Disclaimer: I do not own Scream; this is merely a fanfiction.
OPEN ON:
EXT. COTTON WEARY FARMHOUSE – NIGHT
Silence rises in the night air, except for several crickets. A broken-down old car slowly pulls up along the gravel road. There, in a complete state of disrepair – 17 years after the initial massacre and 13 after the last one, stands the old Cotton Weary farmhouse. The doors to the cars open – 18-year-old JILL ROBERTS and CHARLIE WALKER exit, holding duffle bags and equipment. Charlie stares up in awe.
CHARLIE: There it is – a legend.
JILL: Quit gawking. I want those cameras up and ready to go. You did remember to text Sean and Jess right?
CHARLIE: (raising a cell phone) From Deputy Hoss' own cell. Snagged it last week when he came in to give us that drug lecture.
JILL: (nodding) Good. I want everything traceable to him.
CHARLIE: This generation's Cotton Weary.
JILL: (gathering equipment) He's perverted enough. Always checking out the high school girls. Don't know why Dewey left him on the force but then he's so dimwitted -.
CHARLIE: Dimwitted enough to let Nicholette Loomis come live with them.
JILL: I haven't seen her and Billy in years. I can't believe he actually agreed to let her stay with them.
CHARLIE: She starts her freshman year of Woodsboro High tomorrow.
JILL: And it couldn't be more perfect. This generation's Sidney Prescott.
CHARLIE: And us – the new Tatum and Billy.
He leans in and kisses her. She opens her eyes, rolling them, clearly not into it, clearly leading him on. Charlie backs away, smiling down at her.
CHARLIE: Last two teenagers standing.
The two haul their bags towards the house. They drop their bags at the front door. Charlie presses the door open. It swings on a hinge with a low creak. The two turn to each other. They pause.
JILL: You ready?
CHARLIE: To reinvent a legend? Hell yeah!
He carries the bags into the darkness of the house. Jill gets a sudden shudder. She turns, staring at the trees surrounding them. Nodding, resolved with what needs to be done, she shoulders her load and follows Charlie inside.
CUT TO:
INT. DOYLE RESIDENCE – NIGHT
A cordless phone RINGS – the oh so familiar tone of impending doom. A hand reaches out – JESS DOYLE – brunette, sweet face. Not the most popular girl in the school, but not an outcast by any means.
JESS: You on your way?
SEAN: Be there in five.
JESS: You got the equipment?
SEAN: Oh yeah. We're snagging some ghosts tonight!
Jess goes over to the fridge and pours herself a glass of juice. She stares out the window over her kitchen sink into the darkness.
JESS: I don't know – do you really think this is a good idea?
SEAN: Not chickening out on me, are you?
JESS: (putting the juice bottle back into the fridge) No … it's just … you remember what happened to Jake and Megan?
SEAN: No, I don't. We were kids then. Besides, Hoss'll be there patrolling the place. Might bring Perkins too.
JESS: Can we count on him?
SEAN: Hey, he's dating my mom.
JESS: … And?
SEAN: And … he's totally cool. He lets me drink at the house. Sometimes joins me.
JESS: (skeptical) Uh-huh, the epitome of reliability. (sighs) Okay. Fine. But if I end up tied to a pipe in the basement –
SEAN: Relax, will ya? Besides, there hasn't been a killing in over a decade. Contrary to what the movies would say.
JESS: Ugh, Stab. I can't believe you made me sit through all of them. I still get the willies thinking it was all based on a true story.
SEAN: Not all of it. Only the first three were based on the lives of Billy and Tatum. The rest they just started making shit up. But anyway – I'll be there soon. I'm at the stop sign up the street. See 'ya in a minute!
JESS: Okay. Talk to you in a second.
She hangs up and downs her juice, still staring out the window over the kitchen sink. She squints her eyes, staring into the dark cornfields behind her house. Was that … a figure in black? She rubs her eyes. The figure is gone. A trick of the light?
