Stab Movie Cast Guide: Every Actor In Scream’s Meta-Horror

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Scream 2022!

The iconic Scream movies are all about satirizing the clichés of horror movies, and for that, the writers came up with the fictional Stab franchise – and here’s every actor and who they play in those movies. Wes Craven’s career in the horror genre began in 1972 with the exploitation movie The Last House on the Left, but his big break came in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although director Wes Craven’s movies also featured other genres, he will be best remembered as one of the masters of horrors, and one of his best contributions to the genre was the Scream franchise. As one of horror’s most iconic directors, Wes Craven was given a golden opportunity to satirize his own prior movies in Scream, while further satirizing his satires with the in-universe Stab films.

The first Scream movie was released in 1996 and it introduced the audience to final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a high school student in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, who becomes a target of a mysterious killer in a costume known as Ghostface. Thanks to its combination of slasher, black comedy, and mystery, along with its satirization of horror clichés, Scream is credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the 1990s and made way for a franchise with five movies a TV series. Scream 2 added a new element to the franchise in the shape of a fake movie franchise, making the Scream movies even more meta – and, of course, these movies-within-movies counted on the presence of both real and fictional actors.

Scream’s fake movie franchise – and once again in a very meta style – is called Stab, and like many horror movies in the real world, it was inspired by the “true events” of Ghostface’s kills and Sidney’s survival. Of course, Sidney’s annoyance towards the Stab movies taking advantage of her personal tragedies was addressed at one point, and the third Stab movie played a big role in Scream 3, which is considered the franchise’s weakest movie, as it served as the moving force of the story and made way for a big reveal for Sidney regarding her mother. While certain clips of the Stab movies and interactions with some of the cast were depicted in Scream 2, 3, and 4, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream 2022 filled in actor and character gaps with an IMDb page for the first movie. Here’s a cast guide to every actor (real and fictional) featured in the fictional Stab franchise and which Scream characters they portray.

Stab

• Tori Spelling as Sidney Prescott
• Jennifer Jolie, played by Parker Posey, as Gale Weathers
• David Schwimmer as Dewey Riley
• Luke Wilson as Billy Loomis
• Heather Graham as Casey Becker
• Vince Vaughn as Stu Macher
• Alicia Silverstone as Tatum Riley
• Christopher Speed as Randy Meeks
• Ron Howard as Principal Himbry

Stab 2

• Tori Spelling as Sidney Prescott
• Jennifer Jolie as Gale Weathers
• David Schwimmer as Dewey Riley
• Joey Garfield as Randy Meeks
• Christine Hamilton, played by Kelly Rutherford, as Cici Cooper

Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro

• Angelina Tyler, played by Emily Mortimer, as Sidney Prescott
• Jennifer Jolie as Gale Weathers
• Tom Prinze, played by Matt Keesler, as Dewey Riley
• Tyson Fox, played by Deon Richmond, as Ricky Wafford
• Sarah Darling, played by Jenny McCarthy, as Candy Brooks

Stab 3: Hollywood Horror

• Tori Spelling as Sidney Prescott
• Elizabeth Banks as Gale Weathers
• David Schwimmer as Dewey Riley
• Rutger Hauer
• Balthazar Getty

Stab 6: Ghostface Returns

• Lucy Hale as Sherrie
• Shenae Grimes as Trudie

Stab 7

• Lucy Hale as Sherrie
• Shenae Grimes as Trudie
• Kristen Bell as Chloe
• Anna Paquin as Rachel

Stab 8 

• Director – Rian Johnson

The Stab franchise has two different Stab 3 movies due to the cast of Return to Woodsboro being killed by Scream 3‘s Ghostface killer director Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), who turned out to be Sidney’s half-brother. Stab 3 was then remade as Stab 3: Hollywood Horror, based on “the tragic events of the ‘Sunrise Studios Massacre’ of 2000″ and brought back the original Stab cast with Elizabeth Banks taking over the role of Gale Weathers. The fake franchise then jumped to Stab 6 and 7 in Scream 4, which begins with the opening of Stab 6, which in turn is the opening of Stab 7, making it even more meta than previous Scream movies.

Scream 2022 continued the meta obsession with the franchise after the release of Stab, AKA Stab 8, directed by The Last Jedi‘s Rian Johnson, though the cast of the movie is unknown. Stab 8 was widely hated by passionate Stab fans who believed Johnson’s sequel didn’t understand the franchise and was the worst installment. The fan backlash of Stab 8 led franchise superfans and new Ghostface killers Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman, who met on a Stab subReddit, to murder the family members of original Stab characters, hoping to inspire the next movie with a “true story” for a much better “re-quel.” Scream 2022‘s story with Stab 8 was a jab at toxic fandoms, particularly those of Star Wars, Stab, and consequently Scream itself.

The Stab movies were some of the best additions to the Scream franchise as they took the movies’ meta-commentary to another level, and made way for clever blends like the Scream 4 opening. Considering Scream 2022‘s Ghostface murders were inspired by toxic fans of the Stab franchise, it will be interesting how creative a Scream 6 sequel integrates the fictional movies into its plot. Scream 2022 also never revealed the cast of Stab 8, which could be shown in a future Scream movie with modern actors playing the Woodsboro victims.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
(3270 Articles Published)

Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

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