Scream’s Stab Movies

Stab is the movie series that exists inside the Scream films. It is the Hollywood version of the Ghostface murders, made by a studio called Sunrise Studios and adapted from the books of reporter Gale Weathers. It first shows up on screen in Scream 2, released December 12, 1997. The joke goes back one film further. In the first Scream, Sidney Prescott says that with her luck they would cast Tori Spelling to play her. In Scream 2 they did.

The first Stab is the true story of the 1996 Woodsboro murders as told in Gale's book The Woodsboro Murders. Scream 2 opens at a sneak preview of it. The theater hands out Ghost Face robes and masks, the crowd cheers for Heather Graham as Casey Becker, and two Windsor College students, Maureen Evans and Phil Stevens, are murdered in the middle of that crowd. Patrick Lussier, who edited Scream 2, says the first cut billed Stab as a Robert Rodriguez film, Dimension had the credit cut, and it came back in Scream 4. Tori Spelling plays Sidney, Luke Wilson plays Billy Loomis, and Heather Graham plays Casey. Tori Spelling also turns up as herself in a TV interview with Nancy O'Dell promoting the movie.

Scream 3 in 2000 turned the joke into the whole plot. Sunrise Studios is making Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, the first Stab that is not based on real events. The actors are being killed in the order their characters die in the script, and there are three versions of the script to keep it from leaking. The cast is Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie, the actress who played Gale in the first two Stab films, Emily Mortimer as Angelina Tyler, the new Sidney, Matt Keeslar as Tom Prinze, the new Dewey, Jenny McCarthy as Sarah Darling and Deon Richmond as Tyson Fox. The director is Roman Bridger, played by Scott Foley, and he turns out to be the killer. The producer is John Milton, played by Lance Henriksen. The production is never finished.

Scream 3 also gave Stab its biggest tie-in. Miramax built three websites that told the story of Sunrise Studios without ever mentioning Scream: the Sunrise Studios site at scream3.com, SunriseSucks.com, written by an angry anonymous insider, and GaleWeathers.com. Miramax's head of new media D'Arcy Young hired writers Amyn Kaderali and Brin Hill in September 1999 to invent thirty years of studio history, and the design firm Chopping Block built it, including 50 fake movie posters and nine fake trailers. Those sites gave the first two Stab films credits that do not match the films, which is the root of most of the arguments fans still have about who directed and starred in them.

Scream 4 in 2011 jumped ahead eleven years. By then there are seven Stab movies. The film opens on two nested openings: Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes as Sherrie and Trudie in Stab 6, then Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell as Rachel and Chloe in Stab 7, watching Stab 6, before the real opening with Marnie Cooper and Jenny Randall. Jenny explains that the first three films were based on Sidney, but Sidney threatened to sue, so the studio started making things up, and that Stab 5 has time travel. The Woodsboro High Cinema Club runs a yearly Stab-a-thon marathon in a barn, and Gale is stabbed there while the first Stab plays on a screen.

The same fall, Universal Studios Hollywood took Stab off the screen. Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life at Halloween Horror Nights 2011 told guests that Stab 8 was shooting on the Universal backlot, that a video showed Ghostface killing tourists on the tram, and that a Stab-a-thon fan fest was going ahead anyway. It ran on select nights from September 23 to October 31, 2011.

Scream in 2022 brought Stab back as the reason for the killings. A new film, directed inside the story by Rian Johnson and called simply Stab, although fans call it Stab 8, was hated by fans. It dropped the whodunit, gave Ghostface a flamethrower, and left Sidney out. Two fans who met on a Stab subreddit, Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman, killed people in Woodsboro to create real source material for a better sequel. The opening has Ghostface quiz Tara Carpenter on Stab trivia. Christopher Speed plays the fictional actor who played Randy in the first Stab, credited as Movie Randy. Matthew Lillard voices the Stab 8 Ghostface.

Scream VI in 2023 moved to New York and built a shrine to every Ghostface killing in an abandoned movie theater. The lobby has Stab posters, the shrine has props from the Stab 3 production, Gale's whole run of books including Stabbed in the Back, the fake book first mentioned on SunriseSucks.com, and Stab memorabilia. Wayne Bailey says his son Richie loved the Stab movies and made a few of his own, and one of those homemade films plays on a projector during the climax. Gale admits she could not sell the film rights to her book on the 2022 murders because studios want true crime limited series now, so no ninth Stab gets made. Paramount promoted the film with the Scream VI Experience, a walk-through in Santa Monica from February 25 to March 5, 2023, which included the shrine room.

Scream 7, directed by Kevin Williamson and released February 27, 2026, opens at the old Macher house in Woodsboro, which has been turned into an Airbnb and Stab museum full of posters, props and costumes. A Stab fan named Scott, played by Jimmy Tatro, brings his girlfriend Madison, played by Michelle Randolph. Ghostface kills them both and burns the house down. The Numbers lists Scream 7 as the biggest grossing film in the series, at $213,835,967 worldwide.

The Robert Rodriguez credit on Stab has a real story behind it. Kevin Williamson told Screen Rant on June 12, 2025 that Rodriguez almost directed Scream 2 while Wes Craven was deciding whether to come back. Craven did come back. Scream 2 editor Patrick Lussier told Scream-Thrillogy in January 2021 that the Rodriguez credit was Craven's nod to Rodriguez, who had said he did not want to be involved if Craven wanted to direct. Screen Rant's write-up of the Williamson interview says the credit is on Stab 2, which does not match the film. Rodriguez went on to make The Faculty with Williamson instead. Craven shot the Stab footage himself. Williamson told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that he loved the way Wes filmed Stab 1.

The Stab sneak preview in Scream 2 was shot in two real Los Angeles theaters. The outside is the Rialto Theatre at 1023 Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena, a 1925 movie house that closed to the public in 2010. The auditorium where Stab plays is the Vista Theatre at 4473 Sunset Drive in Los Feliz, where the scene took three days. Wikipedia says the Stab footage on the screen was shot in Malibu. The robes handed to the crowd were black cotton Lurex with a Velcro strip inside the hood, per the Propstore listing for one of them, sold in London on February 24, 2025.

The Scream 3 websites built Stab a whole fake paper trail. The Sunrise Studios filmography gave Stab a 110 minute running time from Sunrise Studios and Milton Films, and Stab 2 a 116 minute running time, based on Gale's book The Windsor College Murders. A coming attractions page sold Stab 3 with the line that the first film established the rules, the second bent the rules, and in the third you can forget all the rules. SunriseSucks.com, written by an anonymous insider plugging a tell-all book called Stabbed In The Back: The Real Sunrise Story, posted a 52 clues suspect map full of feuds, affairs, drug rumors, payoffs and missing actresses tied to the Stab productions. GaleWeathers.com had Gale interview Roman Bridger in his suite at the Beverly Hills Meridian.

Scream 4 cast its Stab openings as cameos, the way Drew Barrymore and Jada Pinkett were used in the first two films. The Hollywood Reporter reported in August 2010 that Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell had cameos, and Dimension Films confirmed it through Entertainment Weekly on August 26, 2010. Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes were reported in late August 2010. Scream 4 shot in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan from June 28 to September 24, 2010, and the Stab-a-thon barn is on Saline Waterworks Road near Saline. An alternate opening released with the October 4, 2011 Blu-ray changes how Jenny and Marnie die, but the Stab 6 and Stab 7 scenes are in both versions.

Scream (2022) explained its Stab 8 jokes in the press. Co-writer James Vanderbilt told TheWrap on January 15, 2022 that Rian Johnson had directed a big divisive piece of IP, so if a Stab movie were divisive it would be fun if it were Rian. Johnson answered on Twitter with SCREAM 8: A BENOIT BLANC MYSTERY. Producer Chad Villella told Fandom on January 20, 2022 that Matthew Lillard is the voice of the Stab 8 Ghostface with the flamethrower, and that Lillard also yells Cool house, Freeman at the party. Real YouTube horror hosts James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca of Dead Meat play the hosts of Film Fails, the channel tearing Stab 8 apart. Heather Graham told The A.V. Club in December 2020 that the filmmakers sent her the old Stab clip to approve for use in the new film.

Stab almost came back in Scream VI with its first star. An unverified early Scream VI draft dated February 11, 2022 reportedly had a scene in which Dr. Stone is watching Stab 2 when he is killed, and Tori Spelling returns as Movie Sidney with the line that she cannot believe she has to go through all of this again. The scene left the script along with the rest of Sidney's part after Neve Campbell turned down the pay offer. Tori Spelling had told unverified archival reporting in April 2021 that doing more Stab films was a fantastic idea. In early March 2026 she posted that she took her family to Scream 7 and was surprised to find her own photo in the film.

The actors who played the Stab actors keep asking for more. Parker Posey pitched bringing Jennifer Jolie back from another dimension on WNYC radio in spring 2023, and told Entertainment Tonight that there should be a Stab movie and that she really did pitch it, with her playing an older and a younger Gale using filters. None of it has been picked up.

Scream 7 took the idea of Stab tourism from a real stunt. For the first film's 25th anniversary, Airbnb offered stays on October 27, 29 or 31, 2021 at the real Scream house at 3871 Tomales Petaluma Road in Tomales, California, with David Arquette greeting guests, a private line for calls to Ghostface, a four-film marathon on VHS and snacks like Jiffy Pop. SlashFilm tied the Scream 7 opening to that event. In the film the Macher house rental has Stab posters, Ghostface mannequins, chalk outlines of the victims and a horror trivia phone call the owners set up, which ends by asking for a good review. On the drive in, Scott and Madison listen to a report that someone matching Stu Macher's description was seen at Windsor College in 1997, a nod to Matthew Lillard's uncredited party cameo in Scream 2.

As of September 2026, inside the story, the Stab series stands at eight released films, one unfinished production, a shelf of Gale Weathers books, a fan marathon, a fan-built shrine in New York that was the scene of more killings, and a burned-out Stab museum in Woodsboro. No ninth Stab has been made. Scream 8 is in development at Spyglass and Paramount. Lilla and Nora Zuckerman were announced as writers on March 31, 2026, after Scream 7 passed $200 million worldwide. unverified archival reporting reported on March 12, 2026 that Kevin Williamson said he will not direct it, and on September 13, 2026 that Courteney Cox told Deadline she thinks she should direct it. Nothing about Stab in Scream 8 has been announced.

Most of what is known about Stab 4, Stab 5, Stab 6 and Stab 7 comes from a few lines of dialogue, a few seconds of footage, and props. The directors, running times, subtitles and cast lists that fans pass around mostly come from the Scream Wiki, from prop tie-ins, and from fan-made posters. Those details are marked as unconfirmed throughout this file.

Lore and rules

Every Stab film comes from a Gale Weathers book. That is the one rule every Scream film keeps. The first Stab adapts The Woodsboro Murders, the second adapts her Windsor College book, and the released Stab 3 adapts Hollywood Horror. The chain breaks in Scream VI when her book on the 2022 killings does not sell.

There are two eras of Stab. Jenny Randall lays it out in Scream 4: the original trilogy was based on Sidney, then Sidney threatened to sue, and Sunrise started making things up. That is why Stab 4 through Stab 7 have stories with no real killings behind them, including time travel in Stab 5. Scream (2022) muddies this when Richie says Sidney is in every Stab except the 2021 film. The Scream Wiki calls this a retcon and suggests the later films used Sidney's character without her real story.

