8 Horror Characters We Were Happy To See Killed

7. Cotton Weary - Scream 3

Scream 3
Dimension Films

Cotton Weary had a strange character arc across the first three Scream movies.

Throughout that trio of films, we see Liev Schreiber's Cotton go from falsely accused murderer, to the hero of the day, to an arrogant TV host. But even in those early days of 1996's Scream, we saw enough from Cotton to indicate that he was desperate for his 15 minutes of fame - and by the opening act of Scream 3, he'd certainly found that fame.

By that point, it had become clear that Cotton's M.O. was all about achieving some semblance of fame, regardless of what he had to do to get it. Hell, even at Scream 2's climax he only shot Mrs. Loomis after Sidney promised to do an interview with him.

If anyone of any sort of name value to the franchise was to be killed to set the tone of Scream 3, Cotton Weary was the absolute right choice. He'd served his purpose in the franchise, had shown himself to be totally self-serving, and was a necessary casualty of war by the time that Roman Bridger's Ghostface surfaced in that third Scream movie.

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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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.