Samantha Carpenter

"Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer."

- Samantha to Richie Kirsch before killing him.

Samantha Carpenter (preferably known as Sam) is the protagonist of the fifth Scream film, simply titled Scream (2022 film) and its untitled sequel (2023 film). Having run from a troubled past, the former Woodsboro resident returns to her haunted small California hometown to aid her younger sister Tara against a new Ghostface entity.

At age 13, she discovered the secret of her birth origin — she is the biological daughter of original Ghostface serial killer, Billy Loomis who derives from the original Scream (1996). Correspondingly, this also makes her the paternal granddaughter of the first copycat Ghostface killer, Nancy Loomis, who appeared in Scream 2 (1997).

After her legal father's abandonment due to her birth origin revelation, she spiraled into a life of drugs and crime. This dismayed soon-Sheriff Judy Hicks, who Sam would babysit the son of (one of these duties was during the second Woodsboro Murders). At age 18 (likely almost 19) — with Woodsboro no longer serving her any good — she abandoned it in favor of another California town.

In her departure, Sam did not say goodbye to her mother or baby sister (then age 13). Now 5 years later, Sam is confronted with both her troubled teen past and birth origin — she is Ghostface's primary target. Now a 24-year-old bowling alley attending, she joins forces with original legacy franchise survivors, Dewey Riley, Gale Weathers and Sidney Prescott, to stop the new killer.

In the end, Sam proves to embody the rules of a real-life horror movie legacy "requel" (reboot and sequel); she is both the descendant of a legacy character, and the new Ghostface entity is her own boyfriend, Richie whom she is able to kill (staying true to the original Sidney-Billy dynamic), as well as his accomplice who lives at 261 Turner Lane, Woodsboro (Macher residence), Amber Freeman.

Samantha is portrayed by Melissa Barrera.

Early Life
Samantha was conceived 1996, shortly before or during the Woodsboro Murders. The result of an affair Christina Carpenter had behind her high school sweetheart and eventual husband's back.

About five years later, her mother became pregnant again and gave birth to her younger half-sister, Tara Carpenter, her legal father Mr. Carpenter's first biological child, unbeknownst to him at the time.

Truth of Parentage
One day when she was 13, she searched the attic for Christmas gifts. This led to her finding her mother's old diaries which revealed that she was in fact the daughter of Billy Loomis,  the original Woodsboro Ghostface killer.

Sam was shocked by this revelation and demanded an explanation from her mother, unaware that her father was listening and as a result of the confrontation, he left the family in anger.

Troubled Teen Babysitter and Abandoning Woodsboro
After the discovery of who her father was, Sam descended down a rabbit hole of drugs and crime, drawing the attention of Woodsboro Sheriff Deputy Judy Hicks (later Sheriff) who’s son Wes she used to babysit, along with Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin, the twin niece and nephew of Randy Meeks. When she turned 18 Sam decided to leave Woodsboro, abandoning her mother and sister.

She moved to Modesto, California and got a job in a bowling alley. Six months prior to the fifth film, she began a relationship with Richie Kirsch. Sam would take antipsychotic medication to cope with the truth or her parentage. Despite the medication, she would still suffer hallucinations of her birth father.

2021 Woodsboro Legacy "Requel" Murders
25 years since the Woodsboro Murders ended with the deaths of its perpetrators, Billy Loomis and Stu Macher, a new killer has emerged.

Five years after leaving town, Sam's sister Tara is attacked by Ghostface, Wes Hicks calls Sam to inform her and Sam makes the decision, with Richie, to return to Woodsboro. They immediately go to see Tara in the hospital, to the welcome and dismay from others, and Sam apologizes to Tara for leaving her and agrees to stay in town.

Later on, Sam is taking a break at the hospital and when she looks in the mirror she hallucinates a vision of Billy Loomis who taunts her for unknown reasons. Sam's phone rings and when she answers it's the Killer who claims to know her secret. Ghostface jumps out from behind the door and tries to attack her, however she is able to escape and she then reveals to Tara the reason she left town, when she was 13 she founds their mother's diaries which reveal that her father wasn't her father, and rather she is the daughter of Billy Loomis, whom her mother slept with in high school. After finding this information, she demanded an answer from her mother, unaware that her father was listening, and as a result he left them all. Tara gets angry at Samantha for this and demands she leave.