Stab 3 exists twice. Return to Woodsboro was the first Stab with a made-up plot and was never finished. The murders on its set became Gale's book and then the Stab 3 that actually came out. Jennifer Jolie was recast after her death, and the Scream Wiki notes that someone would also have had to play Jennifer herself.

Stab 7 plays with layers. Its opening is two girls watching Stab 6, so the Stab 6 footage in Scream 4 is a film inside a film inside a film. Some fans argue the Sherrie and Trudie scene is Stab 7's own recreation of Stab 6 rather than Stab 6 itself. The Scream Wiki reads Stab 7 as a nod to Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Both readings are fan theory.

The films always have two killers, per Richie in Scream (2022), and Mindy says the Stab films before the 2021 one were meta whodunits. Stab 3: Hollywood Horror is said to have two killers even though Roman acted alone. Wes Craven's Scream 3 commentary says Angelina Tyler was written as Roman's second killer, which may explain it.

Stab release dates do not line up. Scream 2 takes place less than a year after the first murders, but the Scream Wiki reads the preview marquee as April 12, 1997, and the Stab result on Tara's phone in Scream (2022) lists it as 1997. The Sunrise site lists Stab 2 as 1998 while the Scream Wiki gives December 1999. Scream VI also moved the 2022 killings, which pushed the 2021 Stab's date. Treat all in-universe years after Stab as estimates.

The Scream 3 websites are their own branch. They credit Stab to director Fred Rifkin and Stab 2 to Jerry Rapp, and cast Lori Thomas as Gale, Joey Garfield as Randy, Austin Croshere as Stu and Michael Neithardt as Cotton. The films credit Robert Rodriguez (in Scream 4) and show or name Jennifer Jolie, Christopher Speed and Craig Bierko. When they disagree, the films win. The web credits are still part of the Stab story and are listed here as the website version.

Box set spines give subtitles that are not on the title cards. Scream 4 and later films show a set labeled Stab: The Woodsboro Murders, Stab 2: The Murders Continue, Stab 3: Hollywood Horror, Stab 4: Knife of Doom, Stab 5: Clock of Doom, Stab 6: Ghostface Returns and Stab 7: Knife of the Hunter, per the Scream Wiki. The Stab 6 and Stab 7 title cards in Scream 4 read only the number. The Doom books are Scream 4 props, and the plot blurbs printed on them are treated as not canon by the Scream Wiki.

Stab only exists in the film continuity. The MTV and VH1 Scream series is its own universe and is not canon to the films (Wikipedia). The TV series has its own film within the show, The Virgin Stabbing, seen on posters in season 2.

In the Scream universe the Scream movies do not exist, so actors from our world can exist as themselves. Heather Graham is the famous Stab opening victim, and Drew Barrymore never played Casey. Carrie Fisher's Bianca Burnette complains she lost Princess Leia to someone who slept with George Lucas. The Scream Wiki reports Radio Silence joking that Roman Bridger acted in Dawson's Creek in place of Scott Foley.

The Stab 8 at Halloween Horror Nights 2011 is not the Stab 8 of Scream (2022). It belongs to a theme park story from ten years before the films reached an eighth Stab.

The Scream 3 websites do not agree with each other. The Sunrise news page says Fred Rifkin was replaced by Roman Bridger on December 7, 1999, and the SunriseSucks.com chapter on Bridger's hiring says the same. But the site's own suspect map says Jerry Rapp was fired from Stab 3 and Bridger replaced Rapp, and Bridger tells Gale no one can replace Jerry. Will Kennison's bio dates Stab 2 to 1999 while the filmography page says 1998. The Stab filmography page lists Virginia Grey and Floyd Malone as producers, while the Stab 2 page moves Malone to executive producer.

Gale's book count shifts between sources. GaleWeathers.com in 2000 calls Wrongly Accused (1995) her first book and The Woodsboro Murders (1996) her second novel, then The Windsor College Murders (1997). Scream 4 and later props call the Windsor book College Terror and add Hollywood Horror, Knife of Doom, Clock of Doom, Ghostface Returns, Knife of the Hunter and, at the Scream VI Experience, Requel: Terror Returns to Woodsboro. Scream 4 ties the made-up Stab films to her fiction.

Scream 7 treats Stab as tourism. The Macher house, where the real killings ended in 1996, is now an Airbnb and museum stocked with Stab memorabilia. It is the second Stab shrine after Richie's in New York, and both end in fire or bloodshed. The film also uses the long fan rumor that Stu survived, with a report placing someone like him at Windsor College in 1997, before revealing deepfakes.

Real people cross over. Heather Graham, Tori Spelling, Luke Wilson, David Schwimmer, Vince Vaughn, Alicia Silverstone, Ron Howard, Robert Rodriguez and Rian Johnson all exist as themselves in the Scream world. Real YouTubers James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca review Stab 8 as themselves. Roger Corman, a real B-movie producer, plays the Sunrise executive making Stab 3.

