Maureen Prescott

"I always thought I had the perfect mom."

- Sidney about her late mother.

Maureen Prescott (née Roberts) is the deceased mother of Sidney Prescott, the protagonist of the Scream film series. She is also the sister to Kate Roberts, niece to Jill and birth mother to Roman Bridger, as well as the first ever victim to Ghostface in the infamous Woodsboro Murders committed by Billy Loomis and Stu Macher.

Despite being dead before the original Scream (1996 film), she plays an integral role in sparking the chain of events in the series. In the first four films, the murderers trace at least part of their motivation back to Maureen. She makes her first physical and voice appearance in the third film which explores her backstory, including her life as an actress with the stage name, Rina Reynolds.

Maureen indirectly caused the chain of five (the events of the original trilogy gave Sidney fame, which Jill Roberts was jealous of) separate murder sprees. The fourth murder spree was caused because of fame and family jealousy as a result of the previous murder sprees.

She was portrayed by Lynn McRee.

Hollywood Dreams
Maureen Roberts was born in 1951, the elder daughter in the Roberts household located in Woodsboro, California. Her younger sister, Kate was born approximately five years later. She spent her whole life in Woodsboro, except for a secret two-year span between early-1969 and early-1971 (approx. two years), between the ages of 18 and 20.

It is revealed the young and impressionable 18-year-old was an aspiring actress. She relocated to Los Angeles in 1969, and she followed her dreams. She chose the stage name Rina Reynolds, and met horror movie producer in his heyday, John Milton, attending one of his parties.

She was introduced to men Milton claimed would help her career in return for sexual favors. A young and innocent Maureen was then gang raped by several men. She became pregnant with a son who she gave birth to on February 4, 1970. She gave him up for adoption.

Short Career
Maureen was unable to make a big break in Hollywood. She shot three horror movies somewhere along this period (between her nine-month pregnancy in 1969 all the way to 1971): Amazombies, Space Psychos and Creatures from the San Andreas Fall between 1969 and 1971.

She also did three plays: The War on Earth, Young Women and I Want to Scream. Each film was produced by horror icon John Milton.

During the events of the third film (which take place in early-2000), Dewey refers to a photograph at age 19/20 "28 years ago" indicating it was approx. 1971 (one year after Roman Bridger's birth year). It is likely the photograph was one of Maureen's final moments in Hollywood.

Sexual Assault Claims and Return to Woodsboro
No charges were ever brought towards her rapists, despite Maureen’s claims and for pressing on the matter between 1970 and 1971. As Milton states, "It was the seventies, everything was different", though this would later appear to be untrue. She was eventually completely blacklisted for trying to expose the truth during this timeframe.

She made the decision to leave Hollywood behind and moved back home to Woodsboro. That same year, sometime in 1971, she met her future husband, Neil Prescott when she was 21 years old. They eventually got married, bought the house 34 Elm Street and she gave birth to a daughter at approx. 28 turning 29 years old, Sidney Prescott (born 1979).

She told no one about this period in her life or her traumas, including her family and eventual husband, Neil.

Affairs in Woodsboro
The rape affected Maureen for the rest of her life. Even though she settled down and married Neil Prescott and had his daughter, she became promiscuous.

She had affairs with at least Cotton Weary and a married man, Hank Loomis, the father of Sidney's boyfriend Billy Loomis. When Hank's wife found out, she left Hank to raise their son Billy on his own.

Death
Her birth son, Roman Bridger was adopted into a wealthy family in Hollywood. Like his birth mother, he had artistic aspirations, becoming a music video director. Somewhere in his early life, Roman discovered or was informed that he was adopted and opted to find his birth mother, an unknown and untraceable Horror movie actress named "Rina Reynolds". Roman eventually tracked Maureen down in 1995, at the age of 25, coming to the front door at her residence, but she rejected him. This was most likely because he was a reminder of a time she wanted to forget. She coldly said that he was Rina Reynolds' son, Rina was dead and Maureen's only child is her teenage daughter, Sidney, before slamming the door in his face. Roman was embittered by this and began stalking her.

He took footage of her affairs, including the one with Hank and showed the evidence to Billy claiming that she was the reason why his mother "abandoned him". This enraged Billy and Roman motivated him to murder Maureen. Roman also told Billy to have a partner to sell out in case he gets caught and to frame someone. One night, Maureen seduced Cotton when he was drunk. Billy, with help from his best friend Stu Macher,and through the mine tricks of Roman Bridger,did as instructed and together they murdered Maureen and framed her lover, Cotton Weary.

They made the scene look like a rape and planted his jacket with Maureen's blood in his car to frame him. Sidney, having witnessed someone wearing Cotton's jacket, testified that she saw Cotton leave the house.

Cotton was subsequently convicted of rape and murder, and later placed on death row. After her death, some Woodsboro residents referred to Maureen as a "slut". According to Roman, "everybody knew" about Cotton; Sidney would ultimately suffer through the series due to her mother's past mistakes and affairs.

In school, Sidney was outed by two students as being the daughter of a "slut", and believed her to be one like her mother.

