Movies & TV / Columns
Ranking Scream’s Killers Based On Their Among Us Imposter Skills
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
Greetings, fellow fanpeople, and welcome to the latest column to escape from the random parts of my brain. I’m Jeremy Thomas, and I don’t know about you but sometimes random thoughts occur to me that just get lodged in my head. It usually happens in the shower. For example: Saturday afternoon I was getting clean when out of nowhere, without explanation, I suddenly found myself thinking:
“You know, [CHARACTER NAME REDACTED] from the new Scream would be a pretty terrible Among Us player.”
Listen, I don’t make the rules of my throught processes, I just live with them. But that led me down a road. It goes without saying if you’ve read any of my pieces on the Scream franchise that I am a huge fan of it. I also remain a semi-regular player of Among Us, InnerSloth’s version of The Thing put into a multiplayer video game format. So it’s not exactly a surprise that at some point, they may collide in my thought processes. The more I thought about it though, the more I started to realize that the various killers under the Ghostface mask have a number of skills and flaws that would impact how they might do as an Imposter — the aliens killing the crewmates — in Among Us. And sometimes, when you start ranking those things in your head, it just comes out as a column. So here you go.
What we have here, as the new Scream prepares to land on Paramount+ in March, is my personal rankings of how each character (not the actor) might do if they were playing as an Imposter in the game. It’s not an entirely out-of-nowhere thing; after all, Among Us is supposed to get a collaboration with Scream for Ghostface cosmetics at some point, and the game helped promote the film back in January through a video with a couple cast members playing the game with streamers. I’m ranking the killers by how well their displayed “real-life” murderous instincts would translate into the game, and who would be most likely to come out consistently as a winner on the Imposter side. It’s time to learn your horror survival rules, pick your bean color, and start fixing wires, because there are killers on the loose!
WARNING: There are SPOILERS in here for all five Scream movies that start directly after the below Scream X Among Us video. And not small spoilers either, but “who is the killer” spoilers. You have been warned.
#9: Amber Freeman – Scream (2022)
First on our list is the actual character who popped into my head in order to inspire the list, and one of the two killers from the new Scream. Amber Freeeman may not be the worst killer in the franchise (even if you don’t like her, you have to remember that Roman Bridger existed), but when it comes to this list she would undoubtedly be first voted off in an Among Us game. To start with, Amber isn’t very good at kills. She has several minutes to try and kill Tara in the opening sequence of the film and still has to run away when the police show up. She fails to kill Tara a second time in the hospital, allowing Sam to stall her long enough for Dewey to come to her rescue. She only kills Dewey because he decided to come back (on that note, Dewey would be a terrible crew member in Among Us).
But more to the point, she specifically outs herself as the killer toward the end of the film when there’s serious suspicion on Liv, shooting Liv in the head right in front of everyone. It’s not a stack kill; there’s no question who did it. She’d be reported right away and voted out by the whole crew. And then to make matters worse she again fails to kill — this time Sidney and Gale — and her attempt to talk herself out of being eliminated is entirely unconvincing. All due respect to Amber (and Mikey Madison’s performance is delightfully unhinged at the right moments), but she would the worst Among Us Imposter by far and it’s not even close.
#8: Charlie Walker – Scream 4 (2011)
Perhaps the saddest of the Ghostfaces, Charlie Walker is the kind of Imposter who knows all the rules of the game and yet still can’t do anything right. Rory Culkin’s film nerd is kind of pathetic, spending the entirety of the film seemingly mooning over Kirby (which hey, understandable), only to stab her (and fail to kill her) because he thinks he’s going to score with Jill. And hey, we all know how that turned out for him.
The one thing Charlie has going for him that Amber doesn’t is that he’s marginally more successful as a killer than her. Granted, most of that seems to be because Jill was guiding him, which he wouldn’t have as much on Polus or MIRA HQ. He does get a very memorable kill on Olivia and manages to escape, and he pretty ruthlessly kills his friend Robbie. But outside of that, when it comes to doing the deed he doesn’t seem to have it in him. While he’s got a few misdirection skills that would become useful when moving away from a murder, Charlie is pretty much SOL if he has to go it alone at any point and he’d have been best used by an Imposter team by — as Jill does in the film — getting thrown under the bus when the time is right.
