Amber Freeman

"Third act, bloodbath? CHECK! Killers revealed? CHECK! TIME FOR THE BIG FINALE!"

- Amber to Richie Kirsch

Amber Freeman was one of two main antagonists in the fifth Scream film, simply known as Scream (2022). She was the eighth revealed Ghostface killer in the Scream film franchise, co-killer of the third Woodsboro Murders and the third female antagonist (following Nancy Loomis from Scream 2 and Jill Roberts from Scream 4).

She became obsessed with the original Stab film after moving into 261 Turner Lane. However, she was not fond of the sequels. After being disgusted with Stab 8, simply known as Stab, she met Richie Kirsch on a Stab subreddit where they devised a plan to create a "requel" to the original Stab, using sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter, as the basis for the movie.

On the 25th anniversary of the original Woodsboro killing spree (1996), they put their plan into motion and lure Sam back to Woodsboro by targeting Tara. She manages to murder "Legacy Character", Dewey Riley, which she calls "an honor".

In revenge, his ex-wife, Gale Weathers, with help from Sidney Prescott, leave her for dead by lighting her on fire with the stove in her house. She is later shot in the head by her ex-best friend, Tara once Amber manages to put the fire out.

Amber was portrayed by Mikey Madison.

Early Life
At some point, Amber's parents bought Stu Macher's old house at 261 Turner Lane and after researching the history behind it, Amber became a fan of the original Stab (1998), featuring Vince Vaughn as Stu, the former resident of her home.

She essentially becoming a fanatic. She was angry with the sequels, particularly the eighth film, which she deemed to be inferior quality. She later recalls to Sidney Prescott that the problem with the Stab franchise is "no bad guy to keep coming back".

Amber formed a close friendship with Tara Carpenter. Because of her mother's tendency to get drunk, she discovered that Tara's sister, Samantha was the illegitimate daughter of Billy Loomis, the original Woodsboro killer and mastermind.

When Stab 8 (2020) was released, Amber, like many of the fans, were disappointed, not only because it was simply called Stab, but there was a poor storyline that didn't follow the path of the Stab movies' meta slasher whodunit narrative and there was no Sidney Prescott character either. The fans became so mad that they were accused of being a "toxic" fandom.

After meeting fellow fan, Richie Kirsch, on a Stab subreddit, they decided to appease the fandom by creating a "requel" to Stab 8 — essentially a reboot of Stab but also a sequel — which included new characters as well as bringing back the legacy characters.

The pair devised a plan and Richie approached Samantha in her new hometown where he grew close to her whilst Amber prepared to attack her sister to lure her back to town. The plan was to use Samantha as the Killer of their movie, given her connection to the legacy characters would bring them back, and use Tara as the basis of their movie to bring in all her friends as their new generation of victims.

2021 Woodsboro Legacy Murders
"We had to show them that this wasn't some bullshit, cash-in, run-of-the-mill sequel. Because our movie has fucking stakes!"

- Amber Freeman

One night, close to the 25th Anniversary of The Woodsboro Murders, Amber called Tara while she was home alone and posed as a man named "Charlie", (using the Ghostface voice changer) who was a friend of her mother's from "a group". Tara believed this man was actually her mother's new boyfriend and struck up a conversation with him. Amber, as Charlie, told Tara that her mother stated that she liked horror movies and was surprised when she'd never seen Stab given that she lives in Woodsboro.

After 'Charlie' threatens Tara, she hangs up the phone and texts Amber who reassures her that things are fine. Amber calls the home back and then texts Tara from her phone pretending that the caller stole her phone and cloned it and that they are not actually texting with Amber, when in reality she is. Amber messages Tara a fake video of her putting makeup on to make it look like the Killer is stalking her, forcing Tara to answer the phone and play a Stab trivia game.

Tara gets the question wrong and then runs to the front door to save Amber, who is standing there under the Ghostface costume, and she slices Tara's abdomen. Tara and Amber get into a war of reactivating and deactivating the home security system and Amber is able to slip inside and catch Tara. Stabbing her seven times and breaking her leg before being interrupted by the arrival of the police.

