Stab 4: Knife of Doom

Stab 4: Knife of Doom takes us back before Hollywood, before Windsor College, before Woodsboro, to a small town in New Hampshire where 21-year-old Gale Weathers is reporting for her college newspaper.

When her best friend is brutally slain, Gale sets out to find the killer known as Ghost Face, a local urban legend.

Can Gale solve the case before all of her friends are gruesomely murdered or will she land on the chopping block with them?

Stab 4: Knife of Doom gives new life to the franchise… before Ghost Face takes it away!

Stab 4: Knife of Doom goes back before Hollywood, before Windsor College and before Woodsboro. It is 1986 in a small town in New Hampshire, and 21-year-old Gale Weathers is a reporter for her college newspaper. When her best friend is brutally killed, Gale sets out to find the killer, a local urban legend called Ghost Face. She has to solve the case before all of her friends are murdered, or end up on the chopping block with them.

Gale's best friend Alexandria is getting ready for her first night with Danny, a man she has only known over the phone and through letters since a wrong-number call. Gale grills her about him and begs her to be careful. Alexandria is leaving the next day for another summer as a counselor at Crystal Lake Camp. After Gale goes, Danny calls. The call turns into a When a Stranger Calls quiz, and Alexandria works out that the call is coming from inside the apartment. She fights hard, but Ghost Face kills her.

Gale breaks into the apartment before the police arrive and finds a knife and a Crystal Lake Camp pamphlet. Sure the answers are at the camp, she heads there to pass herself off as her dead friend. Kenny Brown, a journalism classmate who had a one-time fling with Gale and still has a crush on her, follows her with a pair of sneakers and gets hired as a counselor too. On the road, three other counselors, Lisa, Kimberly and Rebecca, get warned off by a creepy man who says the Ghost Face will get them. After they leave, Ghost Face kills him.

At camp, the Christian owners Bradley and Vivian introduce Chef Jacque and the athletic director Rod Cox. The counselors learn vandals wrecked the camp in the off-season, and they will spend two weeks rebuilding it. Almost nobody notices that "Alexandria" looks nothing like the girl from last summer. Everyone thinks she just lost weight. Gale starts investigating. Richard turns down Kimberly's offer to meet her at the dock and then disappears. Ghost Face has decapitated him at the water. Eddie, who fought with Marcus over Richard, is killed with an axe in the woods. Gale fights the killer but it gets away. Chef Jacque turns out to be neither a real chef nor French, and Ghost Face kills him in the kitchen with boiling water.

At the campfire, Shane tells the legend of Danny. Fifteen years earlier, a bullied camper named Danny went from cabin to cabin with a hunting knife, killing every camper and then every counselor. He was never found, and the story says his soul lives in the knife. Rod says the story is true and that he was the only survivor, because he was in town that night. That night Ghost Face calls Vivian at home, where Bradley is already tied up, and kills them both. In the lodge the girls find out that Lisa was the Miss New Hampshire whose rival, the new Miss America, was murdered with her own crown. Marcus admits to Kenny that Richard was his secret boyfriend. Then Ghost Face chases Marcus through the rain and rips his heart out.

Gale suspects Lisa and Kenny suspects Marcus. Then Ghost Face kills Marcus and shoots Kimberly with an arrow, and Gale and Kenny see it happen. The survivors crowd into the girls' cabin, where Lisa is caught with a knife. Melanie turns up at the door saying a psycho is shooting arrows at her, and the others let her in. When someone says Lisa isn't the Ghost Face killer, Melanie says she knows, because she is. She takes Kenny down, kills Andrea and chases the others into the night. Kenny survives.

Melanie corners Lisa in the camp storage shed. Lisa really did kill Miss America, and Miss America was Melanie's sister and best friend. After her sister died, Melanie fell apart until a woman named Onyx brought her into the Cult of Ghost Face, a group of wronged people taught to get their pain out by killing, the way Danny taught Onyx. Danny made the first Ghost Face mask, a screaming ghost, at the arts and crafts table before his massacre. To join the cult, a member kills ten people as a blood sacrifice and then kills their own final girl. Then they earn Danny's real blade, the Knife of Doom. Lisa admits she killed Melanie's sister and fights back with a hatchet, but Melanie stabs her to death.

Onyx and the robed cult walk in and welcome Melanie to the family. Among them are Shane, Rebecca, Kinsley, a member who says to call him Killer Fan, and a woman who looks like Alexandria but says her name is Rachel. Onyx then has Melanie killed, because Gale matters far more. Gale is the key to Danny's true final girl, Sidney, a girl Gale doesn't know yet but will in another time and place. As the cult masks up to kill Gale, a man called the Agent arrives and wipes them out. He is carrying a baby. He tells Gale her name is Sidney and that Gale is about to save her life again, then leads her through a time travel portal. The ending sets up Stab 5: Clock of Doom.

