After the original Ghostface killing spree in Woodsboro, reporter and eyewitness Gale Weathers transformed the tragedy into a sensationalized true-crime account titled “The Woodsboro Murders.” The bestselling book became the foundation for “Stab,” the first film in what would become one of horror’s most infamous fictional franchises.

Sunrise Studios purchased the rights to Gale’s book and developed it as a major slasher film, with producer John Milton involved in bringing the project to the screen. The film was credited within the Scream universe as being directed by Robert Rodriguez, whose genre work made him a fitting name for a violent, stylish, and darkly comic horror adaptation. Although Scream 2 presents Stab as a Robert Rodriguez film, it has since been noted that Wes Craven directed the actual Stab footage seen in Scream 2.

Also known as “Stab: The Woodsboro Murders,” the film was marketed as being based on a true story. Promotional material associated with the film used taglines such as “This Is Gonna Hurt” and “Based on a True Story,” emphasizing its tabloid-style connection to the real Woodsboro murders.

For the role of Sidney Prescott, Stab cast Tori Spelling, fulfilling Sidney’s own sarcastic prediction during the original Woodsboro murders that, with her luck, Spelling would play her if the story ever became a movie. The cast also included David Schwimmer as Dewey Riley, Luke Wilson as Billy Loomis, Heather Graham as Casey Becker, and Christopher Speed as Randy Meeks.

Like Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker in the original Scream, Heather Graham’s Casey is murdered during Stab’s cold open. However, the Stab version exaggerates and sexualizes the scene for the movie-within-a-movie audience. Instead of simply preparing popcorn for movie night, Casey is shown getting ready to take a shower when the killer calls. The sequence turns the original tragedy into a slicker, more exploitative slasher set piece, underlining how Stab transforms real trauma into entertainment.

Scream 3 later revealed another major member of the original Stab cast: Jennifer Jolie as Gale Weathers. Jennifer was not a real-world actress playing a fictional role, but a fictional actress inside the Scream universe, adding another cracked mirror to the franchise’s already dizzying movie-within-a-movie mythology.

The original Stab cast list was filled in further in Scream 2022, when Tara Carpenter opens the Stab IMDb page. That reveal confirmed Vince Vaughn as Stu Macher, Alicia Silverstone as Tatum Riley, Craig Bierko as Cotton Weary, and Ron Howard as Principal Arthur Himbry. Many of these casting choices appear to be playful nods to actors who were either considered for roles in the original Scream or connected to the wider pop-culture landscape surrounding the franchise. Ron Howard’s inclusion also feels like a wink to Henry Winkler, who played Principal Himbry in Scream and famously co-starred with Howard on Happy Days.

Scream 2022 also revealed additional footage from the original Stab. One scene shows Christopher Speed’s Randy Meeks discussing the rules of surviving a horror movie, while another recreates Randy watching the movie on the couch as Ghostface lurks behind him. These moments show that Stab did not only recreate the murders, but also dramatized Randy’s horror-movie commentary as part of its own story.

The plot of Stab follows the basic outline of the original Scream, with several noticeable deviations. Most famously, Casey’s death is altered into a more sensationalized shower-adjacent sequence. Kenny Brown’s death also appears to have been changed, with Stab presenting him as being gutted rather than having his throat slit. This likely reflects the inaccurate version described in Gale Weathers’ book, where Kenny’s death is also said to involve being gutted by Ghostface.

The Stab version of the story may also alter or simplify Steven Orth’s role. In the Stab cold open, Heather Graham’s Casey appears to say she does not have a boyfriend, which suggests that Steve may have been removed, changed, or folded into the movie differently than he appeared in the real Woodsboro events.

In Stab, a masked killer known as Ghostface stalks the town of Woodsboro and makes Sidney Prescott his primary target after murdering her mother, Maureen Prescott, the year before. As the body count rises, Sidney, her friends, Deputy Dewey Riley, and reporter Gale Weathers are pulled into a violent mystery where anyone could be the next victim or the next suspect. By the end, Ghostface is revealed to be the work of two killers: Billy Loomis and Stu Macher.

Stab made its major on-screen debut in Scream 2, where Phil Stevens and Maureen Evans attend a rowdy sneak preview of the film. The audience is packed with fans wearing Ghostface masks, turning the theater into a chaotic sea of identical killers. That atmosphere allows the real Ghostface to murder Phil and Maureen during the screening, using Stab’s own spectacle as cover. The moment makes Stab more than just an adaptation of the Woodsboro murders. It becomes part of the franchise’s ongoing violence, inspiring copycats and turning Ghostface into an even larger cultural symbol inside the Scream universe.

Based on Gale Weathers’ #1 bestseller “The Woodsboro Murders,” Stab was marketed as the true story of the infamous Woodsboro murders: an innocent teenager and her friends terrorized by a killer wearing a terrifying ghost mask.

Critics called Stab the scariest movie in years. With what was promoted as the hottest, hippest cast of the moment, the film promised a heart-stopping thriller audiences would not dare miss. Tori Spelling of TV’s 90210 starred as Sidney Prescott, alongside an offbeat all-star cast that included David Schwimmer of TV’s Friends and Luke Wilson of Home Fries.

Billed as a horror movie for the ages, Stab became a nonstop thrill ride, as hilarious as it was terrifying. It transformed Gale Weathers’ bloody account of Woodsboro into the beginning of a franchise that would never stop finding new ways to bleed.