JESS: Damn Stab movies.
She puts her cup into the sink and turns to exit the kitchen. Her phone RINGS AGAIN! She grumbles before picking the phone up.
JESS: That was quick – you at the house?
GHOSTFACE: More like – I'm in the house!
JESS: Cute Sean, cute. Enough games, I'm gonna need help bringing the equipment to the car.
GHOSTFACE: The paramedics are gonna need help bringing out your corpse!
JESS: Your originality leaves much to be desired, Sean. This is Woodsboro. Been there, done that. It's not scary anymore. Now are you gonna help me, or not?
We follow Jess through the kitchen into her entertainment center. We find ghost hunting equipment sprawled on the floor. She kneels down, packing it up, still holding the phone to her ear.
GHOSTFACE: You talk about Woodsboro like you're bored with it.
JESS: Uh – yeah! I mean, what does this town have going for it anyway? Splatterville USA? Can't wait to graduate and get outta here.
GHOSTFACE: That doesn't sound fair to Sean …
JESS: Ugh, will you turn off that creepy voice app? Besides, we've been over this, Sean. I'm going to Windsor and you're gonna work for your Dad at his shop. It's not like we won't see each other. When are you going to drop it?
GHOSTFACE: When are you going to realize this isn't an app?
JESS: You think this is my first prank call?! Hello – Stab made this town! Everyone has that stupid app and we all prank each other, it's like a ritual here. Now are you coming in or what?
SEAN: (offscreen) Who you talking to?
Jess turns and her mouth opens as Sean is standing there, hands in his jacket pockets, looking at her quizzically. She puts the phone on speaker.
GHOSTFACE: (singsong) Aaw, is that Seany-poo? Told you I wasn't him.
JESS: Then who is this? Jenny? Marnie? Robbie, I swear to God -.
GHOSTFACE: Nope. Nope. And nope. Guess again, Jess. But you only get one more try.
SEAN: (grinning, assuming it's a joke) Ghostface, huh? Alright, let's play along.
GHOSTFACE: You heard the man, Jess. Play along. Guess. (Beat) I'll give you one chance. Get it right, you and your boyfriend walk out of here, enjoy your little ghost-hunting escapade. Get it wrong – well, like I said – THE PARAMEDICS WILL NEED HELP SORTING OUT WHICH ORGANS BELONG TO WHO!
JESS: Ah. Jill. The only one I told about this little ghost-hunting escapade. You can drop the act now.
Jess is met with silence. The line has gone dead. She smiles.
JESS: (singsong) Knew it -.
CUT TO:
EXT. DOYLE RESIDENCE – NIGHT
We have an establishing shot of the Doyle house. Sean's car sits outside. It's a nice farmhouse. A large tree. A swing sways back and forth, the only sound besides the crickets. We see a large cornfield extending from the sides and the back of the house. Many acres of corn. A scarecrow is hoisted on a pole in the distance.
CUT TO:
INT. DOYLE HOUSE – NIGHT
Jess is finishing packing up. She hoists her bag over her shoulder. Sean is sitting on the couch, bored, playing on his phone. He doesn't even look up.
SEAN: Finally ready?
JESS: (sighing) Hey … look, I'm still creeped out about this. Do we really have to go? Can't we just stay in? Watch a movie?
SEAN: But Hoss went out of his way for us -.
JESS: Please …
SEAN: (masking his disappointment) Okay. It is kinda stupid. Visiting a murder house in the middle of the night.
JESS: (playful) I can make it up to you in other ways …
This gets his attention.
SEAN: Oh? Well, when you put things that way …
Jess tosses aside her equipment and straddles him on the couch. They begin kissing, getting hot and heavy. His hands go up her back.
HIS CELL PHONE RINGS NEXT TO HIM!
He stares down. Incoming call.
SEAN: (eyebrow raised) Why is Trevor Sheldon calling me?
JESS: Do you have to answer?
SEAN: It'll be quick. (answering the phone) Yo, Trev'!
