Editorials
Everybody’s a Suspect: Meet the New Generation Cast and Characters of ‘Scream’!
Ghostface, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) are all back in the new Scream, arriving in theaters on January 14, 2022. So, too, is original screenwriter Kevin Williamson, this time as executive producer. But the trailer makes it clear that fans can expect a new generation to get brought into the bloody fold, including directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
Last year, Bloody Disgusting spoke to the new cast while production was still underway. True to franchise form, secrecy was of topmost priority- even the idea of sharing a single detail about their characters induced instant panic. Between the incomplete scripts and the scripts with multiple endings, the cast was kept in the dark as to Ghostface’s identity, adding a new meta layer to the shoot. All of this to say that if you’re worried about spoilers, you’ll find none here; the cast had none to give.
One thing is clear, though: everybody’s a suspect.
Let’s meet the new Scream generation and listen to their experiences on set.
Mason Gooding (Chad)
Mason Gooding (“Chad”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“Well, I can tell you that my character’s name is Chad. He’s a high school football player. He’s American, and he’s probably blood type O negative because I am,” Gooding shares.
On working with Radio Silence and not knowing the ending: “They’re incredibly secretive and dedicated to making sure that it’s a new and unseen experience for the fans because the worst feeling is walking into a movie, knowing how it’s going to play out. Rather than allowing that to happen, they make our lives as actors super interesting by not necessarily divulging certain levels of information. We operate under the ethos that everyone is a suspect rather than everyone’s innocent. It’s a very interesting and engaging sort of a format to tell a story.”
Kyle Gallner (Vince)
Kyle Gallner (“Vince”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“Yeah, I’m not going to be able to give you much more than that either, man. I play Vince. I’m a guy around town in Woodsboro.”
Gallner adds to Gooding’s thoughts on the production’s secrecy, “The main reason why that can work is it’s being shot pretty sequentially. That’s how it’s able to live in that world. They’re shooting it, pretty much in order, a lot of it.”
Sonia Ammar (Liv)
Sonia Ammar (“Liv”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“I’m Sonia Ammar, and I play Liv. I’m part of the new group of new characters to join the franchise and the legacy characters. And that’s all I can say.”
Ammar also has effusive praise for the directors. “They have such a great energy and excitement, and they have the uttermost respect and admiration for Wes Craven and the legacy that he has left behind with these films, and they just really want to pay homage to it, but bring a fresh take to it.”
Jenna Ortega (Tara)
Jenna Ortega (“Tara”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
Ortega was too afraid to reveal anything: “I don’t know how much I could say. I’m scared even to say my name. Compared to my last characters, I feel like I tend to play hard people who come off as bitchy sometimes. I don’t know. I think my character is cool, and I relate to her a lot in my personal life.
“I love horror. I love this franchise. Obviously, its self-awareness is impeccable. And just the fact that we’re given the opportunity to build on top and become a part of this immaculate world that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson and they’ve all created is such an honor. And I think I’ve said it before, but this film, I truly believe, is just such a great fit, and I cannot wait to show everybody what we’ve been creating because it’s pretty awesome.”
Melissa Barrera (Sam)
Melissa Barrera (“Sam”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“We’re not allowed to tell you a lot because we’ll get in trouble, but I can tell you that I play Sam, and we’re definitely a new generation of characters.”
“It is my first time in a horror film. Do you know what’s so funny? I never thought that I would ever do a horror film in my life. I’m a scaredy-cat. I love watching horror movies, but I then can’t sleep for two weeks. All my assumptions of what it was to do a horror movie were completely wrong because this is probably one of the most fun, most chill sets that I’ve ever been on. And it’s just been an incredible experience. I’m so honored that I get to be in Scream.”
Jack Quaid (Richie)
Jack Quaid (“Richie”) and Melissa Barrera (“Sam”) star in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“Oh, man. Sorry, we’re all very paranoid just because the thrill of Scream is knowing absolutely nothing. So, I’ll start by saying, my name is Richie, and Richie looks like me,” Quaid quips on the secrecy.
Quaid reflected on his continued streak of choosing very bloody projects: “I did a movie called Tragedy Girls, which was a horror-comedy, and I’m no stranger to copious amounts of blood in my projects. So, it feels like I’m coming back home in a lot of ways.”
Dylan Minnette (Wes Hicks)
Dylan Minnette (“Wes”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
Like his fellow castmates, Minnette was afraid even to utter his character’s name. Luckily, returning player Marley Shelton revealed that he plays her teen son Wes, likely a sweet nod to Wes Craven.
“It’s so surreal to share a screen with these people and to be talking about Ghostface on camera,” Minnette reveals.
Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy)
Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“Speaking for myself, being a queer woman of color and getting to be my full self on screen in my character is cool, especially in this world, with such great writing and directing. None of our characters feel like tropes; they feel like fully realized people,” Brown offers of her character.
As for the set’s confidentiality? “There’s a lot of different versions of the ending, and no one knows what’s real,” she says.
Mikey Madison (Amber)
Mikey Madison (“Amber”) stars in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s Scream.
“This is my first horror film, which is crazy because horror is one of my favorite genres. What an incredible first horror movie to do. Production has been really careful in making sure there are no leaks. I think the secrecy adds suspense as well,” Madison cryptically adds.
Based on the trailer and first look images, though, Amber appears to be friends with Tara and perhaps a bit suspicious, too.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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