The Third Woodsboro Murders (2021)

The third Woodsboro Murders, also known simply as the Legacy Attacks/Killings, refers to a series of violent attacks and murders that occurred in Woodsboro, California. They began with a phone call ringing at 9.27pm on Thursday, 23 September 2021 (according to the landline), shortly followed by the attack of Tara Carpenter.

A discrepancy in the timeline follows, due to inconsistency in the writing for the timeline in the film. One possible timeline is more logical, but contradicts a line stated by Samantha (See: Continuity Errors). Following Tara's surgery and recovery over the full-weekend, the killings occurred the following calendar week and concluded on a Wednesday night on 29th September, during Wes Hicks' memorial party, at the Freeman Residence, 261 Turner Lane.

Through this timeline lens, it is technically is the longest timeframe of a series of Ghostface attacks, occurring over a six-day time-frame, due to the survival and recovery of Tara, though the rest of the attacks and all killings occur over three nights. Another possible timeframe is ignoring the 23 September date on Tara's landline, and the attacks all occur consecutively over four days.

The events were committed by two Stab (1998) fanatics wearing a Ghostface costume. The events concluded almost exactly 25 years to the day after the original Woodsboro Murders occurred in 1996. It is the third generational killing spree, with its targets being Generation Z (approx. 1996—2010), after the previous targets in Woodsboro were millennials, and prior to this Generation X. The fifth Ghostface killing spree (and third overall, situated in Woodsboro) was spearheaded by 18-year-old Amber Freeman, a resident of 261 Turner Lane, the former residence belonging to the original Accomplice Killer Stu Macher, alongside her partner and secret late-20-something boyfriend, Richie Kirsch. Both purists to the original Stab film, they did not enjoy the seven produced sequels as much as the original. With the failure of the Stab 2021 relaunch, the franchise's eighth entry simply known as Stab (directed by Rian Johnson), they were driven with anger and rage at the filmmakers' misappropriation and genre-deafness to their beloved art piece. No longer a murder mystery whodunit, Stab 8 attempted to be experimental, even "elevated", with "crammed in social commentary", and a "Mary Sue" protagonist. This led to its fandom, the StabHead Army to revolt, bashing the reboot and demanding it to be remade.

Having met on the Stab subreddit, they concocted a real-life murder spree, influenced by the knowledge that Amber's close friend, Tara Carpenter's estranged half-sister, Samantha was allegedly Original Ghostface mastermind, Billy Loomis' illegitimate daughter, conceived shortly before he was murdered in self-defense by Sidney Prescott, making her Tara's half-sister.

Primary target:
Samantha Carpenter (Survived)

Victims:

 * Vince Schneider † (Killed by Amber)
 * Judy Hicks † (Killed by Amber)
 * Wes Hicks † (Killed by Richie)
 * Deputy Clay † (Killed by Amber)
 * Dewey Riley † (Killed by Amber)
 * Liv McKenzie † (Killed by Amber)

Survivors

 * Sidney Prescott (Stabbed in the abdomen then attacked)
 * Gale Weathers (Shot in the abdomen)
 * Tara Carpenter (Stabbed 7 times, attacked numerous times later at Woodsboro Medical and 261 Turner Lane)
 * Chad Meeks-Martin (Stabbed in femoral artery, somehow survived at 261 Turner Lane)
 * Mindy Meeks-Martin (Stabbed, pretended to be dead)

Perpetrators

 * Richie Kirsch † (Killed by Samantha Carpenter)
 * Amber Freeman † (Final blow by Tara Carpenter; burned alive by Gale and Sidney)

Framed victim (intended)

 * Samantha Carpenter

Pre-planning
Richie tracked Samantha, who spiralled into a life of drugs and crime, to Modesto in approximately March 2021. He became employed as a bowling alley attendant, and struck up a relationship with her.

The pairing spent around six months planning a legacy "requel"/soft reboot to pay tribute to their favorite classic slasher film. During the killings, they followed the rules, calling their victims on the phone, taunting them before stabbing them to death with an eight-inch hunting knife.

Planning
Six months later, it was enacted. He and Amber staged Amber as a potential knife victim, to Tara at the Carpenter Residence, while Christina was on a business trip in Europe, with her recent venture being at a conference in London.

Baiting Sam
The design was to target people connected to the original killers. In their hopes, targeting innocent victims related to the original killers may have been Richie and Amber's way of thinking ahead. With their plan to frame Samantha, it would be expected that a victims' family member would be the killer, though Samantha as "the killer" would be using this as a ploy of deception, in a "requel" move.

With presumably no Jill Roberts in Stab 8, this plot element would have fit the bill of a refreshing idea for the franchise. In Sidney's life, however (and meta-to-the-audience due to Scream 4 existing), it is derivative, and an exact replica of what she dealt with previously.

Stages
They began with their opening scene, creating their very own twist to the formula. It began with a phone call at 9.27pm on a Thursday night, 09/23.

With attacking but not killing Tara, they broke the rules, but stayed true to the formula of a murder mystery whodunit. This was also for practical purposes, luring Billy's daughter Samantha back to Woodsboro, California, after her five-year stay in Modesto. From Thursday night to the end of the week, Tara went into surgery for her seven stab wounds, and later recovered. By Monday, she was still in bad shape.

On Monday 27th September, Arthur Himbry's successor, the Principal of Woodsboro High announced that classes were suspended the following day due to public safety concerns (voiced by Drew Barrymore). That night, the next target turned out to be Vince Schneider. Vince was revealed to be Stu Macher's nephew the following day on the 28th, and a formula became apparent.