Sam decides they need an expert to help them and she and Richie visit Dewey Riley who gives them two minutes with him. He explains the rules of surviving these attacks and then kicks them out of his house. However he later has a change of heart and joins Sam and Richie and the Meeks-Martin house, where the rest of Tara’s friends have gathered.

Dewey introduces the teens to Stab and the history of Billy and Stu and they attempt to figure out the connection between the Killer and Samantha. Mindy, who has the same traits as her uncle, deduces that the Killer is attempting to create a "Requel" - a reboot / sequel - to Stab 8, which at that point is just called Stab, which received poor reviews amongst fans and is a generally hated sequel. They realise the Killer is probably a Stab fan who is using Sam and Tara to make the movie. They are using Tara and her friends as the new generation and using Sam's connection to Billy Loomis as a way to weave the legacy characters, Sidney, Dewey and Gale, into the story. Sam gets angry when she is accused of being the Killer, and flees. As she drives, she has another hallucination of Billy and just narrowly avoids a fatal car accident.

After Judy and Wes are killed, Sam arrives on the scene and learns about their deaths. A news van pulls up, and a woman approaches Samantha looking for information. It is revealed that it's Gale Weathers. Sam then spots Deputy Vinson at the crime scene, despite the fact that he should be watching Tara at the hospital and she races back to save her sister, with Dewey joining her. They are able to distract the Killer long enough to catch him off guard, however Dewey sends the sisters away and prepares to kill Ghostface once and for all, resulting in his own death.Sam decides it's time to leave Woodsboro and ignores Sidney Prescott's request for help. Along the way, Tara realizes she forgot her inhaler and they stop at Amber's house to get another one, unaware that Amber's house is 261 Turner Lane, Stu Macher's old house. They arrive in time to interrupt Ghostface as he's trying to kill Chad Meeks-Martin and they call the party off.

After Mindy is attacked, an argument breaks out amongst the group resulting in Amber Freeman unmasking herself as one of the killers. Richie and Sam flee to the basement to hide and Richie deduces that Tara may be the other killer, resulting in Sam abandoning him. She finds Tara tied up upstairs and hesitates to untie her. Sidney and Gale arrive at the house and it's finally revealed that the other killer is none other than Richie.

He and Amber reveal that they are trying to make a new Stab movie after the fail of Stab 8 and they are pinning Sam as the killer, as she is the daughter of Billy Loomis. Amber goes to grab Tara so they can finish her off together however it is revealed that Sam did untie her and Tara taunts them with a phone call. Amber looks for Tara who jumps out and attacks her. Samantha then fights Richie as Amber returns to the kitchen where Sidney and Gale gang up on her.Sidney and Gale kill Amber by setting her on fire, and Samantha repeatedly stabs Richie and then slits his throat, killing him. Sidney warns her that the Killer always comes back, so Samantha shoots him three times. A burnt Amber comes running at them from the kitchen with a kitchen knife and Tara shoots her through the head, finally killing her.

Outside, Tara, Mindy and a still alive Chad are taken to hospital and Sam thanks Gale and Sidney for their help. Samantha asks Sidney if she will be alright. Sidney knowing she will endure similar things she went through replies to her with a slight smile saying, "Eventually." As Sam prepares to leave in the ambulance with Tara, she hallucinates Billy standing behind her once more, indicating that he still is, and will continue to, haunt her.

Scream 6
Coming Soon!

Family

 * Christina Carpenter - Mother
 * Mr Carpenter - Ex-stepfather
 * Billy Loomis † - Biological Father
 * Tara Carpenter - Half-sister
 * Nancy Loomis † - Paternal Grandmother
 * Hank Loomis - Paternal Grandfather

Allies

 * Sidney Prescott
 * Gale Weathers
 * Woodsboro, California
 * Dewey Riley †
 * Judy Hicks †
 * Woodsboro High School
 * Wes Hicks †
 * Chad Meeks-Martin
 * Mindy Meeks-Martin
 * Liv McKenzie †

Enemies

 * Richie Kirsch † - Ex-Boyfriend/Killer/Victim
 * Amber Freeman † - Killer

Notable Quotes

 * "I'm the daughter of Billy Loomis."
 * "I was afraid I'd turn out just like him."
 * "Or maybe I'm just stalling for time, fuckhead".
 * "Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer".

Name and origin references
Her character's existence is a callback to a line referenced by her father, Billy Loomis in the first film. He mentions Jodie Foster who keeps having visions of her dead father in Silence of the Lambs (1991); the exact same thing occurs to Sam in the fifth film.