#7: Stu Macher – Scream (1996)
Listen, I love Stu Macher. I stand by my assessment that Matthew Lillard was a shining beacon of horror during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and Stu is that rare character who happens to be both funny and legitimately threatening as a slasher. His goofball antics grate on some people and I get that, but Stu always makes me laugh when I watch Scream, particularly in the final act when he’s suffering from blood loss and on the phone with Sidney.
All that said, while Stu has a brutal streak that would serve him well in Among Us, he has the absolute worst poker face. His antics may be hilarious, but the only reason that he makes it to the end is that no one ever takes him seriously, and because Billy is busy fending off the brunt of the suspicion. Stu invites suspicion onto himself in multiple instances, notably in the video store where he taunts Randy, but people are so focused on Billy that he manages to skate. Being a lucky Imposter is not the same as being a good Imposter, and thus I have to regretfully rank Stu fairly low on this list.
#6: Roman Bridger – Scream 3 (2000)
Scream 3 is, while still a film I generally enjoy, the worst film in the franchise to date. A big part of that is the fact that its killer, Roman Bridger, is kind of a flat reveal. Roman is a limp rag of a Ghostface, a generally unlikable character who is played off as a joke and barely appears in the film, with the unfortunate retcon that he’s Sidney’s half-brother as a justification. I think there are parts of this film that are underappreciated, but that is absolutely not one of them.
And yet, as much as I dislike Roman as a character, he’s actually a pretty effective killer. Unlike the other films, he’s working solo without a partner and generally manages to steer clear of being caught. He uses new technologies, allowing himself to sound like other people (much like a shapeshifter can), and he’s pretty effective using the “vents” in his house to get to where he needs to be. Roman’s biggest flaw as an Imposter is that he’s simply not very good at defending himself, something Ghostfaces don’t have to do as much but Imposters absolutely need to do. Once someone accused Roman of being the Imposter, all he’d be able to do is proclaim that it wasn’t him, or offer lame justifications about why he was walking out of the Admin room right before a body was reported.
#5: Richie Kirsch – Scream (2022)
Richie Kirsch wouldn’t necessarily be a bad Imposter; he just wouldn’t be a great one, either. The mastermind killer of the new Scream, Jack Quaid’s toxic fanboy has a lot of skills going for him that he puts to deadly use. Richie is a hell of a liar, able to fairly subtlely gaslight Sam into believing that he’s a good guy and that she’s insane. He’s also good at manipulating other people, as shown in the film through his ability to set up situations that make himself look perfectly innocent while wreaking havoc on Tara, Sam, their friends, and the Original Three. He doesn’t do as much of the killing as Amber does, but in that way he’s one of the more dangerous types of Imposter as he keeps himself firmly on the side of the allies and never truly under suspicion while he lets his partner shed a lot of blood, so that he can finally get brutal at the end (and the fact that Quaid is a fairly decent Among Us player, as seen above, doesn’t hurt).
All that said though, Richie is also the kind of Imposter that it would be hell to be partnered up with. He and his partner Amber are constantly accusing each other of being the killer in front of other people in Scream, and he also makes his partner do all the heavy lifting so that he can make sure to try and get the specific kill he wanted to get. He’s also not good at shifting blame onto other people, having severely underestimated Sam — who he spent months getting to know and manipulating — when he tries to throw suspicion onto Tara with a thoroughly unconvincing argument. Richie would probably win a fair share of his Imposter games but when he comes up against a real challenge, he’s going to absolutely fold.
#4: Mickey Altieri – Scream 2 (1997)
Of all the accomplice killers in the Scream franchise, it’s pretty clear that Mickey would be the most effective Among Us Imposter. Tim Olyphant’s “freaky Tarantino film student,” to use Randy’s description, feels like he could have easily been a primary killer all his own if not for the brilliant twist of who his partner was. Olyphant makes for another memorable killer with his reveal here, delivering a wildly entertaining bit of acting once we know he’s the murderer.
Now to be fair, it’s impossible to deny that like Amber, Mickey does reveal himself. But this is a very different situation, as he’s all alone with Sidney when he kills Derek. In an Among Us game, he could easily self-report and shift the blame onto Sid, who might have some credibility issues at this point in the game (especially when everyone knows she killed one boyfriend in before). It’s what Mickey does before that point that really solidifies himself as a decent Among Us player, as he’s able to more effectively portray himself as a real friend and decent guy than any of the people he ranks ahead of. He pretends to show care for Sidney after the Omega Kappa Beta attack and even manages to subtly divert suspicion onto Derek. Mickey may be a little too eager to reveal himself, but he knows how to play the game and he plays it pretty well up until the end.