Timeline

• 1959: In-universe: producer Don Crosby and story editor Don Gordon team up to make their first film, It Walked From the Waves, for $12,000. This is the start of Sunrise Studios, per the Sunrise Studios website made for Scream 3.
• 1967: In-universe: director Bronson Bohrer shoots the biker thriller Angel Abduction for the Two Dons at Sunrise, per the Sunrise Studios website.
• 1970: In-universe: starlet Elaine Varsi disappears during the first week of shooting Is Somebody There? and is never found, per SunriseSucks.com. The Sunrise filmography lists the film as 1972.
• 1972: In-universe: actress Loretta Fisher vanishes from the set of Shutout! in the middle of a scene. Her family sues Sunrise, and studio lawyer Henry Loomis wins the case on a loophole, then leaves for Woodsboro, per SunriseSucks.com.
• 1995: In-universe: Gale Weathers publishes Wrongly Accused: The Maureen Prescott Murder, per the 2000 GaleWeathers.com books page. The Scream Wiki dates the book 1996. The site says the book held the top of the bestseller list for nearly three weeks and helped clear Cotton Weary.
• 1996: In-universe: Don Gordon dies, per the Sunrise Studios website. The Woodsboro murders happen. Gale's book The Woodsboro Murders follows and becomes the source for Stab. GaleWeathers.com dates the book 1996; the Scream Wiki says 1997.
• 1996: In-universe: Gale's The Woodsboro Murders is described on GaleWeathers.com as her second book, about two angry teenagers out to murder Sidney. It becomes the Sunrise hit Stab.
• 1996: In-universe: Sunrise buys Will Kennison's first spec script, Real Estate Agent of Death, per his Sunrise bio. It lists his credits as Real Estate Agent of Death (1996), Hacker (1997), Stab (1997), Stab 2 (1999) and Stab 3 (2000).
• December 20, 1996: Scream is released. Sidney's line about Tori Spelling playing her is the seed of the Stab joke. Date per The Numbers.
• 1997: In-universe: GaleWeathers.com dates The Windsor College Murders to 1997 and says it became the hit movie Stab 2.
• 1997: Robert Rodriguez is considered to direct Scream 2 before Wes Craven decides to return. Kevin Williamson confirmed this to Screen Rant in 2025, and editor Patrick Lussier said the Rodriguez credit on Stab was Craven's thank-you. Rodriguez made The Faculty instead.
• 1997: The Stab preview scenes for Scream 2 are shot over three days in the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz, with the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena as the outside. The Stab footage is shot in Malibu (Wikipedia).
• Mid-June 1997: Scream 2 starts a nine-week shoot (Wikipedia). The Scream Wiki says the marquee at the Stab preview shows April 12, 1997, which fans call a continuity error. Unconfirmed.
• December 12, 1997: Scream 2 is released and Stab is introduced. The Scream Wiki gives the same date as the in-universe release of Stab. The Sunrise Studios website lists Stab as a 1997 film running 110 minutes.
• Weekend ending December 14, 1997: In-universe: a fake Hollywood Informer chart on the Scream 3 tie-in site has Stab opening at number one with $33,000,000. In the real world Scream 2 opened to $32,926,342 that weekend (The Numbers).
• 1998: In-universe: Stab 2 is released, per the Sunrise Studios website, which lists it at 116 minutes and based on Gale's book The Windsor College Murders. The Scream Wiki gives December 22, 1999 instead.
• 1998: In-universe: per SunriseSucks.com, John Milton and Fred Rifkin come to blows on the Stab 2 location shoot at Columbia College, and Don Crosby bans Milton from the set. Tori Spelling sides with Milton and later refuses to return for Stab 3. The site gives no date beyond the Stab 2 shoot. Its check to Harlan Kingsley places Milton on that set on January 24, 1998.
• January 24, 1998: In-universe: John Milton writes a $2,200 check to Harlan Kingsley for entertainment, the day Kingsley visits the Stab 2 set, per SunriseSucks.com.
• Spring 1999: In-universe: casting starts for Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, per the Scream Wiki. The Sunrise Studios website said casting starts November 1999.
• July 6 to September 29, 1999: Scream 3, the film about the making of Stab 3, shoots. The ending is reshot in January 2000 (Wikipedia).
• September 1999: Miramax new media head D'Arcy Young asks Amyn Kaderali and Brin Hill to write the thirty-year history of Sunrise Studios for the Scream 3 websites .
• November 17, 1999: In-universe: the Sunrise news page runs Stab Looking Razor Sharp. Will Kennison drops off the script for the series' last installment, predictably titled Stab 3, on a Monday morning, and Don Crosby is packaging the film by lunch.
• November 1999: In-universe: the Sunrise coming attractions page lists Stab 3 with Fred Rifkin directing, Will Kennison writing and producing, and casting starting November 1999.
• November 22, 1999: In-universe: Sunrise announces Sunrise Classics, a filmography section with vintage posters and trailers, debuting December 1.
• December 8, 1999: In-universe: the Sunrise news page runs Rifkin Wrapped, Roman Rules. Fred Rifkin is out and music video director Roman Bridger is in as director of Stab 3, a decision John Milton made the day before, ending a rocky first two weeks of preproduction. SunriseSucks.com's suspect map instead says Bridger replaced Jerry Rapp.
• 2000: In-universe: Gale publishes Hollywood Horror, subtitled The True Story of Stab 3, the basis for the later Stab 3 (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• February 1, 2000: Earliest archive.org capture of GaleWeathers.com, the Scream 3 tie-in site with Gale's interviews of Will Kennison, Dusty Penn and Roman Bridger.
• February 3, 2000: Scream 3 premieres in Westwood, Los Angeles (Wikipedia).
• February 4, 2000: Scream 3 is released. Return to Woodsboro is shut down inside the story. The Scream Wiki dates the in-universe Hollywood murders from February 1 to February 4, 2000.
• March 4, 2000: Archive.org captures a hacked version of the Sunrise news page with a message pointing visitors to SunriseSucks.com.
• April 8, 2000: Earliest archive.org captures of SunriseSucks.com pages, including the chapter about commissary chef Martin Stevens.
• September 26, 2000: The Scream Trilogy DVD box set is released in the US (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• About 2006: In-universe: Stab 3: Hollywood Horror is released. The year is worked out by fans from Scream 4, where Rebecca Walters says the Stab versions of Gale and Dewey had been married ten years in Stab 3. Unconfirmed.
• 2007 to 2009: In-universe: Stab 4, Stab 5 and Stab 6 are released, per the Scream Wiki. The exact years are unconfirmed.
• 2009: In-universe: Charlie Walker and Robbie Mercer hold the first Stab-a-thon in Woodsboro, showing six Stab films, per the Scream Wiki. Unconfirmed.
• 2010: In-universe: Stab 7, with Kristen Bell as Chloe, is released. The second Stab-a-thon shows all seven films (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• May 2010: In May 2010 producer Cathy Konrad sues the Weinsteins for $3 million over her claim to first rights to produce Scream films. The case settles out of court in April 2011 (Wikipedia).
• June 28 to September 24, 2010: Scream 4 shoots in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, including the Stab-a-thon barn near Saline (Wikipedia, Movie-Locations.com).
• August 2010: Anna Paquin and Kristen Bell are reported for cameos in Scream 4. On August 26, 2010 CBS News reports Dimension Films confirmed the casting to Entertainment Weekly. Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes are reported later that summer.
• Late January to early February 2011: Aimee Teegarden and Alison Brie return to Detroit for four days of extra shooting on Scream 4, including Jenny's scenes from the opening that follows the Stab 7 footage (Wikipedia).
• April 15, 2011: Scream 4 is released with the Stab 6 and Stab 7 openings and the Stab-a-thon.
• August 16, 2011: Universal Studios Hollywood announces Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life and the fictional production of Stab 8 on its backlot (PR Newswire).
• September 6, 2011: The Scream Trilogy is re-released as a triple pack in the US (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• September 23 to October 31, 2011: Halloween Horror Nights 2011 runs on select nights with the Stab 8 Terror Tram. The Halloween Horror Nights Wiki says its Stab-a-thon scene was set at the Bates Motel (unconfirmed).
• September 30, 2011: In-universe: the third Stab-a-thon, where Gale is attacked, per the Scream Wiki timeline. Unconfirmed.
• October 3, 2011: /Film posts the Scream 4 alternate opening, where Marnie is really dead when Jenny finds her. The Stab 6 and Stab 7 scenes stay the same.
• October 4, 2011: Scream 4 comes out on DVD and Blu-ray, in the middle of the Stab 8 Terror Tram run.
• November 2019: Spyglass Media Group acquires the rights to make new Scream films (Wikipedia).
• December 15, 2020: The A.V. Club publishes Heather Graham saying the new Scream sent her the Stab clip, with her Drew Barrymore style wig, for approval.
• January 14, 2021: In-universe: release date the Scream Wiki gives for Stab, the eighth film. Unconfirmed. The wiki also notes the film was first meant to be a 2020 release before Scream VI moved the timeline.
• April 19, 2021: An unverified archival report quotes Tori Spelling saying more Stab films would be a fantastic idea, ahead of a Clubhouse table read of Scream on April 21, 2021 where she reads Sidney.
• May 7, 2021: In-universe: the Film Fails channel posts its takedown of Stab 8, as seen on Richie's laptop, per the Scream Wiki. Unconfirmed.
• October 27, 29 and 31, 2021: Airbnb offers one-night stays at the real Scream house in Tomales, California for the 25th anniversary, hosted by David Arquette. SlashFilm later ties the Scream 7 Stab museum rental to it.
• January 14, 2022: Scream is released in the US. Stab 8 and its angry fans drive the plot. The Numbers lists January 12, the first international date.
• January 15, 2022: TheWrap publishes James Vanderbilt explaining that Rian Johnson had directed a divisive eighth Star Wars film, so he fit the divisive Stab 8.
• January 2022: TheWrap publishes Radio Silence's interview revealing the planned YouTube clip of Rian Johnson talking about making Stab 8 with Kirby Reed.
• January 20, 2022: Producer Chad Villella tells Fandom that Matthew Lillard voices the Stab 8 flamethrower Ghostface (reported by Looper).
• January 2022: Rian Johnson tweets SCREAM 8: A BENOIT BLANC MYSTERY in reply to the Stab 8 joke (Collider).
• February 11, 2022: Date on an early Scream VI draft with Tori Spelling back as Movie Sidney in Stab 2, later circulated in an unverified archival copy.
• January 19, 2023: Unverified archival coverage describes the Scream VI trailer's first look at the Ghostface shrine, with the masks from the Stab premiere in Scream 2.
• January 24, 2023: CBR breaks down the Stab items seen in the shrine in the Scream VI trailer: a mask, a fake knife, a Stab T-shirt, Blu-rays, scripts, a Stab 3 film reel and a clapperboard.
• February 10, 2023: The official Scream account posts the Doaly fan event print with the Stab: The Musical billboard (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed). Fangirlish writes it up on February 13.
• February 25 to March 5, 2023: The Scream VI Experience runs at 1231 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica on February 25 and 26 and March 4 and 5, 2023. Admission is free. It includes the Shrine Room and scenes from Stab (EURweb). Chain serves a Stabby Meal with a Bone Marrow ChainBurger, Throwback Fries and a Woodsboro Orchards Apple Pie.
• February 26, 2023: Collider reports Gale's new book Requel: Terror Returns to Woodsboro in the bodega at the Scream VI Experience.
• March 9, 2023: Scream VI 3D fan event screenings, with a limited collector's print by Doaly. The print shows a fake Times Square billboard for Stab: The Musical (Fangirlish).
• March 10, 2023: Scream VI is released in the US with the Ghostface shrine and Richie's homemade Stab film.
• Spring 2023: Parker Posey pitches a Jennifer Jolie return from another dimension on WNYC radio (Screen Rant, April 19, 2023).
• April 4, 2023: An unverified interview with Scream VI production designer Michele Laliberte, with the art department crew behind the shrine.
• March 2024: Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first Stab joke into Scream, is hired to direct Scream 7 (Wikipedia).
• June 2, 2024: An unverified archival copy presents the lost Scream VI script with the Stab 2 cameo for Tori Spelling.
• Winter 2025: Propstore's Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction in London sells a Stab-a-thon attendee's Ghostface mask and costume from Scream 4.
• January 7 to March 12, 2025: Scream 7, with its Stab museum opening, shoots in Atlanta, Georgia (Wikipedia).
• Early 2025: Parker Posey tells Entertainment Tonight there should be a Stab movie and that she pitched it (JoBlo).
• February 24, 2025: Propstore sells a Scream 2 Stab preview Ghostface robe, lot 334 of its Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction, estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 pounds.
• June 12, 2025: Kevin Williamson tells Screen Rant that Robert Rodriguez almost directed Scream 2.
• August 12 to August 26, 2025: Spyglass and VIP Fan Auctions hold the Scream VI Signature Auction of 147 lots, including a production used Franchise Stab Script Set that sold for $190 (Collector's Hype for the dates and lot count; the $190 price is from the Scream Wiki and unconfirmed).
• February 25, 2026: Scream 7 premieres on the Paramount lot (Wikipedia).
• Late February 2026: Reports say plans for Scream 8 are already underway as Scream 7 opens (MovieWeb, February 28).
• February 27, 2026: Scream 7 is released in the US. The opening takes place in a Stab museum and Airbnb at the old Macher house.
• February 27 to March 1, 2026: Scream 7 opens to a franchise record. The Numbers lists $63,615,172; Variety and Fortune reported $64.1 million.
• March 5, 2026: Tori Spelling posts that she took her family to Scream 7 and was shocked to find her photo in it. This is known only from a repost on X, so it is unconfirmed.
• March 7, 2026: Screen Rant publishes its breakdown of the Scream 7 opening, where the Stab fans hear a rumor that Stu Macher was seen at Windsor College in 1997.
• March 12, 2026: An unverified archival report says Kevin Williamson saying he will not direct Scream 8.
• March 31, 2026: Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, the Poker Face showrunners, are announced as writers of Scream 8 (Wikipedia, unverified archival reporting).
• September 13, 2026: An unverified archival report says Courteney Cox told Deadline she should direct Scream 8. No Stab plans are known.
• November 2026: In-universe: the Scream Wiki places the Scream 7 killings in mid-November 2026. Unconfirmed.

The killers

Characters

Places

In full

• Box office: No Stab film has a real box office figure; they only exist inside the story. The Numbers lists these figures for the real films. The six Scream films that feature Stab (Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Scream 2022, Scream VI and Scream 7) add up to $206,000,000 in budgets, $540,650,784 domestic and $951,965,573 worldwide. With the first Scream the seven films add up to $221,000,000 in budgets, $643,697,447 domestic and $1,125,012,213 worldwide. The Numbers franchise page shows $1,124,412,213 worldwide when checked in September 2026, which is $600,000 less than its own film rows. The Numbers uses the first worldwide release dates, so it lists Scream (2022) on January 12, Scream VI on March 8 and Scream 7 on February 19.

Box office

No Stab film has a real box office figure; they only exist inside the story. The Numbers lists these figures for the real films. The six Scream films that feature Stab (Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Scream 2022, Scream VI and Scream 7) add up to $206,000,000 in budgets, $540,650,784 domestic and $951,965,573 worldwide. With the first Scream the seven films add up to $221,000,000 in budgets, $643,697,447 domestic and $1,125,012,213 worldwide. The Numbers franchise page shows $1,124,412,213 worldwide when checked in September 2026, which is $600,000 less than its own film rows. The Numbers uses the first worldwide release dates, so it lists Scream (2022) on January 12, Scream VI on March 8 and Scream 7 on February 19.

Rights and business

Inside the story, Stab belongs to Sunrise Studios. The studio's website history says Don Crosby and Don Gordon founded it in 1959, that Bill Birch directed its first film, and that it grew into a Hollywood institution. The Stab films were made there by producer John Milton, with Crosby, Birch and Floyd Malone as executive producers. The same site called Sunrise the home of Milton and director Fred Rifkin.

Money and rights run through every Stab tie-in. SunriseSucks.com's suspect map says John Milton owed Gale significant cash for the rights to her two books, that Gale's relationship with Sunrise was damaged, and that Sidney's father Neil Prescott protested every Sunrise project because the family never got paid for Stab. It also says Sunrise paid chef Martin Stevens $400,000 after his son died at the Stab preview, and that the family of missing actress Loretta Fisher sued Sunrise and lost. GaleWeathers.com has Gale needle Will Kennison about losing a contract lawsuit against Sunrise over The Legend of Slim Carter.

Scream 4 gives the one lawsuit that changed the films: Sidney threatened to sue Sunrise if it kept using her story, so the studio switched to invented plots after Stab 3. Scream VI shows the other end of the business. Gale's book on the 2022 murders could not find a buyer for film rights because the market had moved to true crime limited series.

In the real world, Stab was created by Miramax's Dimension Films label. The Scream 3 websites were a Miramax New Media project built by Chopping Block. Miramax got real job applications from visitors who believed Sunrise Studios was a real company.

Scream 4 came from The Weinstein Company. In May 2010 producer Cathy Konrad sued the Weinsteins for $3 million, claiming first rights to produce all Scream films, and the case was settled out of court in April 2011. The Halloween Horror Nights Wiki reports that John Murdy said rights issues with Weinstein and Dimension kept Universal from making a full Scream maze in 2011, which is why the Stab 8 Terror Tram was built instead. That last point is unconfirmed.

After sexual misconduct allegations shut down The Weinstein Company, Spyglass Media Group acquired rights to new Scream films in November 2019, and Paramount became the distributor starting with Scream (2022). The Scream Wiki notes the Stab box set in Scream (2022) still carries the Dimension Films logo.

