The Fantasy Review‘s list of The Scream Movies Ranked.
Here is our list of the Scream movies ranked from worst to best, including Scream 6.
#6 – Scream 3 (2000)
While I don’t hate any of the films in this franchise, Scream 3 is the one I go to rewatch least often. It’s a tired, unoriginal film with very little to say after two films which did a great job of giving us fun films with nods to all the horror/slasher tropes we know and love.
#5 – Scream 2 (1997)
Riding off the success of the first film only a year before, Scream 2 is a fun, enjoyable sequel to an absolute classic. There are plenty of meta jokes about sequels (maybe too many) and the Ghostface reveal is awesome, but apart from that it’s not very memorable.
Since the release of this film, future sequels have done a better job of basically everything this one attempted to achieve. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the odd rewatch of this, but it’s certainly not the best of the franchise.
#4 – Scream 6 (2023)
This is the latest film in the franchise and it was brilliant! It has all the twists and meta jokes you are looking for, and more.
This time things are bigger, legacy characters could be killed off, the main characters could be Ghostface… literally anything is possible, and that made it so exciting to watch!
#3 – Scream 4 (2011)
I’m in my mid-twenties, so this was my first film from this franchise. I absolutely loved it! Obviously, on a first watch through I missed a lot of the jokes about coming back to make another sequel a long time after the first trilogy was finished, but there was plenty more for me to enjoy!
On a rewatch (countless rewatches) I can safely say that Scream 4 is definitely in my top 3 for this ranking, and is kind of interchangeable with #2 on the list, depending on which one I have seen more recently!
#2 – Scream (2022)
Either you are angry that I have put the 2022 legacy sequel this high, or you think it should be on the number one spot. I have only seen this one twice, but it’s one of my all-time favourite horror films, and comes well above a lot from this franchise.
Maybe it’s the modern feel of the film, or the nostalgia for the original 1996 film – either way, there is very little not to enjoy about the fifth film of the franchise. Oh, and the new characters we get introduced to are fantastic!
#1 – Scream (1996)
I’m not sure any Scream film can top the original from 1996. Sure, I watched it for the first time a few years after seeing Scream 4, but I knew right then that it was the superior flick.
This film has the best jokes, the best plot, and the funniest and most original-feeling meta analysis in the dialogue. Sure, the Ghostface reveal is kind of obvious, but who cares? This film was about ripping apart the slasher/horror film formula, while 100% following it anyway!