GHOSTFACE: I'm not interrupting anything, am I? You two looked like you're getting hot and heavy.
SEAN: Okay, creepy, Trev. (Beat) How'd you know …?
Jess slides off Sean's lap and sits next to him. Sean puts the phone on speaker.
GHOSTFACE: Like I told Jess – I'm in the house.
SEAN: Bullshit. Where are you really?
GHOSTFACE: Don't worry about that … I'll find you!
JESS: Sean – hang up! Just hang up!
GHOSTFACE: IF YOU HANG UP ON ME I'LL HANG YOU UP FROM THE CEILING BY YOUR INNARDS!
JESS: Sean – call the police!
SEAN: I'm hanging up. Fuck you Trevor or whoever the hell this is!
He ends the call and places his phone in his pocket. He notices Jess' pale face.
SEAN: It's a prank. A stupid, Woodsboro prank.
JESS: Still … are the doors locked?
Sean sighs and gets up, Jess holding onto his arm, now beyond scared. He walks down a narrow corridor to the front door. It has a glass window near the top. Sean plays with the doorknob.
SEAN: See? Locked.
Jess breathes a sigh of relief.
THE DOORBELL RINGS!
Jess jumps and Sean, for the first time, jumps with her. They stare at each other.
SEAN: Who's there?
JESS: No! You should never ask that!
Sean slowly approaches the door, staring out the glass window. He sees nothing on the front porch. Nothing but the swing on the tree.
SEAN: Someone's fucking with us. (Beat) Your Dad still got that baseball bat?
JESS: Sean …
Sean walks into a den – there, in Jess' father's home office, is a thick wooden bat. Sean grabs it, gives it a few practice swings.
JESS: Don't go out there! Just call the police!
SEAN: It's a prank! Besides, I'm just gonna scare him a little, I won't hurt him.
JESS: (following him back towards the front door) Please – don't leave me alone in the house!
SEAN: It'll be fine. Lock the door after me.
He exits the house. Jess quickly slams the door shut after him, turning the locking mechanism. She breathes, staring out the window.
EXT. DOYLE RESIDENCE – NIGHT
Sean stands on the front porch, casually swinging his bat.
SEAN: (shouting into the night) Lovely night for a murder, eh!
No response – only the crickets. His eyes rove the cornfields, then the driveway – then HIS CAR!
SEAN: Oh fuck!
His car has been completely TOTALLED! The tires have been slashed, windows smashed, doors and hood dented.
SEAN: (fury building) Oh shit, someone really wants to die tonight!
He storms to his car, checking out the damage. He curses, slamming the bat into the ground in frustration.
SEAN: Oh, you done fucked up! You better run!
He stops – sees stalks of corn moving, as though someone is running through it, away from him.
SEAN: You're dead! You hear me! Dead!
He tightens his grip on the bat and follows his quarry into the cornfield.
CUT TO
INT. HOUSE – NIGHT
Jess is staring through the doorway. She sees Sean vanish into the cornfields. She stands there, heart palpitating. She grabs her cordless, dials 9-11.
OPERATOR: 9-11, what is your emergency?
JESS: My boyfriend's car was just vandalized and we've been getting threatening calls from someone using the Ghostface app.
OPERATOR: Where is your boyfriend?
JESS: He's pursuing the guy –
OPERATOR: Do not follow him! Stay put! We have a squadcar on the way. We -.
THE POWER GOES OUT! THE LINE IS DEAD AND JESS IS BATHED IN DARKNESS! She screams, darting into the kitchen. She grabs a butcher knife, hiding behind a counter, eyes peering around.
CUT TO:
EXT. CORNFIELD – NIGHT
Sean races through the cornstalks, whizzing through the cornfield. He stops, panting, looking around. He's completely lost. No sign of the suspect. He leans against the scarecrow pole, catching his breath.