Stab props now sell. Spyglass and VIP Fan Auctions ran the Scream VI Signature Auction from August 12 to 26, 2025 with 147 lots, including a production used Franchise Stab Script Set and a shrine copy of The Woodsboro Murders book cover. The Scream Wiki's auction record gives $190 and $900 for those (unconfirmed). Propstore has sold a Stab-a-thon attendee's Ghostface mask and costume, a Zombie Ghostface Stab-a-thon costume and a Zombie Ghostface Stab mask from Scream 4. YourProps listed an original Stab 4 poster from Scream 4.

Fans can buy replicas. ReplicaPropStore sells A2 prints of the Stab 2 and Stab 3 posters from Scream 3, both sold out when checked. The Scream Wiki says a screen-accurate Stabbed in the Back cover was sold on Etsy for a time (unconfirmed).

SunriseSucks.com adds more in-universe money trouble around Stab. Don Crosby was forced by Tori Spelling to keep John Milton on the Stab 2 set, then banned him after the Rifkin fight. Milton wrote a $2,200 check to Harlan Kingsley for entertainment. A Regal Beverly Hotel receipt, dated two days before Fred Rifkin was fired from Stab 3, is offered as proof that agent Beverly Choi traded favors with Milton to get Roman Bridger hired. Bridger told Gale he had a two-picture deal at Sunrise.

Stab costumes and props keep selling at auction. Propstore sold a Scream 2 Stab preview Ghostface robe in London on February 24, 2025, estimated at 2,000 to 4,000 pounds. ReplicaPropStore also sells a Stab T-shirt from Scream 4.

The Scream films are made by Spyglass Media Group and released by Paramount Pictures. Scream 7 was the biggest earner in the series. The Scream 8 writers were announced March 31, 2026, after Scream 7 passed $200 million worldwide.

Inside the story, Stab is a hit that nobody seems to like for long. Gale predicts huge numbers for the first one after the preview murders. By Scream 4, teenagers treat the series as a joke that keeps getting worse, with Stab 5's time travel singled out as the low point, while Charlie and Robbie still throw a yearly marathon. By Scream (2022), the 2021 Stab is hated online, with fans on 4chan and Dreadit saying it ruined their childhoods and a Film Fails review tearing it apart.

That fan anger is the point of Scream (2022). Richie and Amber are toxic fans who kill to force the series back to basics. James Vanderbilt told TheWrap they picked Rian Johnson because his eighth Star Wars film divided fans. Johnson answered on Twitter with SCREAM 8: A BENOIT BLANC MYSTERY (Collider).

The Scream 3 websites are an early landmark in movie tie-in sites. unverified archival reporting's history of the sites quotes D'Arcy Young calling them a reward for seeing the movie rather than an ad. The sites kept up the story that Sunrise Studios was real and avoided mentioning Scream.

Scream VI made fan work canon. The Stabbed in the Back book had no official cover, so fans made one. The Scream Wiki says the Scream VI graphic designer copied that fan cover for the shrine as a nod to fans (unconfirmed). Michele Laliberte told unverified archival reporting that the graphics files from earlier films were not available, so the Stab posters and book covers had to be recreated. The Scream VI Experience brought the shrine to Santa Monica and, per Thinkingbox, drew 2,545 visitors and more than 350 million social impressions.

Stab keeps growing into the real world. Universal staged a fake Stab 8 production in 2011. The Scream Franchise TikTok ARG named its channel TooBrAshSarah, whose initials TBAS are an anagram of STAB, and used the email stopthestab@gmail.com (Fangirlish). Scream 7 turns the Macher house into a Stab museum for tourists.

The Stab idea has fan films of its own. StabMovies.com has made its own Stab films since 2010.

Scream 3 got weak reviews on release, but Wikipedia notes it has been reappraised since the MeToo movement. Scream 3 and Scream 4 lean on Stab more than any other films in the series.

Critics and fans single out the Stab fans in Scream 7. Screen Rant said Jimmy Tatro gives one of the most memorable performances in Scream 7 from that one scene. The film itself got poor reviews, with 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 35 on Metacritic and a B minus CinemaScore, but set a franchise opening record.

The Stab actors have become part of the fan following. Tori Spelling, Parker Posey and Heather Graham have all talked about Stab in interviews in the 2020s, and Spelling read the part of Sidney in a 2021 Clubhouse table read of Scream. Fangirlish readers pitched casting for a Stab musical after the Doaly print.

Fan sites keep the tie-in websites alive. unverified archival reporting wrote a history of the Scream 3 sites and interviewed the Scream VI shrine crew. Bloody Disgusting, CBR and Elevated Horror each catalogued the Stab items in the Scream VI shrine.

Awards

• In-universe: Dante Paltrow, composer of Stab and Stab 2, is described on the Sunrise Studios website as an Oscar winner.
• In-universe: Dusty Penn, Stab 2's Derek, won Best Actor at the Moondance Film Festival for Hello, my name is..., per his Sunrise Studios bio.
• In-universe: Roman Bridger, director of Stab 3, keeps a Music Video Award in his Sunrise office, per the Scream Wiki (unconfirmed).
• In-universe: Sunrise Studios bills itself as award-winning on its website.
• In-universe: GaleWeathers.com calls Gale a future Pulitzer Prize winner and quotes book reviews from the National Book Guide and the New York Book Guardian.
• In-universe: Roman Bridger is described on GaleWeathers.com as an acclaimed music video director with a cult following on MTV.
• In-universe: the Sunrise history page quotes the Hollywood Informer in 1996 saying the legendary Sunrise Studios defines genres and invents trends.
• Real world: Tori Spelling was nominated for the 1997 Golden Raspberry for Worst New Star, which Wikipedia ties to her short cameo in Scream 2. No award for the Stab tie-ins was found.

Parodies and references

• The Stab logo copies the Scream logo, with a blade in the T where Scream has one in the M (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• Tori Spelling playing Sidney pays off Sidney's line in the first Scream. Nerdist says Spelling thought the joke was funny.
• Alicia Silverstone as Tatum nods to the As if line in the first Scream, her Clueless catchphrase (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• Stab's Casey showering during a storm pokes fun at slasher films adding nudity for no reason (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• The three Stab 3 scripts joke about the Scream 2 script leaking online, which Wikipedia says an extra did.
• Jennifer Jolie, Angelina Tyler, Tom Prinze and Sarah Darling are named by mixing celebrity names, such as Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).
• GaleWeathers.com compares Roman Bridger to music video directors turned filmmakers David Fincher, Spike Jonze and Hype Williams.
• The Scream Wiki says Stab 6's Sherrie and Trudie mention Saw IV, Channing Tatum's Abercrombie photos and being punked (unconfirmed).
• The Scream Wiki says Stab 6's stalker pokes fun at an old Scream 4 idea of a Facebook killer (unconfirmed).
• The Scream Wiki notes Sherrie says the names Bailey and Wayne in Stab 6, years before Wayne Bailey appears in Scream VI (unconfirmed).
• Stab 7's opening, with a girl stabbing the friend sitting next to her during a Stab movie, echoes Maureen Evans at the Stab preview in Scream 2.
• Collider reads Stab 7 as a nod to Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the seventh Elm Street film, which also treats earlier films as fiction.
• Rian Johnson as director of the hated Stab 8 is read as a joke about the fan reaction to The Last Jedi, and he is called the Knives Out guy.
• The Dead Meat Film Fails video in Scream (2022) shows 122,096 views, matching the first Scream's December 20, 1996 release, per the Scream Wiki (unconfirmed).
• The Scream Wiki says a recommended video on Richie's laptop asks whether the real Stu Macher survived, a fan theory Scream 7 later uses (unconfirmed).
• The Halloween Horror Nights Wiki says the Terror Tram's news anchor was named Sidney Gale, after Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers (unconfirmed).
• SunriseSucks.com calls the studio Sunlies Studios and the sleaze factory.
• The Scream (2022) TikTok game hid STAB in its handle, @TooBrAshSarah (Bleeding Cool, Fangirlish).
• The Scream TV series has its own Stab stand-in, The Virgin Stabbing, a play on The Virgin Suicides (unconfirmed).
• Roman Bridger tells Gale he put rapper Eminime in a polar bear suit and dropped Jewel into the Sahara, a joke on Eminem and real music videos.
• Sunrise's fake filmography includes There's Something About Carrie, Frankenpimp, Amazombies and Mosquitoes Take Manhattan, jokes on real titles.
• Stab 7's Rachel complains about J-horror remakes and the old self-aware slasher style of 1996.
• Scream 7's Stab museum rental echoes the real 2021 Airbnb stay at the Scream house hosted by David Arquette.
• The Scream 7 opening's report of a Stu lookalike at Windsor College in 1997 points to Matthew Lillard's uncredited party cameo in Scream 2.
• Chain's Stabby Meal for Scream VI came in a kids' meal box with a toy.
• Real stage parodies unrelated to the films include The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Scream in Los Angeles in 2015 and Scream'd: An Unauthorized Musical Parody in Las Vegas in 2024.

Fandom

Stab fandom is built into the films. Charlie Walker and Robbie Mercer run the Stab-A-Thon in Scream 4. Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman meet on a Stab subreddit because they both hate Stab 8, and they commit the 2022 murders to force a return to basics. Inside the story, Mindy says that on 4chan and Dreadit everyone is talking about how Stab 8 ruined their childhoods. Gillett told Gizmodo the Stab films let them try campy ideas off screen while the Scream film stays grounded.

Richie Kirsch made his own Stab fan films as a teenager. In Scream VI, his father Wayne Bailey says Richie really loved the Stab movies and made a few of his own. The footage plays in the shrine. Wikipedia says some of it is Jack Quaid's real home video. The Scream Wiki describes a cheap remake of Casey Becker's death and a mask burning (unconfirmed).

The Scream VI shrine is a fan collection on screen. It sits in an abandoned movie theater and has a robe for each earlier killer and Gale's Stab source books in a case. Fan write-ups list the Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro slate, script, film reel and green Ghostface wall mask. Wikipedia says none of it is original props from the old films; the art and costume departments rebuilt everything. The fan-made Stabbed In The Back cover in the display case was reportedly chosen as a nod to fans (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed).

Real fans have been making Stab things for years. StabMovies.com, founded in 2010, makes its own Stab fan films and poster art and puts every film on YouTube for free. Its catalog includes Stab 5 (2011), STAB 2 (2022) and Stab 3: Holiday Horror (2023). In 2026 it was shooting Stab 5: Clock of Doom, due in 2027. In September 2022 it redrew the posters for Stab 1 through 8 to match the screen. Fan-made Stab posters, shirts, slates and set passes also sell on TeePublic, Etsy, eBay and print shops.

The Scream Wiki community treats Stab as its own franchise. It keeps a page for each film, a Stab Actors guide, a Stab Posters category, and long lists of continuity errors between the Stab films and the real events. It also keeps a lot-by-lot record of the 2025 Scream VI auction.

Fans also turned up in the marketing. The Halloween Horror Nights Wiki says the 2011 Terror Tram queue video had a webcast by the True Fans of Horror calling Stab 8 an epic fail (unconfirmed). The Scream (2022) TikTok game was run by two Woodsboro Horror Film Club members, Sarah and Ash, whose handle spells STAB.

