Red Herring

Judy Hicks was used as the Red Herring for Scream 4, until it was revealed to be Jill Roberts, due to Judy's connection as having gone to school with Sidney Prescott.

The Red Herring is often a trope present throughout the Scream franchise, primarily in the movies. It is a narrative element added to subvert expectations of the audience, into believing a character from that film is Ghostface or the main antagonist targeting the other characters and their friend groups. This is often added to the Scream movies to increase the guessing game of whom the murderer is, and to increase unpredictability.

Features

The red herring is often a character, of whose identity and narrative in the plot is to divert the attention of the audience on the nature of the actual killers, hidden in plain sight. The red herring trope displays the following features.

• Questionable Nature and Knowledge: Randy Meeks in the original Scream is an example, with characters who are of a certain stereotype (e.g. nerds) and whose knowledge of horror films and in general, crime, can be seen as suspicious by other characters.
• Suspicious or Blameworthy Appearance: The character's introduction, and given with implied dialogue, is stated as to throw off the audience on the actual killers, with their nature or personality also presumably distanced and cold, as to allude this.