Release & Reception

• Distributor: StabMovies.com YouTube channel (free to watch)

The full movie went up on the StabMovies.com YouTube channel on October 9, 2024 and premiered free on October 10, 2024. Both teasers and the first trailer had promised the October 10 date. The site marked the day with the post "Stab 4 is here!" By mid-September 2026 the full movie had about 77,000 views.

On October 8, 2024 The Dreaming Insomniacs Records YouTube channel posted a podcast with Dudley and cast members Kristen Wood, Emilee Powell, Erika Otte and Henry Columbare, plus extra Stefan. It was recorded just before the cast's first viewing of the film. StabMovies.com added it to the bonus playlist.

Cast

Crew

Production

StabMovies.com opened casting for Stab 4 on March 17, 2023, while Stab 3: Holiday Horror was still being finished. The script was done on December 18, 2023. That day the site said the film was in pre-production, would shoot in spring 2024 and was aiming for an October release.

The first teaser poster went up on January 1, 2024, and another poster on March 31. On April 6, 2024 the site posted the first photo of Jamie-Lynn Hazzard as Gale Weathers circa 1986, with a new teaser poster. The official poster came on April 30 and a second one on May 12. Teaser 1 came out on May 22, 2024 and said the film would be released on October 10. Teaser 2 followed on June 13, the official trailer on August 7 and Official Trailer 2 on October 6, 2024.

In his commentary Joshua Patrick Dudley calls it the biggest and most expensive production StabMovies.com has made. The goal was to make the Stab sequels you would have seen inside the Scream movies. It was also the first time they had a small crew. Matthew Arseneault had been assistant director on Stab 3. Here he became the first separately credited director of photography on one of their films. Dudley says the crew slowed things down at times, because he had to ask someone to fix a light instead of doing it himself.

Dudley isn't a huge fan of 1980s horror, but he thought the look of low-budget 80s films would fit their movies. He set the story in 1986 and leaned into comedy and goofy kills in the style of Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. He wrote the hitchhiking scene so he wouldn't need a period car.

The opening was supposed to take one night. The Like a Virgin dance took so long that a second night was needed. The first night also ended with footage shot for Stab 5.

Camp scenes were shot over two long days at Vilas Pool, a town-owned park in New Hampshire, which Dudley says was an hour and a half to two hours away. Real summer camps wanted around $3,000 for three days. A third day, back to back, was shot at a big rented house near North Conway that stood in for the camp office and the girls' cabin. Matthew Arseneault directed the Gale and Kenny sequence there while Dudley and Erika Otte went for supplies. Dudley says it is the only scene in the film he didn't direct.

The owners' house was built inside Jamie-Lynn Hazzard's house, where the crew gutted the first floor and redressed it in 70s and 80s style. Her yard was used for Gale and Kenny's night meeting. The finale was shot in Emilee Powell's garage after a barn fell through at the last minute. The finale took one day of 12 to 14 hours, and the cult actors' call time kept getting pushed back.

Disaster hit in editing. A hard drive crashed and wiped every file open in the editing project, and no recovery company could get it back. Eddie's death, the whole campfire scene, most of Marcus's death and other footage had to be reshot. Arseneault couldn't return, so Dudley filmed the reshoots on the camera StabMovies.com normally uses. Marcus's death was filmed in pieces on about five separate nights. The last thing shot for the film was the Danny flashback.

Most of the actors wore mics for the first time, but waterfalls, traffic and a nearby airport ruined a lot of the sound. Many scenes were fully dubbed. The cast came to Dudley's house to re-record their lines after the edit. Emilee Powell's mic pack died during her long finale speech, so all of it was dubbed.

Other problems: dead pixels showed up on Arseneault's camera and a paid removal program couldn't fix them. There were swarms of bugs one day, and it was about 88 degrees on the dodgeball day. Rachel Alexandria Arnold hurt her knee, and some actors almost dropped out over personal issues. About ten more extras who had been cast never showed up. Dudley says the owners' original death scene was a sexual bondage scene that the actors turned down, partly because David Afflick is a teacher. That version will be in the script book.

Dudley fed the cast every day. One day's pizza order cost $600, Rachel Alexandria Arnold cooked a spaghetti dinner at Vilas Pool, and Dudley made tacos another day.

The cast and crew watched the film for the first time together a couple of days before release. Just before that screening, some of them went on a podcast with The Dreaming Insomniacs.

Joshua Patrick Dudley and Rachel Alexandria Arnold rehearsed the Like a Virgin choreography for the opening ahead of time. The rehearsal was posted on October 26, 2024.

Filming locations

• Joshua Patrick Dudley's apartment, Manchester, New Hampshire: Alexandria's apartment, redecorated with curtains and posters so it wouldn't look like the apartment from earlier films. The outside background was changed digitally.
• Vilas Pool, New Hampshire: Crystal Lake Camp: the lake, docks, waterfall, lodges, dining hall, bell tower, tent area, fields, trails and the abandoned boats. Two days of filming.
• Rented house near North Conway, New Hampshire: The camp office and the girls' cabin
• Jamie-Lynn Hazzard's house and yard: Bradley and Vivian's house inside and out, and the spot where Gale and Kenny meet at night. Part of Marcus's death was reshot there.
• Emilee Powell's garage: The camp storage shed for the finale
• Wooded trail near an airport: The hitchhiking scene and the Creepy Man's death
• Crystal Lake, Manchester, New Hampshire: Where the fictional camp is set. The real lake was not a filming location.