Scream 7 opens with a Stab superfan, Scott, dragging his girlfriend to the Stab museum Airbnb. Reviewers used Stab as a stick to beat the film with. The Twin Geeks said there is a lot of money in making more basic Stab movies. Wolf's Gaming Blog titled its review "It's Just Stab At This Point".

Other people make Stab fan films too. On YouTube there is "Stab (A scream fan film)" from Emerson Fortier and "It's a Stab! | A Scream Fan Film" from heyitsarm. IMDb lists Director's Cut: A Scream Fan Film, about a group of filmmakers set in the Scream universe who want to make the best Stab fan film.

The on-screen Stab fans keep getting darker. Charlie Walker founded the Stab-a-thon in Scream 4. Amber Freeman became obsessed with the first Stab after her parents bought Stu Macher's house, and Richie Kirsch groomed her on a Stab subreddit when she was 17, per the Scream Wiki (unconfirmed). Scream 7 opens with Scott, a Stab superfan played by Jimmy Tatro, dragging his girlfriend Madison, played by Michelle Randolph, to the Stab museum.

The Scream VI shrine includes Stab-a-thon tickets, posters and banners, and a box of Stab merchandise: a mask, fake knife and costume like the premiere giveaway in Scream 2, plus Blu-rays and a t-shirt (Scream Wiki, unconfirmed). The Scream Wiki counts seven Stab posters in the theater hallway: Stab, Stab 2, Stab 3, Stab 4, Stab 5, Stab 7 and the 2021 Stab, with no Stab 6 poster (unconfirmed).

Fans in the story watch the films out of order too. unverified archival reporting's Scream 4 trivia notes that at the Stab-a-thon the burning popcorn plays before the shower scene, even though the shower comes first in Stab.

Documentaries and retrospectives

Music

Merchandise lines

Home media collections

News in 2026

• February 15, 2026: Ice Nine Kills released Twisting the Knife featuring McKenna Grace, the Scream 7 song (Just Jared posted the lyrics February 19; the Scream Wiki gives February 15, unconfirmed).
• February 25, 2026: Scream 7 premiered on the Paramount Pictures lot. Kevin Williamson directed it, the first Scream he directed. It opens at the Macher house, now an Airbnb and Stab museum. Screen Rant describes Stab posters, props and costumes, Ghostface mannequins and a horror trivia phone call.
• February 27, 2026: Scream 7 opened in the U.S. Wikipedia gives a $63.6 million domestic opening; Variety's weekend report said $64.1 million domestic and $97.2 million worldwide. Either way it beat Scream VI's $44.4 million record. Paramount put its global opening at $97 million. It reached $214 million worldwide on a $45 million budget, the series high. Rotten Tomatoes had it at 30 percent, Metacritic at 35, and CinemaScore gave it a B minus.
• February 27, 2026: NECA opened preorders for Ultimate Ghost Face Returns, a 7-inch figure shown at New York Toy Fair (Dread Central).
• March 2, 2026: The Twin Geeks ran "Scream 7: Stab in Stasis", arguing the franchise has become the junky Stab series it used to mock.
• March 6, 2026: Wolf's Gaming Blog ran "Scream 7 Spoiler Review: It's Just Stab At This Point", noting the original Woodsboro house is now an Airbnb for Stab fans.
• March 8, 2026: StabMovies.com put Scream 7 Stab replica posters up on its Scream replicas page.
• March 18, 2026: Aceshowbiz reported that executive producer Marianne Maddalena told Variety Scream 8 was set to start filming in fall 2026, with no exact date locked.
• March 19 to 20, 2026: Lionsgate Limited listed a Scream 4 4K SteelBook ($34.99) and a playable Scream 4 VHS, Be Kind Rewind Edition ($29.99), in its store.
• March 31, 2026: Scream 7 came out for digital rental and purchase with over 40 minutes of extras. Wikipedia says Scream 8 was announced the same day, with Lilla and Nora Zuckerman writing, through Paramount and Spyglass.
• March 12, 2026: Kevin Williamson told unverified archival reporting he will not direct Scream 8 and does not need to be front and center. The Hollywood Reporter ran the same news.
• 2026: Spirit Halloween's 2026 Ghost Face animatronic, 6 feet 7 inches tall, sold for $279.99 (Haunted Attraction Network).
• May 8, 2026: StabMovies.com announced it had found screen-right retractable Buck 120 replica knives after fifteen years of looking.
• May 22, 2026: Lakeshore Records released Marco Beltrami's Scream 7 score digitally (Film Music Reporter).
• June 6, 2026: StabMovies.com said the cast of Stab 5: Clock of Doom had finished their in-character promotional photo shoots.
• June 9, 2026: Lionsgate Limited released Scream 4 in 4K for its 15th anniversary, with a SteelBook and a VHS edition (Wikipedia). It is the first 4K release of the Stab 6 and Stab 7 openings and the Stab-a-thon.
• June 16, 2026: Scream 7 came out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, including a SteelBook and a gift set with a Ghostface figure (Blu-ray.com).
• July 21, 2026: The official Paramount Shop carried a Scream 30th Anniversary Kill Tour t-shirt. It still had no Stab-branded items in September 2026.
• August 5, 2026: StabMovies.com posted a production update from the set of Stab 5: Clock of Doom.
• August 6, 2026: Haunted Attraction Network listed Spirit Halloween's 2026 Ghost Face line, $7.99 to $279.99. Nothing in it is Stab branded.
• August 7 to 9, 2026: Midsummer Scream in Long Beach held the Scream 30th anniversary celebration, with Lillard, Ulrich, Arquette, Kennedy, Whipp, Waddell, Roger L. Jackson and Marco Beltrami, a rebuilt Bradley Video from Paramount Scares, and The Sound of Scream panel.
• August 8, 2026: During Midsummer Scream, Paramount announced that the original Scream returns to theaters October 30, 2026 (Haunted Attraction Network).
• August 13, 2026: StabMovies.com relaunched its website.
• Through early October 2026 (current): StabMovies.com is filming Stab 5: Clock of Doom, planned for free release in 2027.
• Fall 2026 (upcoming): Scream 8 is expected to start filming, with October reported as the target (Scream Horror Mag, citing an unnamed source). MovieWeb notes Paramount has an untitled horror film dated July 16, 2027, that could be Scream 8, but that is a guess. Nothing has been announced about Stab in it.
• October 30, 2026 (upcoming): Scream returns to select theaters for its 30th anniversary.