Her name and birth origins is a play on words for horror movie director John Carpenter and the characters of Sam Loomis in Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978) and Alfred Hitchcock's film, Psycho (1960).
 * In John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), Dr. Sam Loomis is the name of the doctor who aids Laurie Strode. Dr. Loomis' name is derived from Sam Loomis, Marian Crane's boyfriend in Psycho (1960), who aids her sister Lila in investigating her disappearance.
 * She shares this connection with her grandmother; Nancy Loomis' alias "Debbie" is also short for Debra, a Halloween (1978) reference (Debra Hill was a producer of Halloween). Mrs. Loomis' real name — including her explicitly referenced forename in the original Scream 2 script — is also a reference to actress Nancy Loomis (actress who played Annie Brackett in Halloween).
 * Given she has accepted her birth origins and father, it is possible, along with preferring her nickname to her legal forename, she may address herself as "Sam Loomis" going forward, given her legal father's abandonment.

Trivia

 * Her character name was confirmed by HelloSidney.com in January 2021.
 * She is the illegitimate daughter of serial killer, Billy Loomis and granddaughter of copycat serial killer, Nancy Loomis who went by the alias "Debbie Salt" in the first Scream film franchise sequel.
 * She is the first known character (and female) to take medication for mental health reasons. Given she takes antipsychotic medication, it is very likely Sam has received a formal diagnosis for a form of psychosis.
 * Technically speaking, the first female character in the franchise to take medication was Emma Duval from the first two seasons of the TV series, respectively to also deal with her issues, albeit the reason differing on why each female protagonist is medicated (for Emma it’s due to trauma and PTSD from having survived the killing spree against her orchestrated by her psychotic, unknown half sister).
 * Samantha and Richie’s 3 year age gap (Sam born in 1997 approx. 25, while Richie was born approx. 1994 and approx. 27) is the second lowest of any pairing and couple in the franchise, whether or not a protagonist dating an antagonist or vice versa.
 * Despite never being a couple, the unrequited love (yet unreciprocated) between Charlie Walker and Kirby Reed in Scream 4 mirrors that of Samantha and Richie’s relationship, also by 1 year to a few months in their age.
 * However the latter duo was a protagonist to antagonistic couple while the former were only flirting, and who after it’s revealed that Charlie was Jill’s secret boyfriend and vice versa as well as accomplice, with their age gap as the first antagonistic couple also being the same to Sidney’s past relationships, due to it only being a year to a few months in difference (Charlie was either 17/18 while Jill was 17).
 * However, both relationships are broken after the reveal of each supposedly “weak” males being killers, their betrayals being parallels of each other seeing as how Sam and Kirby are betrayed after learning of their supposed “partners” (Richie as Sam’s boyfriend while Charlie as Kirby’s friend). After learning of both Richie and Charlie’s true identities, both Sam and Kirby are quickly attacked by being stabbed in the stomach after believing they were helping them since the men were supposedly attacked.
 * Samantha trying to get the gun after Richie is supposedly hurt in an homage to Sidney handing Billy the gun in the first film, just how Kirby believed Charlie was hurt after being tied in an decoy trap and homage to Steven Orth in the fourth film)
 * Unlike Kirby however, who was stabbed deeply twice by Charlie, Richie stabs Samantha once and who twists the knife, keeping the knife in her before taking it out one time, inversely to Charlie’s attack of Kirby.
 * The difference being that Charlie’s betrayal to Kirby went shortly unknown to Sidney Prescott in Scream 4, seeing as she was only present when Kirby received her phone call, until she then told Kirby to stay and that she’d find Jill and help and left. Sid perhaps got a clue to Kirby’s fate after she opened the basement door of her house and called her name and who was first cornered and trapped by Charlie and later Sidney’s cousin, Jill Roberts, thus learning that his trap was false after Jill’s reveal.
 * Almost a decade later, Richie’s betrayal to Sam is now seen by Sidney which is also done more quickly seeing as she didn’t assume of Richie as the killer, due to having shot him after trying to find the killer hiding behind a door (a well known hiding spot of Ghostface throughout the franchise) and who had told Richie to come out after she shot him before she’s ambushed by Amber in her Ghostface costume
