WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Scream 6!Stab injuries are commonplace in the Scream movies, but the broken rules about which are actually fatal is a problem that needs to be fixed in Scream 7. Ghostfaces have stabbed nearly every character in the Scream franchise, or another character has stabbed Ghostface. While many targets of Ghostface’s attacks are killed by stab wounds, the Ghostface killers often manage to survive stabbings before miraculously springing back to life and being officially killed by a gunshot wound. Considering Scream’s iconography is largely associated with Ghostface killers and their knives, it’s odd that far fewer characters are actually dying from stab wounds as the franchise progresses.
However, over the course of the Scream franchise’s six movies, the types of stabbing injuries that actually cause a character to die have been muddled. While one character may be pierced with a knife numerous times and live, others may only be stabbed once and be confirmed dead. Additionally, the number of stab wounds, the vulnerable locations in which they’re stabbed, and the brutality of such injuries have become irrelevant to whether Scream’s characters actually survive. Scream 6 now has some of the most extreme stab wound survivals of the entire franchise, indicating the Ghostface attacks’ stabbing rules are a problem that needs to be addressed.
Scream 6 Proved The Franchise Stab Injury Rules Don’t Make Sense
The survival of Chad, who was stabbed at least a dozen times simultaneously by Ghostfaces Ethan and Quinn, makes no sense when considering past Scream stabbing rules. Any character who was essentially gutted by being stabbed that many times at once would have died in a past Scream movie, but Chad miraculously survives Scream 6’s ending. While Mindy surviving her gory stabbing on the subway is slightly more believable, Gale Weathers surviving her Ghostface attack is nearly impossible by previous Scream logic. Gale was terribly stabbed and gutted in a manner that even Sam Carpenter figured she would die, but, of course, Gale survived Scream 6.
While Ghostface killers are well-known for inexplicably coming back to life after being stabbed by Sidney or the other massacre survivors, Scream 6’s Ethan still living after being brutally stabbed by Jenna Ortega’s Tara doesn’t make sense. Tara stabbed Ethan numerous times in the chest and stomach before finishing off her attack by stabbing him through the mouth, which should have effectively killed him. However, Ethan sprung back to life and ran to attack Sam and Tara before Kirby officially killed him by dropping a TV on his head. More so than any other movie in the franchise, Scream 6 included an improbable number of survivors with little taken damage despite the greater severity of their wounds.
How Scream 7 Can Be More Consistent With Stabbing
After Scream 6‘s ending, seeing fan-favorite characters stabbed by Ghostface isn’t as alarming for their fate, which is a huge problem for the franchise. Allowing so many characters to survive such highly improbable wounds means audiences won’t be as fearful for the returning characters’ deaths, with the stakes actually being lowered despite a sharp increase in brutality and gore. Scream 7 must fix this issue by being consistent in Ghostface’s stabbing attacks being fatal, otherwise, it would only make sense for Ghostface to keep wielding shotguns like in Scream 6’s bodega scene.
Scream 7 can help the franchise’s consistency in its rules by not having shocking reveals in which characters who were severely gutted end up fine. If Mason Gooding’s Chad is stabbed by Ghostface dozens of times again in Scream 7, then it will finally be time for the character to die. Scream’s legacy characters have only survived so many attacks because the franchise asks for some suspension of disbelief in regard to how much harm one can live through, but Scream 7 must regain control over such survivals after being so extreme. Scream 7 can’t have one character die from a single stab wound to the back while another lives through an attack similar to Chad’s.