Trivia

• Stab started as a joke in the first Scream. Sidney says that with her luck they would get Tori Spelling to play her, and in Scream 2 they did.
• Nerdist reports that Tori Spelling auditioned for Sidney in the first Scream.
• The Stab footage in Scream 2 was shot by Wes Craven. Patrick Lussier told Scream-Thrillogy that the original cut credited Robert Rodriguez as director of Stab, Dimension insisted on cutting the credit, and it was restored in Scream 4. Kevin Williamson told Screen Rant that Rodriguez almost directed Scream 2, and Lussier says the credit was Craven's thanks to Rodriguez for stepping aside.
• Wikipedia says the Stab footage in Scream 2 was shot in Malibu. The preview scene took three days inside the Vista Theatre, with the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena used for the outside.
• Heather Graham told The A.V. Club in December 2020 that the Scream (2022) team had just sent her the Stab clip because they were using it in the new film. She joked about the wig she wore.
• The Stab logo copies the Scream logo. The Scream Wiki says the blade-shaped T in Stab matches the blade-shaped M in Scream.
• Sources do not agree on how to credit Gale in Stab. Screen Rant lists Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie playing Gale, while the Sunrise Studios website credited Lori Thomas.
• Screen Rant lists Joey Garfield as Randy in Stab 2 and Kelly Rutherford as Christine Hamilton playing Cici. The 2022 film gives Christopher Speed as Stab's Randy.
• Christopher Speed plays Randy in Stab in Scream (2022). Nerdist reported that Seth Green was the first plan for Stab's Randy, and the pandemic stopped it. Nerdist also points out that this pays off Randy's Scream 2 complaint about being played by a nobody.
• Wikipedia says Scream (2022) used footage of Scott Foley and Joshua Jackson from the Dawson's Creek episode The Scare.
• Matthew Lillard, the real Stu Macher, voices the flamethrower Ghostface in the Stab 8 clip, with the line quoted as "this shit is lit" by The Digital Fix. Producer Chad Villella confirmed the casting to Fandom. Nerdist says the directors sent Lillard a pile of the stupidest lines they could think of, and Bettinelli-Olpin said he really wants to release the recording. Lillard also has a line at the party.
• Rian Johnson was meant to cameo as himself in Scream (2022), talking about Stab 8 with Kirby Reed in a YouTube clip. Wikipedia says his work on Glass Onion prevented it. In the finished film he is only "the Knives Out guy".
• The Scream Wiki says Radio Silence explained on Reddit that the Rian Johnson and Hayden Panettiere cameo was also dropped to avoid shoehorning Panettiere in (unconfirmed). Villella told TheWrap they had a Zoom with her and wanted to find a way to get her in.
• Credits for Stab 2's director disagree. The Scream Wiki says the Stab 2 poster in Scream 3 credits Tom Fletcher, while the remade Stab 2 poster in Scream VI credits Rodriguez (unconfirmed). The Sunrise Studios website credits Jerry Rapp. Screen Rant's write-up of the Williamson interview also says Rodriguez is credited on Stab 2.
• Sources disagree on the years. The Sunrise Studios website lists Stab as 1997 and Stab 2 as 1998. The Scream Wiki uses December 12, 1997 for Stab and December 22, 1999 for Stab 2, then 2006 for Stab 3: Hollywood Horror, 2007, 2008 and 2009 for Stab 4 through 6, and 2010 for Stab 7 (unconfirmed). None of these years are stated outright in any film.
• Stab 8 has no number in its own title. In the film the 2021 entry is just called Stab, the way Scream (2022) dropped the 5. Richie and the online fans still call it Stab 8.
• Screen Rant lists Stab 6 as Stab 6: Ghostface Returns. Game Rant gives subtitles for every film, from Stab 2: The Murders Continue through Stab 7: Knife of the Hunter. The Stab 6 and Stab 7 title cards in Scream 4 read only the number.
• The Stab-a-thon was not in Scream 4's original script, per Wikipedia.
• unverified archival reporting's trivia says Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan were rumored as the first choices for the Stab 7 roles that went to Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin.
• The Scream Wiki says that in the Stab 6 opening Sherrie says the names Lisa, Bailey and Wayne, years before Wayne Bailey became the killer detective in Scream VI (unconfirmed).
• Collider says the Stab 6 opening in Scream 4 shows two Ghostfaces killing Sherrie and Trudie.
• Wikipedia says Kevin Williamson's original Scream 3 idea had the killers be a Stab fan club of Woodsboro kids.
• The Scream Wiki says Tyson Fox guesses Cotton's killer was a Stab fan angry that Randy was killed in Stab 2, and ties the line to hate mail Wes Craven got for killing Randy in Scream 2 (unconfirmed).
• The three Stab 3 scripts in Scream 3 joke about Scream 2's script, which Wikipedia says an extra leaked online in full.
• The film studio where Stab 3 is shot in Scream 3 is CBS Studio Center in Studio City (Wikipedia). Jay and Silent Bob wander the lot, played by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith. The Scream Wiki says the empty chair on the set carries the name of real cinematographer Peter Deming (unconfirmed).
• Slate reported in 2019 that screenwriter Ehren Kruger liked the idea of a producer with the ego to name himself after John Milton, the poet who wrote Paradise Lost, without understanding its themes. The Scream Wiki says Wes Craven was briefly considered for the part (unconfirmed).
• In Scream 3, Jenny McCarthy's Sarah Darling complains that her Stab 3 character, Candy, dies after two scenes.
• Carrie Fisher's Sunrise Studios archivist says she lost Princess Leia to someone who slept with George Lucas. Wikipedia says Fisher helped write the character.
• The Scream Wiki says deleted Scream 3 material had Gale die third in the Stab 3 script and then get unmasked as the killer (unconfirmed).
• The Sunrise Studios tie-in site dates the studio to 1959, when Don Crosby and Don Gordon made It Walked From The Waves for $12,000. It claims distribution in over 200 countries, more than 35 films a year and a library of over 500 titles.
• SunriseSucks.com said Tori Spelling would not return for Stab 3 because of the Milton and Rifkin feud. It said Milton was banned from the Stab 2 set after Rifkin went after him physically. It also said a check dated January 24, 1998, showed Milton paying Harlan Kingsley $2,200 for "entertainment".
• SunriseSucks.com said Sunrise commissary chef Martin Stevens was the father of Phil Stevens, killed at the Stab preview. It said the studio paid him $400,000 to stay quiet.
• SunriseSucks.com said Sunrise lawyer Henry Loomis left Hollywood for a small town called Woodsboro after winning a 1970s case, which ties Billy Loomis's family to Sunrise.
• On GaleWeathers.com, Will Kennison is the writer of Stab and Stab 2 and a TV drama called Young Spielbergs. The Scream Wiki bio says he sold his first script, Real Estate Agent of Death, to Sunrise.
• The Scream Wiki's Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro page gives a fake-site tagline: "The first one hurt. The second one hurt worse. This one's really gonna hurt!" It says casting started in spring 1999 (unconfirmed). The archived Sunrise coming attractions page used a different line about the rules.
• The Scream Wiki quotes Scream 4 prop synopses for Knife of Doom and Clock of Doom, starring Sidney's fictional daughter Ashley Prescott. The films never use them, and the wiki treats them as not canon.
• The Scream Wiki lists a photo of Tori Spelling as Sidney in Scream 7 (unconfirmed). unverified archival reporting found that the original Scream VI draft had Dr. Stone watching Stab 2 with Spelling in it.
• The Halloween Horror Nights Wiki says Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life followed Terror Tram: Chucky's Revenge (2010) and was followed by Terror Tram: Invaded by The Walking Dead (2012) (unconfirmed).
• The Scream VI Experience ran in Santa Monica, not New York, even though the film is set in New York. Thinkingbox says the point was to bring New York to fans in Southern California.
• Gizmodo covered the Chain Stabby Meal and the Santa Monica walkthrough as two separate pop-ups. EURweb said fans could buy the meal after the walkthrough.
• Wikipedia says the Scream VI shrine items were not original props from the earlier films. The art and costume departments rebuilt them.
• The Scream Wiki's auction record says the biggest winning bids of the 2025 Scream VI auction were not Stab items (unconfirmed).
• Propstore's August 2024 horror auction had an original 1996 Ghostface costume. Nerdist's write-up of the sale names no Stab items.
• The MTV Scream series is not canon to the films (Wikipedia), so Stab is not part of it. The Scream Wiki says its own film-within-the-show was The Virgin Stabbing (unconfirmed).
• Stab: The Musical appears on a fake billboard in the Doaly print for the Scream VI 3D fan event. It has never been in a film.
• Kevin Williamson told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that he wanted Scream 2 to go total meta, with a film version of the opening scene on screen while someone else gets killed. He says he loved the way Wes Craven filmed "Stab 1."
• Tori Spelling got a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst New Star for 1997, which Wikipedia notes came despite her brief cameo in Scream 2.
• Nerdist says Tori Spelling auditioned for Sidney in the first Scream, against Reese Witherspoon, Alicia DeWitt, Neve Campbell and Drew Barrymore, and that Wes Craven personally offered her the Stab cameo. Spelling told unverified archival reporting the same about Craven casting her.
• Rolling Stone's Scream 2 shoot put Tori Spelling alone on the cover because of scheduling, with the rest of the women on a fold-out. On her podcast in March 2025 she said she walked into the Scream 2 premiere with her head hanging because she was ashamed (AOL).
• Wikipedia's Scream 2 article says filming started in mid-June 1997 and ran nine weeks.
• unverified archival reporting says the girl handing out Ghostface masks at the Stab premiere, Paulette Wilson, won the part through an MTV contest. It also says the Ghostface flying over Maureen on a wire nods to William Castle's Emergo gimmick from House on Haunted Hill (1959).
• The Stab 3 studio in Scream 3 is really CBS Studio Center in Studio City. Wikipedia says the chase through the replica Woodsboro sets was part of the film.
• Kevin Williamson could not write Scream 3 in full, but Wikipedia says he wrote a 20 to 30 page outline. Ehren Kruger wrote the finished script.
• Jennifer Jolie's real name in the story is Judy Jurgenstern.
• Scream 4 was filmed in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, from June 28 to September 24, 2010. The Stab-a-thon was not in the original script.
• Wikipedia names the 2011 Universal tram "Terror Tram: SCRE4M For Your Life". Universal's own press release calls it Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life.
• unverified archival reporting's Scream 4 trivia says the Woodsboro High cinema club wall has a Stab 3 poster. The Scream Wiki says it is a Stab 4 poster. YourProps listed an original Stab 4 poster from the film.
• Marco Beltrami's expanded Scream 4 score on the 2022 box set has a 3:40 cue called Stab 6.
• The 2022 Scream score box set has three unreleased cues labeled as music from Stab, the film within the film: Shower, Window Crash and Kill (Film Music Reporter).
• Scream VI's shrine was filmed in a real theater. Screen Rant's filming-location guide puts the interior at Le National in Montreal. Wikipedia says filming in Montreal started June 9, 2022.
• Michele Laliberte's art department had to recreate the Stab posters and book covers for the Scream VI shrine because the earlier graphics files were not available .
• Wikipedia says the shrine props in Scream VI were all rebuilt by the art and costume departments, and some of Richie's homemade film is Jack Quaid's real home video with his voiceover.
• The Scream VI Stab Green vinyl, limited to 1,000 copies, is the only official product found with Stab in its name. Stab Green is the color name.
• Stab: The Musical first appeared on the Doaly print for the March 9, 2023, Scream VI 3D fan event, on a fake Times Square billboard (Fangirlish).
• Collider says Scream VI: The Experience revealed the title Requel: Terror Returns to Woodsboro before the film came out.
• The Scream 7 opening mirrors a real event. In October 2021 Airbnb and Paramount rented out the real Scream house in Tomales, California, with David Arquette greeting guests, for the 25th anniversary. SlashFilm tied the two together.
• Scream 7 did not use the real Macher house. GamesRadar reported that the crew built a version of it and really burned that set down. Wikipedia says filming ran in Atlanta from January 7 to March 12, 2025.
• The Scream Wiki says Scott's line about how old Jason was when he drowned is recycled from a Scream 4 draft (unconfirmed).
• A deleted scene on the Scream 7 disc is titled Scott Is Ghostface (Blu-ray.com).
• Kevin Williamson told unverified archival reporting they shot a scene revealing Stu Macher was really alive, but test audiences found it confusing, so it was cut.
• Tyler Gillett told Gizmodo that the Stab box set on the mantle in Scream (2022) was their answer to what happened with the Stab films.
• In the ARG for Scream (2022), the TikTok handle @TooBrAshSarah hides STAB in its capital letters (Bleeding Cool, Fangirlish), and the contact address was stopthestab@gmail.com (Fangirlish).
• Dimension's 2011 Facebook page for Sidney posted newspaper clippings about the Stab movies as if the films were real history (MovieViral).
• NECA's Ultimate Ghostface 2.0 packs the chrome Stab 8 mask and flamethrower in the same box as the Devil mask from Dead by Daylight (Collider).
• Dead by Daylight's Ghost Face is not the film character. Behaviour made an original killer, Danny Johnson, and licensed only the Fun World mask, so the game has no Stab material.
• Mortal Kombat 1's Ghostface has an intro line to Smoke, "Movies don't make psychos; they make psychos more creative!", that echoes the first Scream (EventHubs). No Stab line has been documented.
• Collector's Hype confirms the 2025 Scream VI auction ran August 12 to 26 in two weekly halves, lots 1 to 73 and 74 to 147. The Scream Wiki's winning bids for shrine robes differ from page to page, so they are not repeated here.
• The Scream Wiki reads Stab 2 as shot on location at Columbia College, from chapter one of SunriseSucks.com, which describes the Milton and Rifkin fight happening there.
• The Sunrise Studios tie-in site promised Stab 2: Director's Cut and Stab 2: Behind the Scenes on DVD, and the Scream Wiki's copy also lists a DVD called Stab: Back In the Back (unconfirmed). The Scream Wiki links an archive.org copy of scream3.com captured June 6, 2000.
• The Scream Wiki's copy of the Sunrise Studios site gives the studio's home as the old Fox Studios lot on Western Boulevard, and says Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro was shooting on Stage 16 (unconfirmed).
• No studio release date had been announced for Scream 8 as of September 2026. MovieWeb floated Paramount's July 16, 2027 horror slot as a guess.