 * Much like how Sidney only visually assumed Charlie wasn’t the killer, either, and who a decade ago had only opened doors seeing as she was in Kirby’s house, which she didn’t know; who, a decade later, was now shooting through doors now that she was armed and in Stu’s old house, 261 Turner Lane, which she knew well; this was also in part, due to neither male killers being in costume to avert being identified and suspected).
 * This happened more quickly in the fifth film which is probably why it didn’t make her immediately assume that Richie was faking like Charlie until Sam arrived and he stabbed her, affirming what she perhaps knew after all.
 * This was due to the fact that prior to entering the house with Gale, Sidney was revealed the identity of one of the killers, Amber, out of costume when she tried to lure the duo females by pretending she was stabbed and screaming in pain.
 * However, Gale sensed the trap and in an inverse to Sidney being stabbed in Scream 4 as she tried to leave the door as well as in the first film when Gale tried to shoot Billy with the gun before being knocked out out on the front porch due to the guns safety being off. Now, just Gale being shot is a reference to her confrontations with both Ghostface killers, Billy and Amber, albeit she is shot by Amber in the lower abdomen (just like where Sidney is stabbed), rather than knocked out but nonetheless attacked.
 * Ultimately, Samantha’s betrayal by Richie also is the first to occur in front of both killers and Sidney, seeing how Kirby’s betrayal by Charlie was only between them, since Jill wasn’t present.
 * The first informally would be when Billy shot Randy non-fatal after Sidney handed him the gun (which is reversed in this film, as Amber actually reveals herself out of costume by shooting Liv, who she had tried to implicate as the killer, before killing her via gunshot to the head in front of Tara, Sam, and Richie prior to Richie’s reveal and betrayal to Sam)
 * This is 2 years more than Sidney’s first two relationships, the first with Sam’s father Billy Loomis as well as Sidney’s second with Derek Feldman, each differing by only a year to few months (Sidney was 17 when Billy was 18, and in the second Sidney was 19 when Derek was 20).
 * Notably it’s 7 years lesser to that of Sidney-Mark’s relationship (Sidney was approx. 21 when Mark was 30) as well as 4 years to that of the Dewey-Gale relationship (in the first film, Dewey was 25 while Gale was 32)
 * However, the biggest age gap in antagonistic couples would be firstly in the non-romantic pairing of Mickey Altieri and Debbie Loomis from Scream 2, with there being a 20 year age gap between both killers, with the second being an inverse of the first male-female pairing and the inappropriate version of it, seeing as how Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman have a 9 year difference also similarly met online like Mickey and Debbie (albeit Debbie contracted Mickey online as a killer, while Amber and Richie met to make a real life requel) seeing as both were fans of the Stab films, similar to Jill and Charlie, who had already known each other.
 * This is due to the fact that Amber was 18 and Richie was still approx. 27, thus perhaps being groomed, due to their age gaps. However, there’s is the first official relationship to do so in the films and the third overall in the franchise, preceded by the relationships between both antagonistic couples Piper Shaw and Kieran Wilcox in Season 1-2 of the TV series, as well as Beth and Jamal Elliot from Season 3 (seeing as Richie, Piper and Jamal are adults in their 20s dating teenagers which included Amber, Kieran, and Beth, working from the outside in)
 * Despite the fact that Samantha is the first direct character to be the illegitimate child of a serial killer (Ghostface, and grandchild of one as well, who was the mother of Sam’s serial killer father), she ultimately reversed her role of assuming the “villain” serial killer role, supposedly to take and follow on, making her the first character in the Scream franchise to do so.
 * Samantha was also, as a result of her father’s infidelity and who, alongside her mother Christina, was conceived during the 1996 Woodsboro Murders, and born a year later as a result, making her the earliest known important character prior to others in the franchise due to her role as the secret illegitimate daughter of the original mastermind (thus unbeknownst to everyone prior to the events of 2021, including Sidney herself).
 * She officially inverses the role of Roman Bridger from Scream 3, as well as both Piper Shaw from Season 1 and Jamal Elliot from Season 3 ; the fact being how despite being the illegitimate child, Sam wasn’t abandoned by being given up for adoption nor neglected after being born by her mother, which thus rewrote her role as the supposed villain, unlike the aforementioned characters.
 * Thus, the former characters assumed their killer roles and who used their abandonment and isolation as their defense and main reason/excuse for their motives in each of their killing sprees, respectively.
