1. Casey Becker (Scream)
So we have finally arrived at #1 Ghostfaces Best Kill. And what is else could it possibly be other than this: the highly memorable and much parodied opening scene from the first
Scream film. If you looked at the cast list for
Scream back when it was released in 1996, the only name most people would have recognized was Drew Barrymore (well maybe some of you would have noticed the one, the only Arthur Fonzarelli). Many assumed Barrymore was the main character of the film she was featured on the posters and advertisements like she was. But quickly, everyone discovered she was most certainly not, in fact, she dies within the first 15 mins. And from that point on, you know that anything could happen in this movie. You think Hitchcock killing of Janet Leigh halfway through the movie was bold, but Wes Craven axed Drew Barrymore in the first scene. Casey Becker, a teenage girl home alone (should have been enough of a giveaway there), receives a mysterious phone call from a stranger she cannot seem to get rid of. Things escalate quickly as Casey is forced to play a little game of horror movie trivia. She, of course, loses and her boyfriend Steve is killed and then she is on the run. Committing several typical horror movie victim errors (stops running, looks back, fails to run for safety, etc), Casey is caught and brutally stabbed several times, blood soaking her off-white sweater, just as her parents arrive home unaware of her predicament. They soon discover her lifeless body hanging from a front yard tree (and damn, he got her up there quickly). The mom screams, the camera zooms in on Caseys face quickly, and boom! welcome to the
Scream series.
Trivia: In order to create more realistic interaction and not break the illusion, actress Drew Barrymore never met voice actor Roger Jackson, who provided the phone voice for Ghostface (in all four films, no less). Also, to get the worried/distressed emotion needed for the scene, director told Barrymore, a well-known animal rights activist, several gruesome animal abuse stories to get her to cry. ---------------------------------
Honorable Mention Kills: Kenny the cameraman getting his throat slit (Scream); one of Sydneys bodyguards death-by-intentional-car-accident (Scream 2); Jenny McCarthy playing hide-and-seek with the killer (Scream 3); the over-acting Parker Posey repeatedly stabbed behind the two-way mirrors (Scream 3). . . I honestly cannot remember a single murder from
Scream 4, so sorry if your feelings are hurt by its lack of mention.