Scream V (2022) My Version
Chapter One: Tara's Attack
A beautiful suburban house sits on a beautiful property at night. Crickets chirp. The location: northern California. The season: Fall. The sound of an electronic text can be heard.
The beautiful suburban home belongs to the Carpenters. Inside is beautiful with wood floors, stone counters, a built-in pizza oven no one who lives here uses. An eight burner stove on a kitchen island.
Tara Carpenter sixteen years old stands at said island, making ramen in a pot. Texting with her ex girlfriend Amber. Her name is at the top of the text chain on Tara's cell.
Amber texts:
You should come over.
Tara smiles. Texts back:
Oh really? And do what?
Amber's reply:
Fun... stuff. :)
Tara grins. Stirring the pasta. Types:
My Mom said I can't leave.
Then I can come over. Amber's reply
Tara stares at her phone for a moment. Whwn she doesn't reply back, Amber adds another message.
Do you want me to come over? Amber adds.
I know that we broke up but I miss you. Amber continues.
You should come over HERE. Tara texts back deciding to reply
She pauses. Then adds:
And do the aforementioned stuff.
A beat. The three circles, moving. Then, the response:
Convince me? Amber replies teasingly.
On the wall, the landline rings. Blocked caller. Tara frowns not knowing who's calling. She decides to ignore it. It's a landline, after all. Texts:
No parents. Free dinner. Many binge watch options.
Amber's response comes:
Gotta do better.
Tara playfully takes the phone, puts it under her shirt, snaps a pic. On the wall, the landline stops ringing. The response text:
SOLD!
The landline rings again. Tara frowns. Before she can get a response from Amber, Tara writes:
Fucking landline won't stop ringing. Robocalls.
The three dots stop moving. Then move again. The response:
I hate how they clone numbers that are close to yours to make you pick up.
Tara writes back:
This one is a blocked number.
A beat. The response:
Robocalls don't use blocked numbers anymore. Probs someone calling for your mom.
Tara exhales. That means she should answer it. She walks over to the landline ands picks it up.
"Hello?" Tara answers.
A kind (but familiar) voice on the other end.
Silence.
"Hello. Is Susan there?" Voice on the other line.
"Sorry, she's not available. May I take a message?" Tara responds knowing damn well her mother's name is Christina.
"Is this her daughter?" Voice on the other line asks.
"May I take a message?" Tara asks.
"Sorry, yeah, I'm a friend from her... shit." Voice on the other line says.
"From her shit?" Tara asks smirking.
"Um, just tell her I'm from group." Voice on the other line says. "I'm Charlie. She has my number." Said the voice on the other line.
"She goes to a group?" Tara asks. She had not idea her mother was in any kind of group.
"Well yeah. She and I talked a lot. We even had coffee together." Voice on the other line said.
"Is that right?" Tara asked.
"Yeah." Voice on the other line says.
"You know Charlie, my mom has a husband and if he knew that she was talking to you he wouldn't be happy." Tara told him.
"Oh yeah. His name wouldn't be Ben would it?" The voice asked. Tara froze a sec. How did he know his name. "She mentioned him when we spoke. I promise you our conversations are innocent." He said trying to sound casual. "Look, I shouldn't have... just tell her Charlie called."
"I will do exactly that, Charlie, once you tell me what kind of group we're talking about." Tara responds.
"I don't think I can-" the voice on the other line says
"AA? NA? If so, it's about time-" Tara asks.
"I'm really sorry I bothered you." Voice on the other line apologizes.
"Does she talk about me in this group?" Tara asks. A long beat. Tara waits for a response. As she talks, she texts Amber:
Dude I think this is Mom's new F...I think she could be cheating on my father.
"What does she say about me? Does she talk about my sister to?" Tara asked.
Amber's response:
Seriously???
"She loves both of you very much-" the voice on the other line says.
"What does she love about me?" Tara asks
"I don't-" voice on the other line attempts to respond.
"You're a little bit in deep shit here, Charlie, because from what I understand, anonymity is kinda the cornerstone of these bad boys, so since you've already screwed that particular pooch, I propose you answer my question so I don't tell Susan (Christina) you blew her Alcoholics, Narcotics, Gambling, and Kleptomaniacs Anonymous cover, deal?" Tara responds being a total smart ass.
Silence. The Voice takes a deep breath.
"She loves that you're creative." Voice on the other line finally manages to say. "You love art and TV and movies-"
"Lots of people love movies-" Tara says.
"She says you love scary movies." Voice on the other line says. "And that you guys have that in common. She's proud of making a fan out of you. You're sister isn't as much of a fan as you are."
