20 Best Kills In The Scream Franchise - Ranked

Scream is one of the most beloved, iconic, and enduring horror franchises of all time, and with the recent release of Scream 7 it became one of just six horror series to gross more than $1 billion at the box office.

Even with more than a decade between the third and fourth films, Scream has remained a much-loved IP for all of its 30 years, and that's for many reasons - its delirious self-awareness, its unforgettable characters, and yes, its kills.

After all, what would any slasher movie be without a bunch of gory slayings? And in that regard, Scream has consistently served up a slew of fantastic death scenes to embed themselves deep in your psyche. Of the dozens and dozens of kills across the seven Scream movies - no, we're not counting the TV show - the following are the 20 that proved the most creative, brutal, perhaps even hilarious, and above all else, downright entertaining.

Each of these death scenes, whether of victims or killers themselves, hit the audience in the gut one way or another, ensuring that forgetting them simply wasn't an option.

It always stings when a well-liked character gets taken out, and the fifth Scream film played this card a few times, first with the stabbing death of Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton).

Judy was introduced in Scream 4 as one of the series' most downright sweet characters, which made it all the more horrifying that she was killed in broad daylight on her own front lawn, no less.

After getting a call from Ghostface implying that her son Wes (Dylan Minnette) is about to be killed, Judy races home, runs to her front door, and is immediately caught offguard by Ghostface, who stabs her to death before she has much of an opportunity to fight back.

That Judy never got to find out if her son was alive or dead makes it all the more heartbreaking, though ultimately it makes no difference, as Wes is next up on Ghostface's chopping block anyway. More on that shortly.