ve seen Samara Weaving — previously known as Bee in The Babysitter — further her career as a scream queen in Ready or Not, you might already know that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors of Scream VI, also worked on Ready or Not under the studio name Radio Silence.
If you know all of that, you would have been just as surprised as the rest of us to discover that Weaving’s character Laura is killed off immediately by ‘Ghostface’ within the first 15 minutes or so.
When it was first announced that Samara Weaving would be in Scream VI, there was an understandable buzz surrounding her involvement, but as it became clear that Weaving’s character had no promotional material, an air of foreboding surrounded Laura’s fate. And it turns out, that hunch was right on the money.
It was a definite shock to the system to see Samara Weaving, such an accomplished actress, down and out almost immediately. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett told IndieWire that as soon as they’d read the screenplay, it was a no-brainer to cast Weaving in that role after establishing a bond working on Ready or Not.
“When we first read the opening, she was at the top of our mind, we just knew that this would be perfect for her. We gave her a call, and she agreed in a moment. There’s a connection and a friendship that we formed so fast on ‘Ready or Not.’ She’s just one of those people that we’ll be friends with forever. She’s one of our favorites.”
Radio Silence additionally shared that the decision was intended to subvert the trope of famous names surviving the chaos of horror films. They knew from the get-go that Samara’s following would be hooked from the start if she left the story so suddenly — and there’s no doubt it worked.
“Part of the fun of having her involved is, we knew that there was a certain level of energy and the fandom around Samara being in a ‘Scream’ movie, and knowing how we were going to use her was really fun. We knew that it’d be the most surprising way for her to appear in the story, given the level of excitement around her involvement. That was just one of many examples of being aware of the expectations within the fanbase, and then finding fun ways to nod to it and also subvert it and twist that.”
Ready or Not fans will be familiar with Weaving’s spine-chilling scream, which sounds desperately primal and definitely curdles the blood. Sadly, she didn’t make it to meet the legacy characters.
“She has the best scream in the world! Unfortunately, it’s used in a really tragic way in this movie.”
Anyone reading has undoubtedly seen Scream VI already, but in case you’re not fazed by spoilers, catch Scream VI in its entirety in theaters now.