But he notices something different about the scarecrow. Scarecrows don't usually wear black robes …
He looks up. GHOSTFACE IS HOISTED ON THE SCARECROW POLE. The masked head slowly tilts down at him. Sean backs away, bat raised, as Ghostface detaches himself from the pole.
INT. DOYLE HOUSE – NIGHT
Jess slides down along the counter, holding her knife, crying.
A THUD FROM UPSTAIRS.
She cries harder, struggling to gain her bearings.
JESS: Please … leave us alone! Just leave us alone!
There's a sound – the FRONT DOOR OPENING AND SHUTTING!
Jess pauses … did … did they leave?
She slowly peers around the corner of the counter area – nothing but darkness. She rises to her feet, brandishing her knife. We follow her, through the living room, towards the back door -.
CRASH!
A lawn chair SMASHES through the glass back door, raining glass down on her. She screams. Fuck this. Turns, books it in the other direction. She wrenches open the front door …
EXT. HOUSE – NIGHT
Jess races out into the front porch. She looks around in all directions. Wherever Sean is, that's where she wants to be.
THE FRONT DOOR BEHIND HER IS WRENCHED OPEN! GHOSTFACE GRABS FOR HER HEAD! She screams, stabbing towards him. She misses, her knife embedding in the doorframe. She books it, heading for the cornfield.
Ghostface races down the front lawn after her. He stops as he sees her enter the cornfield.
CUT TO:
EXT. CORNFIELD – NIGHT
Jess races with all her might, storming through the cornfield. Cornstalks striking at her from all directions, no idea where she's going, only that she has to get away.
She TRIPS, falling face first onto the ground. Her foot is sprained. She staggers to her feet. She looks around in all directions. The night is silent. Eerily silent.
She backs up – into the scarecrow pole. Something wet and slimy lands on her shoulder. She touches it … looks down at the palm of her hand. Covered in a red substance – BLOOD! She touches the object again – it's wet and ropy. She pulls – IT'S AN INTESTINE! She screams, turning her eyes up –
SEAN IS HOISTED ON THE SCARECROW POLE LIKE A SCARECROW, HIS STOMACH RIPPED OPEN, HIS INTESTINES LOOSELY HANGING FROM THE TORSO AND STRAW STUFFED INTO HIS STOMACH!
Jess screams!
To her right, the cornstalks begin swaying. She screams, running/limping in the opposite direction – back in the direction of the house.
CUT TO:
EXT. DOYLE HOUSE – NIGHT
A squad car pulls up to the house. OFFICERS HOSS AND PERKINS exit their cars. They observe Sean's devasted car.
HOSS: (whistling) Someone did a number.
PERKINS: Circle around the back. I'll go up front.
They nod, drawing their guns.
CUT TO:
Jess continues running through the cornfields. In the distance, she can see the red and blue lights of the squad car. Hope courses through her body.
She reaches the edge of the cornfield. Sees Hoss and Perkins approach the house. Raises her arms, prepared to yell –
GHOSTFACE POPS UP BEHIND HER, GRABBING HER NECK, CHOKING HER, CRUSHING HER VOICEBOX! He tosses her to the ground.
Jess crawls away from the edges of the cornfield. The cops are only a few yards away. She reaches out to them, trying with all her might to scream – no sound escapes her crushed throat.
Ghostface slowly walks up behind her. No! He grabs her ankle. She struggles, kicking out, hitting him in the stomach. He doubles back as she crawls with everything she has, struggling to reach the cops. They enter the house – no – her last hope – gone.
Ghostface walks up alongside her. He kneels down, cocking his head, almost sympathetically. He grabs Jess' shoulder, turning her onto her back. She stares up at the cocked mask, crying, pleading for whatever humanity may be left in the killer to please, please have mercy.
Ghostface stares down at her.
AND THEN STRIKES DOWN!
AGAIN!
AND AGAIN!
AND AGAIN!
All while the two cops search the now empty house only a few yards away …
AND WE
CUT TO:
INT. COTTON WEARY HOUSE – BASEMENT – NIGHT
The all-too-familiar basement of the Cotton Weary house is now strung up with recording devices. Charlie and Jill, now dressed in black Ghostface robes, survey the room.
