10 Horror Movie Characters WAY Better Than Expected

When Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) was first introduced in Scream 4, some fans rolled their eyes that she basically appeared to be a gender-flipped version of the franchise's late movie buff extraordinaire, Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy).

But Kirby absolutely acquitted herself throughout the sequel, largely thanks to her fiery personality and Hayden Panettiere's fun performance in the role. 

And so, a character who fans were initially skeptical of became Scream 4's most celebrated, enough that many decried her apparent demise in the film's third act.

Yet Kirby's stabbing "death" was ambiguous enough that fans continually campaigned for her to be brought back into the fold, with an Easter egg in Scream 2022 nodding to her survival before she was indeed drafted back in earnest as an FBI agent in Scream VI.

Across almost three decades and six movies, Kirby remains one of the series' most popular characters - a far cry from all the misplaced hand-wringing about her being a lazy "female Randy."