‘Scream’ 2022 directors reveal the real mastermind behind the murders

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Scream.

It’s tradition for the Scream movies to feature two killers, going back to Billy and Stu being partners in crime in the 1996 original. Excepting the much-maligned Scream 3, every single sequel has followed that formula. And 2022’s relaunch is no different. The thing that’s always a mystery, though, is which killer murdered each victim. But in the case of the new film, the answer is actually pretty simple.

While speaking to Collider, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin dropped the bombshell that most of the killings were done by just one of the Ghostfaces. And not the one you’d expect. Scream 2022’s big climax reveals that Richie (Jack Quaid), Sam’s seemingly innocent boyfriend, is Ghostface, along with Tara’s duplicitous best friend Amber (Mikey Madison). The way it’s framed, we’re led to believe Richie is “the Billy”, the mastermind behind the massacre.

But the Radio Silence filmmakers have confirmed that it was Amber who did most of the actual dirty work. The duo informed Collider that they had a “bit of a roadmap” when it came to deducing who killed who, but aside from the opening, which they think is a two-Ghostface job, they believe “it’s mostly Amber.” And why’s that? As Gillett colorfully put it, “She’s f—ing crazy!”

He continued:

“We had separate conversations with Jack and Mikey, and then we had a conversation with them together, and we kind of built out the off-screen relationship that was working and motivating them and their plan. One of the things that we liked to talk about is that the Richie character thinks that it was all his idea. It’s actually probably Amber’s idea, and she’s kind of been leading from behind. And we just love that that makes Richie just one of the most pathetic characters at the end of the day, that he doesn’t really want to get his hands dirty and do the gross stuff. He wants to intellectualize it all, and Amber’s like, ‘F*ck it. I’ll break eggs!'”

As Richie is revealed to be a toxic fanboy, willing to murder multiple people in order to inspire the perfect sequel to his beloved Stab franchise, it’s fascinating to learn that the reality is he didn’t actually have the guts to do the deed himself and Amber is the one with the real zeal for gore ‘n’ guts. It’s a little shame this wasn’t made clear on-screen, however, so we could’ve got more insight into Amber’s motivations.

Scream is still players in theaters.