The Woodsboro Murders
In the year following Maureen's murder, the general public believed Cotton Weary raped and killed her. Reporter Gale Weathers was the only one who believed Cotton's story and clashed with Sidney over it. Sidney was haunted by her mother's death, but eventually discovered the truth: that Maureen really did sleep around, and that she was killed by Billy and Stu shortly after Cotton had sex with her. Sidney killed the two in self-defense and found some closure.

The Windsor College Murders
After Mrs. Loomis revealed herself as one of the killers, she proved to Sidney that she was infuriated at Maureen ruining her marriage to Hank. The second killer, Mickey Altieri, taunted Sidney by telling her that her dead boyfriend Derek Feldman would have been the type of guy she could take home to mom, if she had a mom.

Hollywood Revisited: Sidney Uncovers the Truth
In Scream 3, Maureen has a much larger role than in previous installments. We learn more about Maureen's past and why she slept around, so there are much fewer unanswered questions.

In the rules of a trilogy, which functions with prequel elements and an unexpected backstory with a "preponderance of exposition" (according to Randy's rules), this is why Maureen's story is re-explored, as the audience learns more about what was previously, rather briefly touched upon.

In the film, Roman leaves old head shots of Maureen as stage-name actress "Rina Reynolds" at the scenes of his murders to entice Sidney to Hollywood, so he could plan his revenge. Gale and Jennifer Jolie later investigate the headshots after Gale identified the person as Maureen and was told by Bianca Burnette about Maureen's rape and career with John Milton, implicating him as a suspect.

Sidney wounds up questioning her own sanity, when Roman terrorize her over the phone with Maureen's voice. He also drapes Maureen's prop body bag over himself and uses her voice to torment her and make her think she was losing her mind.

Sidney also dreams of her mother in the film, only furthering her doubts. After Roman finally reveals himself to Sidney, he fills in the gaps of Maureen's life for her, and then murders John Milton, one of her mother's rapists. She was seen on video and her voice was heard for the first time.

Maureen's murder is given more insight in the film at the replicated crime scene on the Stab 3 set. Maureen's bedroom is seen covered in blood and Maureen's body bag is seen with stab wounds in the head and stomach. It is hinted, that Maureen was in her bedroom after Cotton left.

Due to the presence of a cellphone, it can be inferred that Stu and Billy then called and harassed her, only to arrive and kill her brutally. The two then could have planted Cotton's bloody coat in his car, framing him.

2011 Woodsboro Massacre Remake
Kate Roberts (Maureen's younger sister) said that she had emotional scars, too, because of Maureen's brutal murder and implicitly complained that no one cared. This is the first hint that Kate seemed jealous of Sidney, almost as if her tragedy gave her the attention she, and her daughter by extension, never got.

Kate's death in the Second Woodsboro Murders (2011) in the film represents Maureen's, as Jill states: "I mean, for fuck's sake, my own mother had to die, no great loss there, so I could stay true to the original. That's sick, right?" It is clear Kate's jealousy issues were spread onto Jill.

2021 Woodsboro Legacy Killings
Gale Weathers expresses regret over writing the book on her murder, stating, "none of this would've happened", as a third massacre occurs in the town of Woodsboro. Sidney disagrees, stating Billy Loomis started it, and "we're gonna end it".

Family

 * Neil Prescott † - Husband/Widower
 * Sidney Prescott - Daughter
 * Roman Bridger † - Son
 * Kate Roberts † - Sister
 * Jill Roberts † - Niece
 * Mark Kincaid - Son-in-law
 * Three Unnamed grandchildren

Allies

 * Woodsboro, California
 * Cotton Weary † - Former Lover
 * Hank Loomis - Former Lover

Enemies

 * Roman Bridger † - Killer
 * Billy Loomis † - Killer
 * Stu Macher † - Killer
 * John Milton † - Possible Rapist / Enabler of Rape

Trivia

 * She was described as "beautiful and familiar" in the Scream script.
 * Maureen was the first victim of Ghostface and the only completely off-screen kill of the series. It happened one year prior to the first killing spree.
 * While in Hollywood for two years, she was represented by the SkeyFord Management Co.
 * Both her son and niece became psychotic killers.
 * Maureen has been referenced by six Ghostface killers.
 * The publicity stills of young Maureen Prescott, or "Rina Reynolds," are actually early modeling photos of a young Lynn McRee, the actress who portrays the adult Maureen Prescott.
 * Maureen is the main reason for the killings happening due to sleeping with Billy's father thus creating a chain of events.
 * In a deleted scene from Scream 4, Sidney picks up a framed picture of Maureen.
 * Maureen's maiden name is revealed to be 'Roberts' in Scream 3. Coincidentally, Jill Roberts, Maureen's niece in Scream 4, was played by Emma Roberts.
 * It was implied her sister Kate was jealous of the attention Sidney received from Maureen's death. This may have influenced how Jill turned out.
 * It is unknown how she was killed, since it was never verified; Cotton's coat was said to have blood on it and in the flashback set in Scream 3, there is blood everywhere. So it is presumed that she was stabbed to death like most of Ghostface's victims. A body bag prop for Stab 3 that is shown in Scream 3 suggests that her death involved stab wounds to the groin, chest, and head, though it is unclear if this was accurate to how she really died.

Appearances

 * Scream (1996 film, photographs only)
 * Scream 3 (2000 film)