The next day, Amber is with Wes Hicks who calls Samantha back to Woodsboro to inform her about Tara's near-death experience and Tara's friends all go to visit her in the hospital. Amber acts annoyed towards Samantha's return, appearing as a supportive friend to Tara who was abandoned by Sam years ago. She also pretends to meet Richie for the first time.

Amber goes with her friends to a bar to hang out and they are interrupted by Vince Schneider who is stalking Liv McKenzie. When Vince is kicked out of the bar, Amber follows him out in her Ghostface costume, taunts him and then kills him. It is also revealed that Vince is Stu Macher's nephew, which Amber uses to connect the new killings to the past. That night at the hospital, Samantha is attacked by Richie, as Ghostface, and Amber pins suspicion on him to keep their plan in motion.

Amber joins her friends at the house of Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin where they meet Dewey Riley, who is helping Sam and Richie solve the new murders.

The next day, Amber kills both Wes and Judy Hicks at their home, she then tracks down Tara in the hospital and threatens her. When Tara hides in the closet, Richie finds her and tells her that Sam called him there. Amber jumps out as Ghostface and slices his arm and then calls Sam to make her choose between Richie and Tara's life. Sam stalls her on the phone long enough, causing Dewey to shoot Amber twice in the chest which knocks her into a bookcase, appearing to fall unconscious. As the others flee, Dewey goes back to shoot her in the head and finish her off, but Amber is able to catch him off guard as Dewey receives a text notification and use two knifes to slice Dewey open, revealing she had a bulletproof vest.

That night, Amber hosts a memorial party in Wes's honor at her house, and scolds Chad for doing shots. Richie is able to lure Sam and Tara there by hiding Tara's inhaler causing them to go to Amber's to get a spare. After a couple of attacks, an argument breaks out and Amber finally reveals herself as a killer by shooting Liv and killing her. Amber runs outside pretending that she has been stabbed and begs for Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers's help, but they catch the trap instantly. Amber drops the act, shooting Gale and runs inside, getting back into the Ghostface costume.

Sidney comes in and finds Richie hiding in a closet before Amber jumps out and they both fly over the staircase. Richie stabs Sam and takes Sidney’s gun, revealing himself as the second killer. They bring Gale inside and reveal their motives to Sidney, Samantha and Gale. They also reveal that they are in a romantic relationship with each other and call each other "baby" and "hon" multiple times. Amber goes upstairs to get Tara, but Sam had already untied her.

Sam attacks Richie whilst Gale and Sidney finish off Amber. Sidney smashes a bottle of hand sanitizer on her head as Gale holds her back. Both of them toss Amber into a corner. Amber begins to beg both of them to show her mercy as she begins to blame the Stab SubReddit for her psychotic behavior, claiming that she was “radicalized”. However, Gale recalled how Amber murdered Dewey which made her smile with glee and began to taunt Gale about it. Amber pins Gale down to the floor by strangling her, taunting her more about how she killed Dewey and was happy that she will get the pleasure of killing her too. Gale fights back and Amber is kicked against the stove as her hand lands on one of the switches. She begins to beg for her life once more when Gale has her at gunpoint, but without hesitation Gale shoots Amber causing her to fall face first onto the lit stove, setting her on fire. Sidney and Gale watch in horror before she collapses.

After Sam kills Richie in the main hall, Amber is able to get one last fight as she charges for Gale, Sidney, and Sam before Tara shoots her in the head. Killing her instantly.

Allies

 * Richie Kirsch † - Accomplice and Lover

Enemies

 * Samantha Carpenter
 * Sidney Prescott
 * Gale Weathers
 * Woodsboro, California
 * Dewey Riley † - Victim
 * Judy Hicks † - Victim
 * Woodsboro High School
 * Tara Carpenter - Ex-best friend/ Victim
 * Wes Hicks † - Ex-friend / Victim
 * Chad Meeks-Martin - Ex-friend / Victim
 * Mindy Meeks-Martin - Ex-friend / Victim
 * Liv McKenzie † - Ex-friend / Victim
 * Vince Schneider † - Victim

Out of Costume

 * "One of you is a fucking killer"
 * "I know"
 * "Fucking hand sanitizer, really?"
 * ”NO! STOP, STOP, STOP! I’m sorry about Dewey!”
 * ” Yeah, and he died like a pussy!”
 * ”Welcome to act three.”
 * ”Help me! He stabbed me!”