 * Like Piper, both her and Sam were conceived by their serial killer fathers and their respective mothers during their fathers first killing sprees (Piper, in during her fathers spree in October 1994 while Sam was during hers in October 1996). However, unlike Piper, Sam wasn’t given up for adoption and thus never resorted to becoming a killer.
 * Unlike Roman (or Jill), Samantha was opposed to the unwanted attention and didn’t want to be known as the illegitimate daughter of Sidney’s ex boyfriend and famous Ghostface killer and father Billy Loomis (subsequently being also the granddaughter of the copycat Ghostface, Debbie Loomis, and whose killings are in homage to/ avenge to the original Woodsboro Murders), quite similar to Sidney’s dislike of her reputation.
 * Similar to Jamal, Sam comes from a different side of her paternal family, seeing as she was the firstborn illegitimate child, much like how Jamal was due to Earl Elliot’s infidelity with another woman, his birth mother, who he didn’t know until he was a bit older and met his stepmother Sherry Elliot and learned about his half twin brothers, Marcus and Deion Elliot.
 * Unlike Jamal, Sam did not despise her parents (who never abandoned her to begin with) or her stepfather who she grew up believing was her actual father, who was in fact her half sister Tara’s actual, making Tara the legitimate child (just like Sidney and Marcus were), which grew a brewing hatred inside Jamal, “killing” him and soon becoming against Marcus as well as both Earl and Sherry, after his birth mother commited suicide after discovering Earl’s first family who he states he chose over him and his mom. Similarly, Sam discovering her paternity “killed” her mother and stepfather’s marriage and thus end in a divorce in which Sam felt guilt over and to not let Tara know, left
 * Similarly, this is an homage to Roman seeing as how Jay’s hatred for Marcus who took over Deion’s identity, whom Jamal had met prior to his half brother’s death in Halloween 2010, and thus would take it upon himself to don the Ghostface costume and starts a killing spree alongside his accomplice, whom both targeting Marcus and his friends over his secret. This is almost a reference to what the new killers in Woodsboro did with Sam in Scream (2022).
 * Overall, Sam shared similarities to Jamal due to the inverse of both’s paternity and identity cases in each of themselves and their family members, respectively.
 * This also reverses the original plan that Sam’s former boyfriend, Richie Kirsch, alongside his accomplice Amber Freeman, tried to force Sam to assume for their requel, trying to turn her by pointing out the fact of how her killer father was killed by Sidney Prescott (her predecessor as the heroine), and using her hallucinatins due to her psychosis as reasons, also.
 * This is loosely similar to the failed plan instigated by Sidney’s half brother, Roman, in the original Scream trilogy in which he tried for Sidney to assume her role as the killer due to her unresolved trauma ever since the events of the Woodsboro Murders, which led to her being the killer after having “enough” of the killers after her.
 * This is a callback based on the deduction given by one of Sidney’s classmates, Cheerleader in Bathroom, in the original Scream who theorized that due to Sidney’s  (and Roman’s) mother Maureen’s death, who she refers to as a tramp, was the precedent for Casey and Steven’s murders, incorrectly assuming Sidney as the killer, reasoning this as her way to cope with her mother’s death instead of killing herself a year later, which was proven to be false.
 * This, in retrospect, is reversed to how Billy and Stu originally planned for both their murder spree to be framed against Neil Prescott, as the supposedly avengeful husband and killer instead of Sidney, just like how he and Stu had framed innocent Cotton Weary for their murder of Maureen.
 * The similarities is that all characters were jealous of Sidney in some way (Roman, Billy, and Stu as antagonistic, while the cheerleader perhaps jealous due to being a possible fling of Sidney’s former boyfriend, Billy; as well as the affair rumors of the Maureen being well known; which Tatum also more positively tried to inform Sidney of, much to her denial, even after Billy and Stu revealed themselves as the perpetrators behind Sid’s mother’s murder, verbally harassed using Sidney’s mother infamous reputation against her).
 * This finally led for Sidney to accept the truth seeing as how in the original film trilogy, Billy and Debbie used Maureen as their motives to murder, for having causing the destruction and separation of Sam’s paternal family and decided to pin their crimes against Sidney because of it, to avenge one another.
 * This was also the reason as to why Billy tried to avenge his mother, who abandoned him albeit alive, in his killing spree 1996 until Debbie returned later in the copycat spree of 1998 to avenge her now dead-son, both in relation to Sidney’s mother, the latter being more direct due to Sidney actually having killed her son, Billy, which wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Maureen; thus, is why Richie mentioned it to Sam almost 25 years later of the original massacre in order to turn her against Sidney which fails.