Online

• Sunrise Studios official site (scream3.com, 2000): the Scream 3 promotional site. Instead of cast bios it gave a 30-year history of the fictional studio, an upcoming production slate and bios of the Stab 3 cast. The writers were hired in September 1999. It advertised Stab 3 as coming soon, plus Stab 2: Director's Cut and Stab 2: Behind the Scenes on DVD.
• SunriseSucks.com (2000): an anonymous hate site against Sunrise Studios, written as a teaser for the book Stabbed In The Back. It had seven chapters, with security reports, cancelled checks, corporate memos, diary pages and news clippings. unverified archival reporting says the sites kept up the fiction and avoided mentioning Scream. It told readers to watch galeweathers.com.
• GaleWeathers.com (2000): Gale's in-universe personal site, with an advice column, a book club and interviews. The interviews include Stab 3 director Roman Bridger, Stab 2 actor Dusty Penn and Stab writer Will Kennison. In the Bridger interview, he says his agent Beverly Choi sold John Milton on him, and that nobody can replace trilogy director Jerry Rapp.
• Scream Franchise TikTok ARG (2021 to 2022): Paramount's Scream (2022) campaign. Postcards from the Woodsboro Horror Film Club led fans to the TikTok @TooBrAshSarah, run by two Woodsboro students named Sarah and Ash. Bleeding Cool and Fangirlish both noted that the capital letters T, B, A and S spell STAB scrambled. Fangirlish says the videos turned into a true-crime investigation and asked followers to send footage to stopthestab@gmail.com. The Scream Wiki gives the December 8, 2021 to January 13, 2022 run and counts 31 videos (unconfirmed).
• Twitter branded like activation for Scream (2022): tweets tagged #ScreamMovie showed custom animations and random "Scream movie destiny" replies when liked (Adweek, headline, unconfirmed details).
• Scream VI personal Ghostface call website (2023): Paramount let fans send a personalized phone call from Ghostface (unconfirmed).
• The Stab results on Tara's phone in Scream (2022) list Christopher Speed as Randy Meeks, with image credits for Tori Spelling, David Schwimmer, Parker Posey, Craig Bierko, Ron Howard, Alicia Silverstone, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn.
• Film Fails (in-universe YouTube channel, Scream 2022): played by James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca of the real channel Dead Meat, tearing apart Stab 8. The Scream Wiki reads the on-screen view and subscriber counts as Easter eggs: 122,096 views matches the 12/20/96 release date, and 821,939 subscribers matches Wes Craven's birthday. It also lists a video by StabHead titled "Not My Stab! Join the StabHead Army and #RedoStab2021!!!" Fan wiki only for those numbers.
• HNN, the Horror News Network (2011): the fake news network in the Terror Tram queue video, reporting live from Stab-a-thon. Also in the queue video, a webcast from the True Fans of Horror calls Stab 8 an "epic fail" (Halloween Horror Nights Wiki, unconfirmed).
• Scream Wiki (scream.fandom.com): has pages for every Stab film, the Stab-A-Thon, Sunrise Studios, SunriseSucks.com, GaleWeathers.com, each of Gale's books, the Ghostface Shrine and the Scream VI auction, plus a Stab Posters category.
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki (halloweenhorrornights.fandom.com): pages for Stab (Franchise), Stab-A-Thon and Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life.
• StabMovies.com: Stab fan film site with in-universe histories of Sunrise Studios and each Stab film, redrawn Stab 1 to 8 posters (2022), and Scream 7 Stab replica posters (2026).
• Collider, "Stab Movies in Scream Franchise Explained": a film-by-film rundown of the eight Stab films.
• Game Rant, "The Stab Movies In The Scream Franchise, Explained".
• Screen Rant, "Stab Movie Cast Guide: Every Actor In Scream's Meta-Horror".
• Screen Rant, "All 26 Scream Franchise Easter Eggs and References In Scream 7": covers the Stab museum at the Macher house.
• Bloody Disgusting, "Stabathon: Revisiting the Fictional 7-Movie Stab Franchise Within Scream", and "Scream VI: Identifying All the Franchise Easter Eggs in the Ghostface Shrine".
• Bloody Disgusting, "Scream VI: We Sliced into the Stabby Meal and Walked Through the Film's Immersive Experience".
• unverified archival reporting, "Reliving the Scream 3 Meta Websites" and "Inside the STAB shrine from SCREAM VI".
• Scream-Thrillogy.com, "Heather Graham Talks Stab, Returning in Scream (2022)" (December 2020, quoting The A.V. Club interview published December 15, 2020).
• Scream-Thrillogy.com, "Scream (2022) Directors Talk Toxic Fans, THAT Death and Rian Johnson" (January 2022, quoting Variety).
• The Twin Geeks, "Scream 7: Stab in Stasis" (March 2, 2026): argues Scream 7 has turned into a basic Stab movie.
• Wolf's Gaming Blog, "Scream 7 Spoiler Review: It's Just Stab At This Point" (March 6, 2026).
• YouTube uploads of the Scream 3 tie-in sites: "Scream 3 (2000) Website Sunrise Studios (Main) Official" and "Scream 3 (2000) Website Sunrise Sucks Official".
• Sidney Prescott's Facebook page (March 2011): Dimension's Scream 4 page for Sidney. MovieViral reported on March 15, 2011, that it posted in-world newspaper clippings about Sidney and the Stab movies, treating the earlier films as real events.
• Scream 4 apps (2011): Sightings let you drop Ghostface into your own photos in over 20 poses, and Scream 4 Voice Mask recorded and distorted your voice to prank friends and share on Facebook. Both carried trailers and news (unverified archival reporting, unconfirmed).
• Scream VI Doaly print tweet (February 2023): the Doaly print for the March 9 3D fan event is where Stab: The Musical first appeared. Fangirlish's headline on February 13, 2023, said the print had fans hyped for Stab: The Musical.
• misSPELLING (iHeartRadio podcast): Tori Spelling's podcast. On the March 19, 2025 episode with Jamie Kennedy, she said she felt ashamed to get the solo Rolling Stone cover for Scream 2 given her small part as Stab's Sidney, and asked Kennedy to put in a word for her to return to Stab, since her character never died (AOL). On Kennedy's own podcast, Hate To Break It To Ya, in 2025, she said her whole life has been a diss, so self-deprecating came young (Nerdist).
• Dead Meat (YouTube): James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca play the Film Fails hosts who tear apart Stab 8 in Scream (2022). Wikipedia credits them by their real channel name.
• Gizmodo, "Scream's New Directors on Keeping Secrets, Stab Movies, and Screening in Theaters Only" (Germain Lussier, January 11, 2022).
• Variety interview with Radio Silence (January 2022), reposted by Scream-Thrillogy on January 20, 2022: covers the Stab 8 title, the YouTube rant scene and the Rian Johnson cameo that did not happen.
• Looper, "Scream Filmmakers Reveal Matthew Lillard's Secret Cameos That You Totally Missed" (January 20, 2022): producer Chad Villella told Fandom's Eric Goldman that Lillard is the voice of the Stab 8 Ghostface with the flamethrower.
• Nerdist, "Scream Filmmakers on Easter Eggs, Cameos, and Bringing Back [Redacted]" (2022): Randy in Stab was originally going to be played by Seth Green until the pandemic stopped it, and the directors sent Lillard a pile of silly lines for the flamethrower Ghostface.
• Entertainment Weekly (via Yahoo), "Scream 2 at 25: Kevin Williamson remembers his second stab at screenwriting the iconic series" (Clark Collis, December 9, 2022): Williamson on where Stab came from.
• Screen Rant interview with Kevin Williamson (June 12, 2025), also covered by SlashFilm: Williamson says Robert Rodriguez almost directed Scream 2, which explains the Rodriguez credit on Stab.
• unverified archival reporting, "This Is Gonna Hurt: Patrick Lussier Spills the Tea on Stab", posted January 8, 2021, from a Scream-Thrillogy interview.
• unverified archival reporting, "Stab Again: Heather Graham Confirms Cameo in Scream 5" (December 15, 2020), from her A.V. Club interview.
• Lionsgate Limited blog, "Plagiarizing Victimhood: How SCRE4M Skewered the Remake" by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (2026): an essay on the Stab 6 and Stab 7 openings and the Stab-a-thon rules speech.
• SlashFilm, "One Scream 7 Scene Is Based On A Special Real-Life Event": ties the Stab museum Airbnb opening to the 2021 Airbnb stay.
• StabMovies.com YouTube channel: free Stab fan films since 2010. The site listed 25,164,437 YouTube views in September 2026.

