8. Phil Stevens (Scream 2)
You know if your death scene was lampooned in the
Scary Movie franchise then it must be pretty memorable, or just ridiculously ripe for parody. Like the first film, the opening scene of
Scream 2 kills of a boyfriend/girlfriend pair that is tangentially related to the main characters (in both cases, they all go to the same school).
The sequel opens at a movie theater during a preview screening of
Stab, the meta-laden movie-within-a-movie based Gales book on the events of the first film. A young college-age couple is there for the screening (she would much rather go see the Sandra Bullock movie down the street, but he wants to go because the tickets were free/a good scare could help get her in the mood). After she rebuffs his flirtations, demands concession money from him, and gets mad when he tries to scare her, Phil excuses himself to the bathroom (and can you blame him from wanting to get away for a few minutes?). Once in the bathroom he ducks into one of the empty stalls where he hears whispering in the stall next door, so naturally, he puts his ear to the wall to hear better (who wouldnt?). But he quickly learns that you should not eavesdrop and gets a knife to side of head. A no doubt impressive kill for Ghostface . . . How did he know Phil was going to the bathroom? What are the odds of stabbing him in the perfect spot blindly through the wall? And how strong would you (and the knife) have to be to get through the wall like that?
Trivia: The original title of Kevin Williamsons screenplay was Scary Movie. It was changed towards the end of production by producer Harvey Weinstein. In turn, the title Scary Movie was adopted by the Wayans brothers horror parody film four years later. Surprisingly, Scary Movie vastly outperformed all four Scream films at the box office.