 * However, Roman did this due to jealousy and anger for Sidney due to her fame later gained as the survivor, as well as for Sidney having his life and, after their mother shut him out, learnt about his mother’s reputation of affairs in Woodsboro, most notably with that of Hank Loomis (Sam’s grandpa), the father of Billy Loomis (Sam’s father) and unfaithful husband of Debbie Loomis (Sam’s grandma).
 * Roman, following him being shut out by Maureen and who after learnt of being replaced by Sidney and her father as family, as well of his mother’s affair with Sam’s grandpa, led for him to convince Sam’s father Billy to murder Roman (and Sid’s) mother without being involved and to lure Stu Macher as an accomplice and commit it against Sidney, and who broke into their own spree in relation to Maureen’s murder in October 1996.
 * This is similar for Sidney’s and Roman’s cousin, Jill Roberts, and her motives in Scream 4 seeing as how neither Kate (Jill’s mother) or Maureen (Roman and Sidney’s mother) were killers but who gave birth unknowingly to ones each of their first children. However, Jill was not born illegitimately like Roman, so her reason for despising Sidney roots from the similar reason Roman despised Sidney, due to Sidney’s fame, despite the fact that Sidney (like Sam with her paternity and being the daughter of serial killer and Sidney’s ex boyfriend Billy Loomis) never asked for her fame following her mother’s death or the unwanted attention as the survivor of each Ghostface killing spree and didn’t have the perfect life, seeing as following her mother’s death and surviving Ghostface overwhelmed her, which neither of her relatives as the killers fully understood, just as Sam’s attempted killers didn’t, either.)
 * Unlike Jill or Roman however, neither Richie or Amber were jelaous of Samantha (or related to her) only to an extent that she was the perfect role for their planned requel in an homage to become the villlain. However, Samantha disproves of their theory by using her father’s serial killer instinct in her DNA genes to kill Richie with his own weapon, stabbing and slashing his throat.
 * Therefore, despite her identity as the illegitimate daughter of Christina and Billy Loomis, the serial killer and mastermind behind the original Woodsboro Murders, as well as her role as the supposed killer to follow after her father, returning almost 25 years later, retracting the statement given by Mindy in requel sense to Sam, seeing as Sam becomes Sidney Prescott’s successor.
 * Sam killing Richie is an inverse to Sidney Prescott with Billy Loomis and who has only killed all of her attempted killers via gunshot, albeit she shares the same sharp killer instinct with Roman in Scream 3 during their confrontations, similar to Sam with the hallucinations of Billy in this film.
 * Samantha is officially the seventh main character (fifth female overall, and fifth in terms of survivors) in the franchise to defeat Ghostface in the film franchise.
 * Samantha is preceded currently by Sidney Prescott (whom she succeeds), the late Dewey Riley and Randy Meeks, Gale Weathers, Kirby Reed, and Sam’s half sister Tara Carpenter in the films (after Sam is both twin siblings and Randy’s niece and nephew, Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin), as well as before Tara, by Marcus Elliot from Season 3 of the TV series, respectively
 * However Sidney, Marcus, and Samantha are the only main characters as the leads in the franchise to survive each of their attacks with each of their respective Ghostface killers (in Sidney’s case, she survives all the killers in the film series, alongside Samantha’s, except Season 3, which isn’t tied into the films)
 * Samantha as a survivor in the the third Woodsboro Murders shares some similarities to Emma Duval and the Lakewood Six from Season 1 and Season 2 of the TV series, and the latters survival in the Lakewood Murders by the Lakewood Slasher (inverse of the film franchise, both town and killer).
 * Both take medications to deal with their mental health.
 * Both are the same sex as their half sibling.
 * (in this case, half sisters, although Samantha is the firstborn and illegitimate daughter, much like Emma’s half sister Piper, making Emma in this case the equivalent to Tara. Also there’s a bigger age difference in Sam and Tara, who are almost 5-6 year difference, while with Piper and Emma, it’s only 3 years)
 * Both are revealed to be dating killers of their age (accomplices to killers of other ages) of a continued killing spree originally established prior to being born, after their return to both of their hometowns, respectively after a period of absence