CHARLIE: And we're done. They'll make their way down here and then –
JILL: Is that pipe secure? I want to recreate the Megan and Jake murders as closely as possible. After all, what good's a remake if we don't pay homage to the opening kill?
CHARLIE: It'll be fine. And now –
They nod at each other. It's time. Do or die. They slide two Ghostface masks down over their heads, ready to assume their positions.
INSIDE CHARLIE'S ROBE, A CELL PHONE RINGS!
Jill slides her mask back up her head and nods.
JILL: Answer. This is perfect. We need an alibi.
Charlie slides his mask back up too. He reaches down into his robes and produces Hoss' phone which he stole a few days ago. He observes the incoming call.
CHARLIE: It's Sean. Calling Hoss.
He looks up at Jill for direction.
JILL: (urging) Well answer it!
CHARLIE: I can't make myself sound like Hoss.
JILL: We did not come this far to pussy out now! If they don't show -.
CHARLIE: Okay, okay, chill. (answers, trying to sound like Hoss, putting the phone on speaker so Jill can hear and give instructions) Officer Hoss speaking.
GHOSTFACE: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don't you two know that remakes are tired and worn? The audience doesn't want the old – they want new and exciting! Fresh! Who wants to see a new Billy Loomis and Tatum Riley when it's all been done before?
CHARLIE: Who is this?
GHOSTFACE: Your … competition.
CHARLIE: Come again …?
GHOSTFACE: Oh, we'll be meeting soon enough, you can count on that. We'll come Ghostface to Ghostface very shortly. But before that, I plan to humiliate you. Your kills are mine! I will always be one step ahead of you two … and I'll dismember your victims and splatter their blood all over the place before you can ever reach them.
JILL: (grabbing the phone) Listen shithead, I don't know who you are or what game you're playing -.
GHOSTFACE: Ah, Jill. What a game it'll be. Two Ghostfaces, competing with each other for kills. You two dipshits could never do that costume justice and I'll upstage you at every turn. Face it Jill, you'll always be a nobody, you'll never be the leading lady.
JILL: Bold words. You want to fuck around, huh? With me? HUH?! Bring it!
GHOSTFACE: (ignoring her threats) And here's the amusing part – you two can do nothing to stop me. If I go down, I squeal to the police all about your plans.
JILL: Or I can gut your ass before then!
GHOSTFACE: There's that fire I desire! You and I – we'll have our final showdown. Face it, Jill – you're not in a remake. You're in a versus movie. Freddy vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator. A rarity in the genre. And now – in the interest of fairness – let the bloodbath BEGIN! And may the best Ghostface win!
The phone goes dead. Charlie stares at her and Jill feels a rage growing down to her bones. She grabs her knife and begins screaming in fury, stabbing at the wall repeatedly. She pants, breathing deeply.
CHARLIE: What now?
JILL: (thinking) Tonight's a no-go.
CHARLIE: He knows we were planning a murder spree … he knew everything. What do we do?
JILL: We're not calling it off.
She storms up the steps of the basement, tearing her Ghostface robe off. Charlie undoes his robe, following her.
JILL: Pack it up for the night. We'll plan a new opening – a better one. We'll figure out another way to get Sean and Jess alone – he was right, remakes are tired. We'll have to plan a more original opening with Sean and Jess.
Jill reaches the front door and wrenches it open.
SEAN AND JESS' GUTTED CORPSES DROP FROM THE FARMHOUSE'S PORCH, HANGING FROM THEIR OWN INTESTINES AS NOOSES!
Charlie stops, sinking to his knees in horror.
CHARLIE: … he's already ahead of us.
Jill stares at the corpses, fury growing.
JILL: Fine. If it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get.
She stares into the dead eyes of the two corpses as a knife slashes through the screen, revealing the title card.
SCREAMMAKE 4