This strikes a chord with Tara.
"She is?" Tara asks a bit scared.
"She told me the other day she was wondering... what's your favorite scary movie?" voice on the other line says before asking that question made famous twenty-two years earlier.
"The Babadook. It's an amazing meditation on motherhood and grief." Tara responds instantly
"Isn't that a little fancy pants?" Voice on the other line asks.
"Well, it's elevated horror." Tara says.
"What's that mean, elevated horror?" Voice on the other line asks.
"You know, like... scary, but with complex emotional and thematic underpinnings. Not just schlocky cheeseball nonsense." Tara responds.
"Sounds kind of boring to me. Have you ever seen Stab?" Tara furrows her brow.
"Once, I think... at a sleepover when I was like 12." Tara said not really a fan of that kind of horror movie.
"You live in Woodsboro and you don't know Stab?" Voice on the other line asks.
"It's not my thing. I mean talk about schlocky and cheeseball; isn't Tori Spelling the lead in most of them-?" Tara asks.
The water in the stove is boiling.
"Your mother loves that movie. She talks about it all the time in group. How well do you remember the original?" Voice on the other line asks.
Tara turns off the burner, gets a colander out of a cabinet.
"I don't know, it was like super '90s. Really over-lit and everyone had weird hair." Tara says sarcastically.
"Do you remember the beginning?" Voice on the other line asks.
"Not really. It starts with a kill scene, right? They always start with a kill scene." Tara said.
"That's right. It's a girl at home, alone. She answers a wrong number and starts talking with the killer, who makes her play a game." Voice on the other line pauses. "Would you like to play a game, Tara?"
Tara is frightened now. How did this fucker know her name? Is it possible her mother told him? Maybe. She was alert now and wanted off the call.
"Fuck you, you're weirdo." Tara cusses and slams down the phone. Spooked. Texts Amber:
It was some psycho. I'm locking the doors.
Tara uses the smart house app on her phone to lock all the doors of the house. They KA-CHUNK into place as the text comes back:
WTF??? You okay?
Tara starts writing back:
I'm fine, I just-
She's cut off as the landline rings again, making Tara jump. She stares at it. It continues to trill. Fuck that.
A text sound from her phone. From Amber:
You should answer it.
Tara stares at her phone. Realizing something. She texts Amber back slowly:
How did you know my landline was ringing?
No response. Not even the dots. A bead of sweat runs down Tara's forehead. The landline continues to ring. Tara texts again, now fully freaked out:
Amber?
Tara stares at the screen. The response comes back:
This isn't Amber.
Tara stares at it. Numb. A new text comes:
But I enjoyed the picture you sent me.
Tara looks ill. She hugs herself, exposed. Starts to text back when this comes in:
ANSWER THE PHONE BITCH.
Tara goes to her phone app, begins dialing 911...
ANSWER THE PHONE OR AMBER DIES.
Tara stops dialing and snatches up the landline-
"This isn't fucking funny, Amber-" Tara shouts into the receiver.
"I told you, this isn't Amber." Voice on the other line.
Incoming text sound. It's a link to a Snapchat. Tara clicks on it. A window opens showing a video feed --
The video is a view through a bedroom window. A teenage girl sits at her desk, doing her homework, her back to the window. This is Amber eighteen. A person in a Ghostface costume angles the phone so he's in frame. Just outside Amber's window.
"Amber's looking particularly fetching tonight. She really shouldn't leave her phone lying around for anyone to pick up." Voice on the other line continues.
"What do you want?" Tara asks.
She goes back to the phone app, dialing 911 again...
"I already told you, I want to play a game. Stab movie trivia. Three rounds. You call the cops, she dies. You get a question wrong, she dies." Voice on the other line warns.
911 punched in, Tara's finger hovers above the "call" icon...
"Her parents aren't home. I can be in that room in 15 seconds." Voice on the phone says. Ghostface can be seen holding up a knife in front of the camera on the Snapchat. It glints in the moonlight.
On Tara. Her face crumples. She closes the phone app.
"You want a warm up question?" voice on the other line asks.
"I told you, I don't know those movies! Ask me about something else, ask me about It Follows, or Hereditary, or The Witch-" Tara says before she's cut off.
"In the first Stab movie, what Woodsboro native was introduced as the franchise's main character?" Voice on the other line asks.
Tara's eyes go wide, she knows this one.
"Sidney Prescott! It's Sidney Prescott, right?"
"Correct. See, you're gonna do great at this. Okay, Question 1-" voice on the other line says.
