8 EXACT Moments Classic Horror Franchises Should Have Come To An End

6. Scream Ends With Cotton Killing Mrs. Loomis

Halloween 2
Dimension Films

The whole point of the first Scream movie was to poke fun at the overplayed horror genre tropes whilst simultaneously being a thrill ride of a feature. And while the following three films in the franchise largely stuck to that mantra, the honest opinion would be to say that the Scream series should have come to an end a few minutes before the close of Scream 2.

If the Scream franchise halted at the moment where Cotton Weary shoots and kills 'Debbie Salt', aka Billy Loomis' mother, then that would have been the perfect send-off.

There was no need for Mickey to rise from the dead just moments after Mrs. Loomis' death, there was no need for Sidney to put a bullet in the corpse of Mrs. Loomis. Likewise, ending the franchise at this moment would've left a nice sense of ambiguity over the fate of Gale Weathers after she was shot by Mickey. Also, this would've been a great way to close the Scream property at two movies, with Cotton being positioned as the hero alongside Neve Campbell's Sidney.

Of course, Cotton would ultimately get the praise and props in the actual ending of Scream 2, but that could've been handled just as well by closing the movie ten minutes earlier. After that, of course, there was the so-so Scream 3 and then the largely disappointing Scream 4.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.