Warning: This article contains spoilers for Scream 5 (2022).
Scream (2022) is the first Scream film to come out in over a decade, so there were high expectations for what plot and characters would be interesting enough to capture audiences again, especially after the death of Wes Craven.
Scream (2022) includes eight new characters, as well as one returning character and the three legacies, which puts it at the risk of having too many characters to function well. However, many of the new characters are engaging and provide strong parallels with the characters from the first movie in the franchise. Fans looking for a new favorite character will not be disappointed, and there are a number of new characters likable enough to launch a new run of the franchise.
Amber Freeman
It feels wrong to put one of the Scream Ghostface killers at the bottom of the likability scale since normally they have their own kind of charisma, but Amber was just beyond the pale. Her kills involved far more stabbing than was necessary to get the job done, which would seem to show an angry motive, but the best she could come up with was that she was radicalized by chat forums.
While this motive is particularly applicable to the modern-day, it isn't one that is going to earn her any points. She seemed like a bad friend when audiences didn't know she was a killer, and then was very one-note when she was revealed, which leaves her at the bottom of the likability scale.
Liv McKenzie
Liv is furious when she is told that she's "too boring" to be a central part of the killing spree, but that is true from the audience's perspective. Viewers don't really know much more about her than the fact that she got irrationally angry over being looked at as a suspect.
This is a common situation, where characters (especially romantic partners) get upset at being treated like suspects, but in the middle of a killing spree, it makes sense. At the end of the day, Liv was boring and seemed out of touch with the horrors around her, making her unable to rank high on the likability scale.
Wes Hicks
Wes is one of the earliest kills in the film, and despite fans knowing the intricacies of his shower routine, there isn't much more to say about him. It was good that he thought to bring Sam back to Woodsboro, but for being the one to reach out to Sam, he didn't seem that close with Tara.
He wasn't necessarily an unlikable character, but he wasn't in the film long enough for fans to really get an opinion about him one way or the other.
Judy Hicks
Judy Hicks is another one of the characters in this film who is just there. No parent could watch her panic about the Ghostface killer coming to kill her son without having their heartstrings pulled, but that was the most audiences got to see of her personality.
Her relevance as a character was in that she was recognizable from Scream 4 and she was meant to die early on, and therefore there isn't much to say about her likability as a character.
Richie Kirsch
Richie was an interesting character, getting a remarkable amount of screentime for someone with relatively limited personality traits. Audiences know that he cares about Sam and that he picked up on the rules of the Stab franchise very quickly (because, of course, he isn't a first-time watcher).
His motive for being a killer was interesting, likely making Scream superfans a little uncomfortable about their association with him. All of that said, however, he wasn't really a likable character. He didn't show enough personality throughout the bulk of the film to rank any higher on that scale.
Chad Meeks-Martin
Every Scream fan loves a Meeks character, so the twins, Chad and Mindy, automatically rank high on the likability scale. Chad knows the rules and plays by them, making the smart decision not to be alone and get involved with someone who can't be ruled out as the killer.
Unfortunately, he did make the stupid decision to give the killer his location when he knew that they had the ability to clone phones, which makes the fact that he isn't dead a shock and a slight disappointment. Nonetheless, he's a fun and likable character that fans were very much looking forward to seeing on screen.
Sidney Prescott
It feels almost sacrilegious to put Sidney Prescott so low on a Scream ranking, a character with so many great action scenes, but she was hardly in this film. Viewers will be happy to know that Sidney has been able to move forward from the trauma of the previous four films, starting a family and living fully in the world again.
However, she didn't try to help the Carpenter sisters until Dewey was killed, which, while the right choice for her family, was a move that might have allowed other people to get hurt and made her not very likable. She was great while she was onscreen, but her success and ability to just move on made her harder to like in this movie.
Mindy Meeks-Martin
Mindy is the superior Meeks in this film, sharing with everyone the rules of the horror "re-quel" and constantly training her friends in what to do and what not to do. Even if she didn't manage to suss out the killers, her scene training Amber what not to do in a horror movie and her decision to look behind her while watching the Stab movie are both brilliant Randy-esque moments.
Fans can only hope that they will see more of Mindy moving forward to give audiences the metacommentary Scream films are famous for.
Dewey Riley
Dewey is always a fan-favorite character, and he was the only one of the legacies who actively jumped in to help out Sam and her sister. While he balks, at first, because he has suffered a lot from getting involved in the past, Dewey can't bear to let more people die if he can stop it. His caring nature finally gets Dewey killed in Scream 5, which is a moment sure to break fans' hearts.
That said, the bombshell that Dewey was the one to end his relationship with Gale because he couldn't handle her success and distance is disappointing and a large departure from the lovable character fans know and love.
Sam Carpenter
Fans love a character who makes logical decisions and tries to take care of the people they love, and that is Sam to a T. Sam fights fiercely to protect her sister, which already makes her a force to be reckoned with when likability is concerned, but she also has good knowledge about what characters should do in a horror movie — a trait which truly makes her a Scream heroine.
Sam's parentage doesn't make her any less interesting or likable, but her decision to abandon her family in the first place, while understandable, was what made the killers attack her sister, as well as what damaged their relationship.