#3: Billy Loomis – Scream (1996)
You have to give it up for one of the originals. Billy Loomis set the bar high for Scream killers, along with his partner in (literal) crime Stu. Skeet Ulrich delivered some of his finest work as Billy, and the reveal that not only is he still alive but also Ghostface provides for one of the original Scream’s best twists, second only to the reveal moments later that there were two killers. Ulrich tears into his post-reveal material with relish and hits every right note as the bloodthirsty, psychotic maniac who helped turn Woodsboro into a household name.
But before that point, Billy was the primary target of focus for any suspicion on a couple of occasions. And it’s his ability to evade suspicion that makes him such a good Imposter. Anyone who’s played Among Us knows that there are those Imposters who can just constantly deflect the sus away from them. As a crew member, it can be maddening when you’re constantly trying to convince your crew mates that someone is clearly the Imp, but they get just enough reasonable doubt for people to skip, or at least tie it out. That’s Billy to a tee. He’s also the mastermind in the first film, maneuvering around the locales smoothly and wrecking havoc while in some cases no one’s the wiser. Billy is that combination of ballsy, manipulative, persuasive and cunning that makes for a good Imposter — and an infuriating one to lose to.
#2: Mrs. Loomis – Scream 2 (1997)
Mrs. Loomis is one of the more divisive killers in the Scream franchise. Many people (myself included) love how much of a surprise it is when Debbie Salt is revealed to be Billy Loomis’ mother at the end of Scream 2 and the woman who recruited budding serial killer Mickey for some “good old fashioned revenge.” And yet there are others who consider that, as well-explained as her backstory and motivations are, it’s a cheat to have a background character suddenly be revealed out of nowhere as a criminal mastermind. Your appreciation of Mrs. Loomis probably has a lot to say about how much you love Scream 2, and that’s fair.
When it comes to Among Us though, it’s hard to deny that Mrs. Loomis would be a deadly Imposter. She’s the master of the Shapeshifter role, embodying an entirely different person for much of the film to evade suspicion while she brutally murders Randy and orchestrates the rest of the slayings. Much like Richie, she lets her partner do all the heavy lifting but she also avoids falling into his trap of putting suspicion on either herself or Mickie. She’s clearly a skilled manipulator as she makes people believe she’s just a reporter, and while she had opportunities to kill Gale, she knew to pick her moments. Her one downfall is her rage which could cause her to make a mistake that would prove fatal to her plans, but outside of that there’s no reason to suspect she wouldn’t leave most of her games with a Victory screen.
#1: Jill Roberts – Scream 4 (2011)
Listen, we can argue all day about whether Scream 4 is a good movie or not. I will defend this film until the day I die; the final scene goes on a little too long but otherwise it’s another example of the franchise being prescient in terms of cultural trends while also delivering some great kills and big moments. But even if you don’t like the film as a whole, I find it hard to get why Jill Roberts isn’t one of the franchise’s best killers. Sidney’s cousin is wonderfully played by Emma Roberts as a sympathetic character right up until she isn’t, and then she gives a psychotically bitchy performance so good that it’s helped define her career going forward.
Either way, Jill would absolutely be the queen of Imposters. She combines all the talents of the best Scream killers that would come into play in the game; she is a vicious and ruthless killer who has no issue turning on her supposed friends in the crew, is able to set up situations where her partner can succeed, and for much of the movie there is little to no suspicion on her. She is skilled at cutting a sympathetic figure as she silently plots her kills, and based on her big reveal scene she’s clearly very good at setting a convincing stage. Also, she has no compunctions about throwing her partner under the bus, but only well after the point where he’s of use to her. It’s not the trolling sabotage of Richie; it’s a methodical decision calculated to get the win. Ending up in a lobby with Jill is tantamount to ending up as a ghost; it’s just that simple.
And there you have it! I appreciate you coming with me on this silly but (hopefully) fun ride that came out of my Saturday idle thinking brain. Have a good one folks, and don’t forget to read the many other great columns, news articles and more here at 411mania.com! JT out.