His death occurred outside the local bar on Maine where Amber and her friends were situated on a Monday night. The teens were later asked to leave following Chad's scuffle with him.

The next day, on Tuesday 28th, the next target was unclear. This led to a discussion about the killer's identity at Martha's house.

Diversion
It turned out to be Sheriff Judy Hicks, whose character is implied to have appeared in the maligned Stab 8, a diversion kill, in order to distract the police to go back to the hospital and finish Tara, hoping to lure Dewey Riley and Samantha Carpenter back there.

After killing Judy sometime shortly after 6.38pm, Amber (off-screen) stole her bulletproof vest.

Richie then went inside, waited to stalk Wes, and slashed his throat. During this, Amber snuck into the hospital. Richie, who arrived at the hospital before Samantha and Dewey, as a result of the motel being close-by, aided Amber in the throat-slashing murder of Clay (off-screen).

Legacy Kill
A big part of their plan was re-introducing Dewey Riley, a legacy character, to be killed off to show that their movie "had stakes" and was not a "run-of-the-mill, cash-grab sequel".

Richie acted as a victim, as Amber slashed his arm (callback to Red Herring Derek Feldman in Scream 2 / Jill Roberts, the true killer mastermind of Scream 4).

Dewey overpowered Amber and shot her a few times, but unbeknownst to him, she was wearing Judy's bulletproof vest under the masked costume. Saved by convenient timing of Dewey's phone going off, she re-gained consciousness and attacked and stabbed Dewey, re-penetrating his near-25-year-old wounds and severed nerve.

With the vocal modifier, she said, "It's an honor" and kicked his dying body to the ground afterwards. Dewey died on September 28, on a Tuesday night. The following morning, his ex-wife Gale discovered the news, and wept in tears, as she discovered the body.

Re-Introducing the Original Act 3 House
It is now Wednesday night, one whole night after Dewey Riley's murder. The teens have agreed to sneak out for a memorial service party in honor of Wes, hosted by Amber Freeman, whose parents were away the whole time. (Unexplained)

Richie steals Tara's inhaler to lure them back to the original Act 3 house, showing their true legacy killing colors, though Sidney later disparaged the concept for its unoriginality. Despite this, their plan to lure the other two notable legacy characters, Sidney and Gale back was successful, as Sidney would not have previously returned under any other circumstance. In mourning over Dewey, she put a tracker on Sam's car, in a self-defined Gale Weathers move, and traced her whereabouts, a move that Richie and Amber apparently anticipated.

The Third Act Bloodbath
Meanwhile, Liv is furious her Uber cancelled on her, after storming off when Chad suspected her as Ghostface, not wanting to have sex with her. Liv finds Chad's dying body and runs in with his blood on her, just as Mindy has been stabbed by Richie.

Denying she is the killer in tears, Amber shoots her directly in the skull, killing her, right in front of everyone. The group disperses, as chaos ensues. Off-screen: Amber kidnaps Tara and ties her up. Richie tells Samantha that he "believes" the other killer is Tara, who brought them back. This is when Samantha suspects Richie is the true accomplice, and is deflecting from his own actions. She holds a knife up, but decides later to just simply untie Tara, as Richie hides in the closet.

Sidney, strongly believing Sam to be a target and not the killer, warns her to leave, as it is Stu Macher's house "where her dad and Stu killed everybody" (an exaggeration likely for her to be scared enough to leave sooner, as they only killed Tatum inside).

As the others hide, Sidney arrives after Gale is shot by Amber, getting a call from Ghostface (Richie). She hangs up, bored by the old tricks, and shoots Richie in the leg from the closet, as she had previously warned everyone "killer or not" to come out where her hands could see. Then, Ghostface (Amber) attacks her, and throws her over the banister. Sidney loses her gun, and asks Richie to get it. In the scuffle, Samantha appears to grab it, as Richie feigns excitement and then stabs her, revealing himself as the killer and then showing the inhaler and voice modifier.

Introducing the New Rule
After explaining their motives, Samantha reveals she untied Tara, revealing she had been somewhat suspicious of him after all. Tara attacks Amber with her crutches and Amber throws her over the sofa. Sidney lights the stove, and Gale shoots, setting Amber on fire.

Then, Samantha uses her killer lineage for good, and violently kills her predator in self-defense, after introducing her new rule to the Stab fanatic, "Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer".

Aftermath
Mindy successfully plays dead, meanwhile Chad miraculously survives his injuries, and the pairing gave each other a thumbs up. Tara, also badly injured and now a "pincushion", requests to be taken to another hospital this time. Samantha then thanked the remaining legacy characters, Sidney and Gale. Gale herself confirmed her intentions not to document the murders and let the pairing die in anonymity.

Trivia

 * The same amount of casualties of the Original Woodsboro Murders, including an off-screen murder (Maureen / Clay).
 * A meta-derivative killing spree, with the motive and styling an amalgamation of all previous killers: The pairing "met online" to concoct their scheme (Nancy / Mickey; Scream 2), they intended to frame the Final Girl as the mastermind villain (as Roman did with Sidney; Scream 3). They are Stab fanatics wanting their own Stab movie that serves as a reboot, while also being secret lovers (Charlie and Jill; Scream 4), the second ever boyfriend-killer (Billy influence; original Scream), and his accomplice being a "looney tune" resident of 261 Turner Lane (Stu; original Scream).