"No, that should count! I got that one right!" Tara says.
"Anyone would have gotten that one right, Sidney's in every movie but the last one. Question 1: Who wrote the original book that the Stab movies are based on?" Voice on the other line asks.
"That's... that's... the chick from TV..." Tara tries to answer not remembering the name of the Gale Weathers.
"The chick from TV" is not gonna cut it, Tara." Voice on the other line asks.
"Gale Weathers! It's Gale Weathers, motherfucker!" Tara exclaimed excitedly finally remembering her name.
"Correct! Amber might live to see the sunrise! Question 2: Who played the dumb bitch in the beginning of Stab 1 who answers the phone and gets carved up by the killer?" Voice on the other line asks.
"Fuck!" Tara cusses. She doesn't know. Her face struggles with the correct answer.
"Fuck you!" Tara continues
"Is that the answer you're going with?" Voice on the other line asks.
Tara is in tears terrified at the scare tactic going on in her house right now.
"I told you, I don't know these movies! They're stupid '90s retro bullshit, nobody gives a shit about slashers anymore, that's why they stopped making them!" She shouts into the phone.
"I'm gonna need an answer. Or do you want to watch me open up your girlfriend's stomach?" Voice on the other line asks.
Tara looks down at the Snapchat link to Amber, desperate... And then realizes she's looking at her phone.
"Fuck this." Tara says as she's decided she's gonna cheat, opens up Safari, googles Stab movie imbd. The link comes up...
"A non-answer counts as a wrong answer, Tara..." Voice on the other line says.
"No, no, no, I just need a second, I just need to think..." she says hoping to buy another minute or two.
The IMDB cast list comes up - a bunch of character names. None of which she knows. Shit! It's probably not Sidney, Gale, Dewey, Randy, Tatum, Billy, who's a big enough name...?
"Time's up, Tara-" Voice on the other line says.
"Heather Graham!" Tara says looking at an entry - Casey Becker - Heather Graham.
A long beat. For someone who doesn't know the movies, she's right but...
"Correct! You pulled that one out! Now, for the Final Question: who was the killer in Stab 1?" Voice on the other line asks.
Tara smiles as her whole demeanor brightens with victory! Glances at the IMDB to confirm it, but she knows it!
"I know this one, you fuck! It's Randy Meeks"! He was Sidney's friend and he planned the whole thing and he was played by some random dude and I got you, asshole! I got you, and I got this right!" She said proudly. She bursts into laughter, giddily.
"Oooooh, I'm sorry, Tara, but that's just not correct." Voice on the other line says.
"What?! No, no, no, it is, it is-" Tara says.
"The correct answer is Randy Meeks and Stu Macher. There are two killers in the original Stab. I'm afraid someone's gotta die now." Voice on the other line responds.
"No! No!" Tara screams. Tara snatches a knife from the island, and runs for the front door! She's gotta save Amber! Unlocks the doors with the home security app, then presses the emergency button to trigger an alert to the police!
Calling Amber as she runs, hurling open the door... Tara continues
"Answer the phone, Amber!" Tara yells.
...to find ghostface standing right there waiting for her!
Tara screams as Ghostface cuts her abdomen with a knife! On instinct she swings her hand with her phone and catches him in the jaw! He reels back. Tara using the phone smacks ghost face in the face again. Using her body slams the front door shut locking it.
She's crying using the phone app to lock her door again as the door come unlocked again. She locks it again using her phone. Crying she backs up towards the stair case. The landline rings again. She heads back into the kitchen to answer it again. By now she knows it's ghost face that's been fucking with her on the other line.
"Bonus question Tara." Ghost face says.
"Fuck you!" Tara yells into the phone.
"Did I make into your house before you locked the door?" Ghost face asks.
"FUCK OFF!" She yells again hanging up the phone again. She continues crying scared out of wits. The phone rings again. "Hello." She says. Ghost face pops up behind her stabbing her in the stomach. Tara screams and backhands ghostface who shoves her to the floor. Ghost face tries to stab her again but Tara raises her left hand in self defense but the runs through her hand. Tara screams and kicks ghost face hard on the island. Ghost face responds by stabbing her in the leg. Tara screams out in pain. Ghostface then steps on her ankle causing her more pain. Tara does her best to crawl away from the kitchen into the foyer. Ghost face slowly stalks her. Then proceeds to stab her in the back and her sides. Ghost face turns her over and is about to stab her again but the sirens outside can be heard. Ghost face knocks Tara out on conscious before disappearing.
Note: Tried to stay as close to the movie as humanly possible.