Sources

• Scream Wiki: Stab (film series)
• Scream Wiki: Stab
• Scream Wiki: Stab 2
• Scream Wiki: Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro
• Scream Wiki: Stab 3: Hollywood Horror
• Scream Wiki: Stab 4
• Scream Wiki: Stab 5
• Scream Wiki: Stab 6
• Scream Wiki: Stab 7
• Scream Wiki: Stab (2021)
• Scream Wiki: Stab-A-Thon
• Scream Wiki: Stab: The Musical
• Scream Wiki: Sunrise Studios
• Scream Wiki: SunriseSucks.com
• Scream Wiki: GaleWeathers.com
• Scream Wiki: Stabbed In The Back
• Scream Wiki: Ghostface Shrine
• Scream Wiki: Richie's homemade Stab film
• Scream Wiki: Stab 3 Production Office
• Scream Wiki: Jennifer Jolie
• Scream Wiki: Angelina Tyler
• Scream Wiki: Tom Prinze
• Scream Wiki: Sarah Darling
• Scream Wiki: Tyson Fox
• Scream Wiki: Christine Hamilton
• Scream Wiki: John Milton
• Scream Wiki: Steven Stone
• Scream Wiki: Tori Spelling (fiction)
• Scream Wiki: Christopher Speed (fiction)
• Scream Wiki: Will Kennison
• Scream Wiki: Robert Rodriguez
• Scream Wiki: Rian Johnson
• Scream Wiki: Joey Garfield
• Scream Wiki: J. Wallace
• Scream Wiki: Martin Stevens
• Scream Wiki: Knife of Doom
• Scream Wiki: Clock of Doom
• Scream Wiki: Knife of the Hunter (2009 novel)
• Scream Wiki: Ghostface Returns (2008 novel)
• Scream Wiki: Hollywood Horror (2000 novel)
• Scream Wiki: Requel: Terror Returns To Woodsboro
• Scream Wiki: Books by Gale Weathers
• Scream Wiki: Rachel (Stab)
• Scream Wiki: Scream 2
• Scream Wiki: Scream 4
• Scream Wiki: Scream (2022)
• Scream Wiki: Scream VI
• Scream Wiki: Scream 7
• Scream Wiki: Scream 8
• Scream Wiki: Scott
• Scream Wiki: Madison
• Scream Wiki: The 2026 Pine Grove Murders
• Scream Wiki: Stu Macher
• Scream Wiki: Scream VI Signature Auction
• Scream Wiki: Scream Franchise TikTok ARG
• Scream Wiki: Scream Trilogy (Boxset)
• Scream Wiki: Scream (films) Universe
• Scream Wiki: Retroactive Continuity
• Scream Wiki: The Virgin Stabbing
• Scream Wiki: Dusty Penn
• Scream Wiki: Luke Wilson
• Scream Wiki: Heather Graham
• Scream Wiki: David Schwimmer
• Sunrise Studios website (scream3.com), Stab filmography page, archived March 3, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, Stab 2 filmography page, archived March 2, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, Stab 3 coming attractions page, archived February 29, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, news page, archived February 29, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, hacked news page, archived March 4, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, Will Kennison bio, archived December 13, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, Dusty Penn bio, archived November 2, 2000
• Sunrise Studios website, Amanda Oxens bio, archived February 29, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com home page, archived May 10, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com 52 clues suspect map, archived May 21, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com, The Empty Chopping Block, archived April 8, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com, why Milton and Rifkin do not get along, archived September 3, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com, the real reason Roman Bridger got hired, archived May 10, 2000
• SunriseSucks.com, diary page, archived November 2, 2000
• GaleWeathers.com home page, archived February 1, 2000
• GaleWeathers.com books page, archived March 2, 2000
• GaleWeathers.com about page, archived March 1, 2000
• Internet Archive CDX index for sunrisesucks.com, galeweathers.com and scream3.com
• PR Newswire: New Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life Experience at Universal Studios Hollywood
• MovieWeb: Scream 4 Ride Comes to Halloween Horror Nights
• Inside the Magic: Scream themed Terror Tram for Halloween Horror Nights 2011
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki: Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki: Stab (Franchise)
• EURweb: Get the Scoop on the SCREAM VI Experience
• Thinkingbox: Scream VI Experience
• TheWrap: Scream filmmakers on Rian Johnson's scrapped cameo
• Screen Rant: All 26 Scream Franchise Easter Eggs and References in Scream 7
• Screen Rant: Scream 7's First Scene Holds Its Best Easter Egg
• Wikipedia: Scream 2
• Wikipedia: Scream 3
• Wikipedia: Scream 4
• Wikipedia: Scream (2022 film)
• Wikipedia: Scream VI
• Wikipedia: Scream 7
• Wikipedia: Scream (franchise)
• The Numbers: Scream franchise box office
• VIP Fan Auctions: Official Scream VI Showcase Auction
• Propstore: Scream 4 (2011)
• YourProps: Original Stab 4 poster, Scream 4
• ReplicaPropStore: Stab 3 Poster, Scream 3
• ReplicaPropStore: Stab 2 Poster, Scream 3
• StabMovies.com per-film records for the Stab films (existing site data)
• Screen Rant: Scream Creator Confirms Long-Held Theory About Who Almost Directed Scream 2 (June 2025)
• SlashFilm: The Best Scream Sequel Was Almost Directed By The Creator Of A Major Kids' Franchise
• I Am Not A Stalker: The L.A. Filming Locations of Scream 2
• Propstore: Scream 2 Lot 334, Stab Preview Ghostface Robe
• Sunrise Studios website, history page (archive.org)
• Sunrise Studios website, Stab 3 coming attractions page (archive.org)
• SunriseSucks.com, 52 clues suspect map (archive.org)
• GaleWeathers.com, interview with Roman Bridger (archive.org)
• CBS News: Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell to appear in Scream 4 (August 26, 2010)
• /Film: Check Out An Alternative Opening To Scream 4 (October 3, 2011)
• Movie-Locations.com: Scream 4 filming locations
• TheWrap: Why the New Scream Movie Name-Drops The Knives Out Guy (January 15, 2022)
• Screen Rant: Rian Johnson Jokes Scream 8 Should Crossover With Knives Out
• Collider: Rian Johnson Pokes Fun at Scream Reference
• Looper: Scream Filmmakers Reveal Matthew Lillard's Secret Cameos (January 20, 2022)
• Uproxx: Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard Are Secretly In New Scream
• Dead Meat Wiki: James A. Janisse
• Scream-Thrillogy: Heather Graham Talks Stab, Returning in Scream (2022) (December 15, 2020)
• X post quoting Tori Spelling's Instagram about Scream 7 (March 5, 2026)
• Screen Rant: Parker Posey's Scream 3 return pitch (April 19, 2023)
• Game Rant: Parker Posey Has An Idea For A Scream Spinoff
• JoBlo: Parker Posey has pitched a Stab movie
• CBR: Scream VI Trailer Breakdown, Every Easter Egg in the Ghostface Shrine (January 24, 2023)
• Elevated Horror: All 40 Items In The Scream 6 Shrine
• Fangoria: The Scream VI Experience Is Coming To Santa Monica
• Collider: Scream VI Experience Reveals Gale's New Book
• SlashFilm: One Scream 7 Scene Is Based On A Special Real-Life Event
• Screen Rant: Jimmy Tatro Steals The Show In Scream 7's Opening Scene
• Scream Horror Magazine: Scream 8 Allegedly Eyeing Early 2027 Release
• The Numbers: Scream 7 (2026)
• Variety (Australia): Scream 7 Sets Franchise Record With $64 Million Debut
• Collider: Scream Cameos Unmasked (Carrie Fisher, Roger Corman)
• Screen Rant: Rian Johnson Retweet Teases His Reaction To Scream 2022
• Nerdist: Tori Spelling's Scream Story Is the Franchise's Funniest Gag
• ReplicaPropStore: Stab T-Shirt, Scream 4
• Scream Wiki: The Woodsboro Murders (1997 novel)
• Scream Wiki: College Terror (1998 novel)
• Scream Wiki: Your Favorite Scary Movie
• Scream Wiki: Scream 3
• Scream Wiki: Scream VI: The Experience
• Scream Wiki: Still Screaming: The Ultimate Scary Movie Retrospective
• Scream Wiki: Scream 4 (mobile game)
• Scream Wiki: Ghostface (Call of Duty)
• Scream Wiki: Scream 4 Soundtrack
• Scream Wiki: Scream VI (soundtrack)
• Scream Wiki: Scream 7 (soundtrack)
• Scream Wiki: Category:Stab Posters
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki: Stab-A-Thon
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki: Scream (Franchise)
• Daily Dead: Scream 4 Added to Halloween Horror Nights
• Collider: Scream VI: The Experience Is Slashing its Way to Santa Monica
• SlashFilm: Scream 6's Viral Marketing Campaign Scared People Into Calling 911
• Bloody Disgusting: Scream VI Ghostface Shrine Easter eggs
• Bloody Disgusting: Scream VI Stabby Meal and Experience
• Collector's Hype: Bid on Scream VI Props and Costumes
• Nerdist: Propstore Horror Auction Includes Original Scream Ghostface Costume
• Julien's Auctions: Scream 3 Stab 3 Set Pass Prop
• YourProps: Stab Sunrise Studios pass, Stab 3 set pass, Stab 3 chairback
• eBay: Fun World Stab pink glitter mask and glow-in-the-dark S9206 masks
• TeePublic: Stab 8 Poster
• Screen Rant: Stab Movie Cast Guide
• Collider: Stab Movies in Scream Franchise Explained
• Game Rant: The Stab Movies In The Scream Franchise, Explained
• Scream-Thrillogy: Scream (2022) Directors Talk Toxic Fans (Variety interview)
• Slate: Scream 3 and the Stab 3 producer character (Matthew Phelan, October 31, 2019)
• DVD Talk: Scream Box Set (Bonus DVD) review
• Halloween Daily News: Scream VI Blu-ray review
• Scream VI Blu-ray special features
• Penguin Random House: Your Favorite Scary Movie by Ashley Cullins
• The Twin Geeks: Scream 7: Stab in Stasis
• Wolf's Gaming Blog: Scream 7 Spoiler Review: It's Just Stab At This Point
• Haunted Attraction Network: Midsummer Scream Hosts Scream 30th Reunion 2026
• Aceshowbiz: Scream 8 Filming to Begin in Fall 2026
• The Hollywood Reporter: Scream 8: Kevin Williamson Won't Return to Direct
• Adweek: Twitter branded like activations for Scream (2022)
• MTV Scream series and Kevin Williamson's unused Scream 3 fan club idea
• StabMovies.com: Sunrise Studios
• StabMovies.com: New Stab Posters (September 23, 2022)
• StabMovies.com: Scream 7 Stab Posters Now Available (March 8, 2026)
• Scream Wiki: Ghostface (Stab)
• Scream Wiki: Richie Kirsch
• Scream Wiki: Amber Freeman
• Scream Wiki: Mortal Kombat 1
• Scream Wiki: Ghostface (Mortal Kombat)
• Scream Wiki: Dead by Daylight
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki: Halloween Horror Nights 2011 (Hollywood)
• Wikipedia: Gale Weathers
• Wikipedia: Ghostface (Scream)
• Wikipedia: Sidney Prescott
• Paramount: Scream 7 Slashes Past $200 Million at the Global Box Office
• Haunted Attraction Network: Paramount Will Bring the Original Scream Back to Theaters October 30
• Haunted Attraction Network: Spirit Halloween's Ghost Face Lineup Runs $7.99 to $279.99 (August 6, 2026)
• MovieWeb: Will There Be a Scream 8? Everything We Know
• Scream Horror Mag: Scream 8 Allegedly Eyeing Fall 2026 Shoot
• Entertainment Weekly via Yahoo: Scream 2 at 25: Kevin Williamson remembers his second stab (Clark Collis, December 9, 2022)
• AOL: Tori Spelling Felt Ashamed for Being on Rolling Stone's Cover for Scream 2
• Nerdist: Scream Filmmakers on Easter Eggs, Cameos, and Bringing Back [Redacted]
• The Digital Fix: Matthew Lillard had a secret Scream 5 cameo
• Gizmodo: Scream's New Directors on Keeping Secrets, Stab Movies, and Screening in Theaters Only (January 11, 2022)
• Screen Rant: Scream 5 Directors Tried to Make a Rian Johnson Cameo Happen
• Bleeding Cool: Upcoming Scream Film Launches a Woodsboro ARG
• Fangirlish: Scream's TikTok ARG Is Killing It (December 22, 2021)
• Fangirlish: A Scream VI Limited Edition Print Has Us Hype For Stab The Musical (February 13, 2023)
• Bloody Disgusting: Awesome Poster Revealed for the Scream VI Fan Event on March 9
• Gizmodo: Meet Ghostface, Dine on a Stabby Meal, and Venture Into the Scream Experience (March 3, 2023)
• IndieWire: House of Horrors: How Scream 6 Created Its Meta Ghostface Museum
• Queer Horror Movies: 40 Things We Learned from the Scream VI Commentary
• Screen Rant: Where Was Scream 6 Filmed?
• Nerdist: You Can Have a SCREAM Celebration in Stu Macher's House (September 29, 2021)
• GamesRadar+: Scream 7 doesn't actually use the real Stu Macher house, but the crew did burn the set down for real
• Blu-ray.com: Scream 7 4K Blu-ray
• Screen-Connections: 4K Ultra HD Review: Scream 7 (June 9, 2026)
• TheWrap: Scream 2022 Digital, Blu-ray Release Date and Bonus Features
• Screen-Connections: Scream 2 Arrives On 4K Ultra HD October 4, 2022
• Lionsgate Limited store listings: Scream 4 4K SteelBook and Scream 4 VHS Be Kind Rewind Edition
• Lionsgate Limited: Plagiarizing Victimhood: How SCRE4M Skewered the Remake by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
• Varèse Sarabande / Craft Recordings: Scream: Original Motion Picture Soundtracks (6-CD Box Set)
• Film Music Reporter: Scream Original Score Box Set to Be Released (January 6, 2022)
• Craft Recordings: Scream VI Music from the Motion Picture (Stab Green 2LP)
• Wikipedia: Scream VI (soundtrack)
• Wikipedia: Scream (2022 soundtrack)
• Film Music Reporter: Marco Beltrami's Scream 7 Score to Be Released (May 17, 2026)
• Just Jared: Twisting the Knife lyrics (February 19, 2026)
• Collider: Scream 5 NECA Reveals Images of Ghostface Action Figure From Stab 8 (October 22, 2022)
• ComicBook.com: New Ghostface Action Figure Inspired by Controversial Stab 8 Revealed by NECA (October 20, 2022)
• The Toyark: Ultimate Ghost Face Returns by NECA (February 28, 2026)
• Dread Central: NECA Reimagines Its Ultimate Ghost Face Figure
• Spirit Halloween: Chrome Ghost Face Full Mask
• Bloody Disgusting: Official Ghostface Merch from Spirit Halloween Includes 5-Foot Animatronic and Chrome Mask
• Paramount Shop: Scream collection (checked September 2026)
• Etsy: Stab 3 Blu Ray Prop Boxset listing
• MovieViral: Is Dimension Using Facebook to Start A Viral Campaign For Scream 4? (March 15, 2011)
• Call of Duty blog: SCREAM x Ghostface Is Back, Available Now in a Limited-Time Bundle
• Dead by Daylight: The Ghost Face Chapter release
• Gematsu: Mortal Kombat 1 DLC character Ghostface launches November 19
• EventHubs: Ghostface intro dialogue in Mortal Kombat 1 (November 11, 2024)
• YouTube: Stab 5 (2011), STAB 2 (2022) and Stab 3: Holiday Horror (2023) full fan films, StabMovies.com channel
• YouTube: Stab (A scream fan film), Emerson Fortier
• YouTube: It's a Stab! A Scream Fan Film, heyitsarm
• IMDb: Director's Cut: A Scream Fan Film
• Horror Fan Films: Scream Fan Films
• Craft Recordings: Scream Original Motion Picture Score 6-CD box set