Effects and makeup

Digital effects are by Zack Morland and SP. Dudley says the film has more digital work than any of their earlier ones. The work includes the extra wound and severed finger in Alexandria's death and Richard's fingers coming off on the barbed wire. They also did all the smoke, boiling water and boiled eyeballs in Chef Jacque's death, blood running down Bradley's head and the cult's exploding faces. They removed modern cars from many lake shots, added cabins to an empty field and turned daylight footage of the final chase into night.

Richard's decapitation was also done practically with a dropped head, then built up digitally. Kimberly's arrow was glued to a headband, and the arrows were thrown past the actors rather than fired. Marcus's heart is pulled from a mannequin of Dudley's body. Anna Belmonte did the makeup effects on the Chef Jacque death.

Rubber knives were used for stabs into actors and a real knife for close shots. A real knife is used on camera when it isn't swung at anyone. Breakaway beer bottles were used in the owners' house attack.

Emilee Powell wore the costume herself for most of her kills, because Dudley wanted the real killer in the suit. Dudley filled in for some shots wearing padding and a stuffed bra so the killer would read as female. Erika Otte doubled for Powell in the reshot Eddie death.

Props and costumes

Ghost Face wears a custom-made KNB mask, which was falling apart by the end of the shoot. It kept falling off Emilee Powell's face during the hillside chase.

Melanie uses the voice changer from Scream 3 in the finale. Lisa fights with a rubber hatchet Dudley had painted, which StabMovies.com has had for years.

Dudley designed Onyx's costume himself, with a gothic dress, a big cape, a corset, latex gloves and a sparkly mask. Every cult member wears a Ghost Face pendant.

The camp was dressed with counselor handbooks, Ghost Face and Danny flyers, schedules and lunch menus, plus 70s curtains reused in several sets. The owners play a retro 70s-style Clue. Rooster decorations kept turning up at the locations, so the crew put one in every set.

The cast built much of their own 80s wardrobe. Jamie-Lynn Hazzard dressed Gale a little more professionally than the rest, and Kaytee Houghton and Katrina Chamberlain went for leftover 70s looks. Dudley says the final girl is dressed in calmer colors. Erika Otte's Kimberly has about 18 costume changes. Mark Haggett wore a wig, and Henry Columbare's mustache was held on with tape because the spirit gum went missing.

Katrina Chamberlain made the fake joints Rebecca smokes. The lunch served on screen is cold canned Dinty Moore beef stew.

Screen-used props and costumes went on sale in the StabMovies.com store on November 4, 2024.

Production

Casting opened on March 17, 2023, while Stab 3 was still being finished. The script was completed on December 18, 2023.

The first teaser poster went up on January 1, 2024 and another on March 31. The first photograph of Gale Weathers in her 1980s look came on April 6, 2024, along with another teaser poster. The official poster was revealed on April 30 and a second on May 12. The first teaser video came on May 23 and the official trailer on August 8, 2024.

Screen used items from the film went on sale on November 4, 2024.

The killers

Deaths

Original music by Seth Hise, who also scored Stab 3: Holiday Horror.

The film opens with Alexandria and Gale performing "Like a Virgin." The audio was pre-recorded. Rachel Alexandria Arnold sings her own part, and Emilee Powell sings Jamie-Lynn Hazzard's part. Dudley says Hazzard may not know. The choreography was rehearsed ahead of time, and the rehearsal video is in the bonus playlist.

At the campfire the counselors sing "Don't Fear the Reaper," a nod to Scream. Dudley sings, and the background vocals are the whole cast, recorded as a surprise when they came in for promo photo shoots.

Other 80s songs heard in the film include "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" on the hike to camp and "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." The recordings used are not credited.

The end credits play an original song built around the words Knife of Doom and Crystal Lake. Its performer is not named in the sources.

Dudley says the Like a Virgin number made it clear from the start that the copyrighted songs would stop the film from earning ad money on YouTube. After that he packed in as many 80s songs as he could.

• The StabMovies.com Store on Creator Spring has a Stab 4: Knife of Doom (2024) listing.

STABFLIX

Watch the film

Bonus features and videos

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Stab 4: Knife of Doom Teaser 1

StabMovies.com

The first teaser for the summer camp one.

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Stab 4: Knife of Doom Official Trailer

StabMovies.com

The full trailer.

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Stab 4: Knife of Doom with Commentary

StabMovies.com

The whole film again with the commentary track over it.

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Stab 4: Knife of Doom Kill Count

StabMovies.com

SPOILERS

Every death in the film, counted and shown back to back.

Playlists

• The bonus features playlist

Gallery

Posters

Promotional Images

Behind the Scenes