WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Scream, now playing in theaters.
As much as the Scream franchise is all about thrills and kills, the movies have never been airtight in terms of plot. For example, Billy and Stu didn’t realize they’d have to explain corn syrup as fake blood when they got medical treatment, which more or less summed up the movies’ ethos: kick back, don’t think too hard and enjoy the bloody mayhem. However, in the latest chapter, it was hard to ignore some of the horrific plot holes that arose, which felt way more tedious than just being plot convenience.
The Hospital Door Stealth
When Tara was in the hospital, her sister, Sam, visited and spoke to the killer on the phone in the break room. However, the slasher emerged from behind the door and attacked. Surprising Sam like this didn’t add up, though. Seeing as Sam was literally next to the door, she would have heard the person’s voice on the phone. It couldn’t be that the second killer was communicating to the first slasher when to strike either, as that person would have had no visuals of the room.
Amber Having Healing Powers
Later on, in the hospital, the first slasher, who turned out to be Tara’s friend Amber, got shot by Dewey and left for dead. However, when he went to shoot her in the head, Amber murdered him, yet it’s never explained how she lived. It’s presumed she had a bulletproof vest on, but Scream didn’t clarify this. And, if that was the case, why didn’t she have one later in the final act where anyone could have had a gun to stop the slasher. Additionally, it was never explained how after she and Sid fell from the top floor of Stu’s home, only Sid felt pain. Amber got up smiling and unscathed like nothing ever happened to finish her kills.
Dewey’s Gun Left Unattended
In the fracas that saw Dewey and Amber fighting in the hospital, his gun fell to the floor. Sam was busy getting Tara and Sam’s boyfriend, Richie, to the elevator, but seeing as they were wounded, they couldn’t join the brawl. Sam, however, had time to grab the gun and fire on Amber, who was inches away from stabbing Dewey. It was left to him to push a masked Amber off and shoot her when Sam could have run over and put a bullet in her head as the gun was right there to use.
Chad Breaking His Own Code
When Chad and Liv hooked up at Amber’s party in the finale, he wouldn’t go upstairs with her to have sex because he didn’t want to be alone. He had this code where he didn’t trust anyone, including his own girlfriend. Still, he broke it without much explanation afterward to go after Liv. He used a tracking app and went out near the garage on his own. This ended with the slasher murdering him, which felt uncharacteristic as he had already laid down his rules.
Richie Watching Sam Crawl
Richie actually turned out to be Amber’s accomplice, and in the finale, he proceed to pummel Sam. However, he watched her crawling on the ground, reaching for something rather than finishing her off. Had he been distracted by the fight next door, it’d have made sense, but he merely spectated as she grabbed a knife, cut him and then began gutting him in revenge.
Keeping Tara Alive
Amber and Richie wanted to perfect what Billy and Stu did in the first Scream, yet they repeated a major mistake. The guys messed up by leaving Sid’s dad, Neil, alive in the closet when they could have killed him to frame him. These new slashers did the same thing, totally forgetting Sam could have found and freed Tara. Of course, that happened, allowing Tara to come out later and batter Amber. It’s silly because they didn’t need to chronologically kill to enact their plan of having Sam be the new murderer. Tara also took quite some time to emerge, which isn’t explained in the movie, as it just allowed the killers time to batter the heroes.
The Daytime Kill
The slashers wanted an intricate plot, per usual, to drive fear into Woodsboro, but the death of Sheriff Judy had a major flaw. It occurred in broad daylight with the slasher jumping out of the bushes and stabbing her as soon as she ran up to the door to stop her son, Wes, from being gutted in his bathroom. The killer then stabbed Judy on the ground in plain view, which was a weird decision as they couldn’t have known the streets would be empty or that Judy wouldn’t have come with backup. To make it worse, Judy’s body, or at least the blood, remained outside while Wes made lunch, meaning the killers somehow predicted that no one on the street would spot signs of trouble.
To see these plot holes arise, Scream is playing in theaters now.
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