 * Inversely seeing as how in the TV series, Emma’s boyfriend Kieran is her age as a teenager who secretly dated and was the accomplice to her half sister, Piper, an adult; meanwhile, in the fifth film Sam is dating Richie who is around her age an adult who was secretly dating and was the accomplice of her half sister’s Tara’s friend, Amber, a teenager.
 * Unlike Emma whose absence was brief, Samantha’s was longer, being due to each female’s account and given their age difference; however each is similar in that both left in order to not receive unwanted attention from their situations: Emma because she was the half sister of Piper, her mother Maggie and serial killer Brandon James’s first born illegitimate child; while Sam because she’s actually being the first born illegitimate child of her and Tara’s (her half sister) mother Christina and serial killer Billy Loomis.
 * Similarly, both left because they didn’t want to know of anyone knowing of their family ties and being related to killers in their family linage, despite perhaps already being known.
 * Samantha, like Piper, was actually the illegitimate first born daughter of serial killer Billy Loomis and her and her half sister Tara’s mother, Christina, who was also conceived during her father’s role as the killer of the first Woodsboro Murders which also occurred in October 1996 (meaning her and Piper share the same birth month and are only 2 years apart, seeing as Piper was conceived by her parents during her fathers Lakewood Murders in October 1994, just like how Sam was 2 years later during the Woodsboro Murders in October 1996).
 * Unlike Piper, Sam was not given up after being born and who growing up would not learn of her paternity until years later which would hurt Sam’s stepfather, Mr. Carpenter, which actually hurt in retrospect her half sister, Tara, just like it did to Emma and her father (Mr. Carpenter didn’t confront nor know about Billy’s involvement as either the killer until after the fact that Christina’s affair, like Maggie’s, was learnt which led to each couple having a divorce, which Sam felt guilty in her case about, unbeknownst to Tara, who like Emma, was a young child at the time of this revelation and who didn’t know Sam was her half sister and illegitimate daughter of a killer until later)
 * Like Emma, Sam took a leave of absence for a certain amount of time before each returning to their respective towns, with the difference that Emma had survived a killing spree back in 2015 in Season 1 and took 3 months prior to returning in Season 2 in 2016, while for Sam she left after the events of Scream 4, who graduated in 2015 and left Woodsboro in 2016, returning almost 5 years later, being 18-19 years old at the time of events occurring simultaneously in the TV series (See Timeline).
 * Interestingly, Sam’s age difference being only a year from Emma and almost two to the rest of the Lakewood Six is perhaps a reference, since despite the events of the TV series being separate from the films, occur in the same years in the overall franchise, seeing as how Sam had graduated in 2015 while the Lakewood Six were juniors, and leaving in 2016, prior to the Lakewood teens becoming seniors (See Timeline (TV Series)).
 * With only 5 survivors left from in the Lakewood Six as of 2016, is a parallel to the current number of survivors from the 2021, almost 5 years later as well (despite Sam being an adult, her being a survivor amongst teens Tara, Chad, Mindy, and Frances mirrors that of the Lakewood Five which includes Emma, Brooke, Audrey, Noah, and Gustavo; also the teens survive prior to their graduations (Lakewood being the Class of 2017 and Woodsboro being the Class of 2022, another 5 year difference between the generations of each cast)
 * Also, had a continuation of Emma and her friends’ storyline from the first two seasons occurred, whether or not alongside the release of Scream (2022), it would’ve been the third Lakewood Murders to have occurred almost in a reference for the now official Third Woodsboro Murders in the franchise. However, that material was recycled and scrapped for what is now Season 3. However it’s possible that it would’ve taken place, due to the ending of Season 2 revealing the existence of a Third Killer, although it would’ve perhaps taken place in the last years of the last decade until announced.
 * The first film shows that Billy is unfaithful to Sidney at the horror movie section at the video store, flirting with other girls, a nod to the possibility of his secret affair with Christina.
 * She and Tara are the first sister dynamic to survive together in a Scream film. (Each taking the original heroine traits and cutting her in half.)
 * They are also the second sisters dynamic introduced into the series, following Maureen and Kate Roberts (and third overall, succeeded by the unnamed Kincaid daughters, born to Mark and Sidney).
 * Sam and Tara are officially the second out of three same sex half sibling pairings, preceded by both Emma Duval and Piper Shaw from Season 1 as well as Marcus and Jamal Elliot from Season 3 of the TV series.
