Stab 6

Set in Woodsboro, years after Stab 3: Hollywood Horror. A new Ghost Face is going after Dewey Riley while teenagers are being murdered around him. Dewey has to work out who is behind the mask before a bomb takes out the town. Gale and Sidney are away on holiday, so he is on his own with it.

Stab 6 is the sixth Sunrise Studios Stab film inside the Scream movies, and the third made-up story after Sidney Prescott's lawsuit threat. It is the first Stab sequel anyone has seen footage from. Scream 4 opens on its first scene, and that scene is all that has ever been shown.

Sherrie answers the house phone and tells the caller he has the wrong number. In the kitchen, her friend Trudie is snacking and texting. Sherrie picks Saw IV for movie night. Trudie saw it in theaters and hated it. She says it is gross, not scary, torture porn with no character development. Sherrie says she likes Jigsaw because he kills people creatively.

Trudie admits she has a Facebook stalker. He sends messages like hey, what's up, you're hot, I wanna kill you. She deleted him, but he hacked his way back in. She thinks he is hot and shows Sherrie his picture. Sherrie spots Channing Tatum from his Abercrombie days and tells her she is being punked.

The phone rings again. Sherrie is rude to the caller, and the voice threatens to cut through her neck until he feels bone. She hands the phone to Trudie. The voice tells Trudie he is the last person she will ever see alive. Sherrie thinks it is a prank, maybe Lexi or Karen. Trudie gets a text from stalker boy telling her to answer the phone, and she goes to check that the front door is locked.

The next text says I dare you to open the door. Trudie begs her not to, but Sherrie opens it anyway. She jokes that it could be anyone they know, Lisa, Bailey, Wayne, or the hopeful long shot, Channing Tatum. Nobody is outside. Trudie reads the last text out loud: I'm not outside, I'm right beside you. Ghost Face steps in and stabs Trudie in the chest. Sherrie screams and turns to run, and a second Ghost Face cuts her throat at the door. The STAB 6 title comes up.

The picture then pulls back to show the scene on a TV. Rachel and Chloe are watching it in Stab 7. Rachel calls it so stupid it is the death of horror and cannot believe it is a Facebook killer. Chloe admits it made her jump and jokes that now it would be Twitter, which would make more sense. That exchange is the only review of Stab 6 in the films. It suggests the rest of the movie follows killers who find victims through social media.

The rest of the plot is never shown. The Scream Wiki says Stab 6 is based on Gale Weathers' novel Ghostface Returns, which is a real Scream 4 prop. The wiki also says a version of the Sidney character is in the film under another name. It cites nothing for that, though the killer in Scream (2022) does say Sidney is in every movie but the last one.

StabMovies.com has its own plot for the rest of the film. It is set in Woodsboro years after Stab 3: Hollywood Horror. A new Ghost Face goes after Dewey Riley while teenagers are murdered around him. Gale and Sidney are away on vacation, so Dewey is on his own. He has to find out who is behind the mask before a bomb takes out the town. None of this comes from the Scream films.

Release & Reception

• Status: Released inside the Scream universe. Its opening scene plays at the start of Scream 4 (2011) under a STAB 6 title card.
• Released: No year is given in any Scream film. StabMovies.com dates it 2008. The Scream Wiki gives 2009 on its Stab 6 page and 2008 on its Stab 7 page (unconfirmed).
• Runtime: Never stated on screen. The Scream Wiki lists 110 minutes (unconfirmed).

Inside the films, Stab 6 lands badly with at least one viewer. Rachel calls the opening so stupid it is the death of horror and cannot believe it is a Facebook killer. Chloe says it made her jump.

The Scream Wiki says Stab 6 came out in 2009, and that the first Stab-a-thon that year showed only six films because Stab 7 was not out yet. That timeline is the wiki's own math from Scream 4, where the 2011 party is the third annual one.

In the real world, audiences first saw the scene when Scream 4 premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on April 11, 2011. Dimension Films released it in the United States on April 15, 2011. The film grossed $97 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, holds 61 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and got a B-minus CinemaScore.

Cast

Crew

Production

The Stab 6 scene was shot as part of Scream 4, directed by Wes Craven from Kevin Williamson's script. On a $40 million budget, principal photography began June 28, 2010, in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was set to wrap September 6 after a 42-day shoot and ran until September 24.

Scream 4 went through other openings first. Wikipedia says Williamson's early script opened with Sidney attacked and left for dead, followed by a jump in time, and Bob Weinstein worried it would slow the story. Kristen Stewart turned down the cameo at the start of the film because she felt she could not live up to Drew Barrymore. Wikipedia cites a March 15, 2022 Slant Magazine interview with Stewart for this. The layered opening with six actresses came after that.

Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes tweeted about being in Scream 4 on Thursday night, August 26, 2010. Dimension Films confirmed their cameos to Zap2it the next day. Grimes tweeted that it was all hush hush. At the time Hale was known for Pretty Little Liars and Grimes for 90210.

The Scream Wiki quotes the script's description of Trudie as 16, sexy and pretty, someone who tells it like it is, snacking on chips while texting on her Sidekick.

The Scream Wiki says the Facebook killer pokes fun at an old idea for Scream 4 itself, with Ghost Face as a Facebook killer. The wiki gives no source, so this is unconfirmed.

According to SlashFilm's look at the home video extras, the alternate opening changes the Jenny and Marnie section. The Stab 6 and Stab 7 scenes before it appear to be the same as in the finished film.

Filming locations

• In and around Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Scream 4 shoot, June to September 2010. The specific house used for Sherrie and Trudie's scene remains unverified.

Effects and makeup

Both deaths are quick knife kills with heavy blood on the clothes. Premiere Props later sold Sherrie's costumes described as extremely bloody and Trudie's blouse as very bloody.

Props and costumes

Sherrie's costume. Premiere Props sold two Sherrie lots on April 16, 2011: a bloody neon yellow tank top with extremely bloody dark blue Mossimo Supply Co. skinny jeans and bloody white lace-up shoes, and an extremely bloody neon yellow short-sleeve V-neck T-shirt with a neon yellow tank top.

Trudie's costume. Premiere Props sold a purple see-through floral button-up blouse, a nude Gap camisole and black American Apparel shorts with zippers at the sides, with the wardrobe tag. Two very bloody versions of the outfit were sold too. One of them came with black Minnetonka moccasin-style shoes.

The house phone. Premiere Props sold the white cordless phone that Sherrie and Trudie use in the kitchen when Ghost Face calls.

The fireplace tools. Premiere Props sold a set of three fireplace tools listed as from Stab 6.

Trudie's Sidekick phone, where she reads the killer's texts. The Sidekick is named in the script description quoted by the Scream Wiki.

Ghostface Returns by Gale Weathers, the novel the Scream Wiki names as the basis for Stab 6. Premiere Props sold a Ghostface Returns hardcover book cover by Gale Weathers over a copy of The Terrorist Next Door; the lot title misspells it Ghoseface Returns. The Scream Wiki says the book is on Gale's desk, at the book stall outside Sidney's signing and on Jill Roberts' shelf in Scream 4, and in the Scream VI shrine. It lists a 2008 in-universe publication by Sunset True Crime Books.

Sherrie's yellow top in Scream VI. In Variety's rundown of the Scream VI subway scene costumes, explained with the directors, Sherrie from the Stab 6 opening is one of the references. The Scream Wiki adds that the shirt carries the blood stain from her attack.

The Scream Wiki's Stab 6 poster is captioned as made by StabMovies.com, not a studio prop. The wiki's list of Stab posters in the Scream VI theater hallway leaves Stab 6 out.

The standard Ghost Face mask and robe. Nothing on screen sets the Stab 6 killers apart from the real Scream 4 killer.

The killers

Deaths

Trudie

Played by

Shenae Grimes

How

Stabbed in the chest right after reading the text that says the killer is beside her

Where

Inside the house by the open front door

By

Ghost Face

Sherrie

Played by

Lucy Hale

How

Throat cut as she turns to run

Where

At the front door of the same house

By

Second Ghost Face

Scream 4's score is by Marco Beltrami. Varese Sarabande released the score album on April 19, 2011. Lakeshore Records released the song soundtrack on April 12, 2011.

The Scream Wiki credits Beltrami as the in-universe composer of Stab 6. Unconfirmed.

Home Media

• The scene is on every release of Scream 4. The DVD and Blu-ray came out in Mexico on August 5, 2011, in the UK and Ireland on August 22, 2011, in Canada and the United States on October 4, 2011, and in Australia and New Zealand on October 13, 2011. The extras include deleted and extended scenes and an alternate opening.
• Lionsgate released Scream 4 on Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 9, 2026, along with a limited edition VHS.
• In-universe, Stab 6 is part of the seven-film Stab box set seen on DVD in Scream 4 and on Blu-ray in Scream (2022). The Scream Wiki says the set lists it as STAB 6: GHOSTFACE RETURNS. Unconfirmed.

The sequence people call the Stab 6 opening, the one with Sherrie and Trudie at the start of Scream 4, sits on the Stab 7 page for the reason set out above. Nothing else of Stab 6 has ever been on screen.

Gallery

Images

Artwork

Stills