As Ghostface

 * "Yes, today!" - After Dewey had previously said "Not today!" during their initial struggle.
 * "It's an honor!" - As Dewey is dying from being sliced open.

Character References

 * Amber is a "requel" homage to Stu Macher.
 * They are both eccentric and emotionally volatile.
 * They are both were smashed in the head with a glass object in defense; Stu with a Vase and Amber with an empty Alcohol bottle approximately the same size the vase was she hit Stu with in the original.
 * They have childish outbursts and resort to childish excuses, even after being confronted for their crimes.
 * They both lived in the same house, 261 Turner Lane, Woodsboro, California.
 * They both choose to have a party, while their parents are good, at the most inappropriate time (while friends are getting killed), and ultimately prove to be the host of the mastermind behind the killings.
 * Derived from the original script, Amber's attempt to kill Tara in the opening, her ex-girlfriend would reflect Stu killing Casey, his ex-girlfriend. But this element to their relationship was cut in the theatrical release.
 * Feigns naivety about the crimes committed before trying to attack again, similar to Stu.
 * Amber and Richie continue a trend of male-female Ghostface killer reveals; they are officially the third pair of male-female killers in the Scream franchise (and the second couple): Nancy Loomis/Mickey Altieri (Scream 2) and Jill Roberts/Charlie Walker (Scream 4) were the previous two pair of male-female killers. The TV series also features two male-female killer pairings, Piper Shaw and Kieran Wilcox (Season 1-2), & Beth and Jay Elliot (Season 3).

Trivia

 * Her character name was confirmed by HelloSidney.com.
 * Named after Scream (2022) co-writer James Vanderbilt's wife, Amber Freeman (a possible in-joke). This was confirmed by Chad Villella, one third of Radio Silence.
 * Amber's smiles towards Samantha upon meeting her at the hospital were fake in regards to Tara's behalf, but more animosity regarding her with Richie, whom they are actual secret lovers.
 * Amber is among the most brutal Ghostface killers in the Scream franchise, alongside Charlie Walker and Kieran Wilcox.
 * She is also among the most accomplished. She manages to brutally murder legacy character Dewey Riley, who previously survived seven Ghostfaces before her.
 * Early casting calls and scripts portrayed Amber as formerly in a relationship with Tara Carpenter. These elements were cut from the theatrical release for unknown reasons.
 * If kept, Amber being shot in the head by her ex-girlfriend Tara Carpenter after "one last scare" would mirror Sidney shooting Billy Loomis down after he wakes up in the original Scream.
 * Mikey Madison portrays a similar role to Amber in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) as one of the Manson cult members, Sadie Atkins. In the film, Sadie is also beaten and burnt alive after trying to murder the main protagonists of the movie.
 * Amber's half-burnt face makeup is an homage to Freddy Krueger, the horror icon of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) created by Wes Craven.
 * Both Amber and Richie are the only major characters in this film to not have any known relations to past characters of the franchise. (Liv's parents are mentioned in the original film).
 * Amber surviving two attacks before dying pays homage to killers such as Billy Loomis, Mickey Altieri, Roman Bridger and Jill Roberts in the film series.
 * Amber is the first character to get set on fire in the film franchise, as well as survive it, and is also the first female, with the others who were executed via fire being male which include Tom Prinze (Scream 3) and Manny (Season 3).
 * Tyler Gillett (co-director) stated that with the exception of the opening, Richie was less inclined to get his hands dirty, and Amber committed "most, if not all" of the murders. He further stated in the breakdown they laid out to Jack Quaid and Mikey Madison that she "led from behind", covertly being the true mastermind of the plan, while Richie falsely believed it was his plan.
 * Behind the scenes, Ghostface wore a pair of Dr. Martens 1460 Mono black boots. Costume designer Emily Gunshor ensured that all characters at one point or another wore Dr. Martens boots so that they would be suspected of being the killer. Amber specifically is seen to be wearing a similar pair of black Dr. Martens during the third act of the movie.

Appearances

 * Scream (2022 film)