 * Her and Tara’s half sibling relationship, which is not antagonistic, with both being alive succeeds that of Sidney and Roman in the films, as well as Piper and Emma and Marcus and Jamal from the TV series
 * with the latter group of siblings homages seeing how Samantha inverses the roles of the deceased killers in which Roman, Piper, and Jamal were against their half-sibling, causing killing sprees against them and their friends; as well as Tara being similar in that she is the official child like Sidney, Emma, and Marcus who inverses the role of her and her friends being the targets (or victim herself) of her half sibling’s killing spree, seeing as how she and Sam were not separated growing up and thus, were spared of the antagonistic half sibling relationship seen with the others)
 * She is Sidney's true "reboot" successor, after Jill Roberts was initially set up to be the original successor until she was revealed as a villain.
 * Like Sidney, her boyfriend was the killer, and their accomplice was a household resident of 261 Turner Lane, Woodsboro.
 * Sam is 3 years younger than Jill, meaning they likely crossed each other's paths at one point in the town or at Woodsboro High when Sam was a freshman. It is also possible Sam knew the other deceased teenagers from Scream 4 (2011) and survivor, Kirby Reed.
 * Sam and Jill hybrid Sidney and Billy's characters in one character. Sam is the successor as she is the illegitimate daughter of the antagonist Billy, while being the true protagonist like Sidney, unlike Jill, who was Sidney's younger maternal cousin.
 * Sam has cleverness in fighting the killer(s) back like Sidney while she has the killer instinct of her father, Billy.
 * Sam defends against Richie initially like Sidney does Billy in the original, however, she kills Richie like her father, Billy, would kill a victim in the original showing that she let her inherited killer instinct take hold in a life or death situation.
 * Differing from Dewey who says "Dewey just stuck" to him, Sam prefers being addressed by her nickname, as opposed to her legal name Samantha.
 * Also just like original film franchise heroine Sidney, Sam goes by a gender-neutral forename.
 * She has strong references to Sidney.
 * Just like original film franchise heroine Sidney, Sam goes by a gender-neutral forename.
 * Like Sidney, she tells Billy in her hallucination "Fuck you."
 * Like Sidney, her Ghostface chase scene is short. Both fight off the killer with no injuries, in a somewhat melee attack, and get saved when a cop investigates the scene. This happens to Sidney in the first two films.
 * Like Sidney, she bites the killer in defense, and she recovers to her feet the exact same as 17-year-old Sidney did in the original when she fought Stu Macher.
 * Like Sidney, she is clever and resourceful in defense like Sidney was when fighting Ghostface.
 * Like Sidney, she was only stabbed once and survived.
 * Like Sidney, she is sinisterly taunted about their sexuality (implying they were "easy") by their killer boyfriends.
 * Like Sidney, she is betrayed when "saving" her injured boyfriend realizing he is the killer.
 * Unlike Sidney, Sam does not give Richie the gun as Sidney did with Billy.
 * Unlike Sidney, Sam is stabbed, and the gun is forced from her by her killer boyfriend. In this, it reciprocates the roles of Sidney and Billy in the original as Sam is the hybrid. Sidney loses her gun. Sam "saves" her boyfriend (like Sidney did in the original for Billy), but also has possession of the gun like her father at that moment (as a protagonist we thought Billy would be). However, Richie stabs and forces the gun from Sam showing him as the true antagonist (The True Billy) was in the original film.
 * She has strong references to Billy.
 * She has visions of her father, Billy, and takes medication while fighting a violent urge seemingly genetically passed down.
 * She has his killer instinct as she stabbed Richie over 20 times, and shot him 3 times.
 * She holds the knife the same way when killing someone.
 * Like Billy, She (along with Richie) represent Billy when they fall down the stairs injured in the 261 Turner Lane residence.
 * Unseen in Scream 4, her existence possibly covers later-Sheriff Judy Hicks' mysterious disappearances throughout the movie (which served as a Ghostface narrative red herring). As Wes' babysitter, she was likely checking up on both of them (Sam, just age 14 babysitting at the time). It is also possible Wes was staying at his father's house.
 * It is unknown if Sam ever contacted her biological grandfather, lawyer Hank Loomis who was never killed.
 * When Sam goes to thank Sidney and Gale for helping her, their conversation with implies subtly Sidney successfully "passes the torch" to Samantha as the new "final girl" when she tells her she will "eventually" be alright.

Appearances

 * Scream (2022 film)
 * Scream 6