Despite being the two main leads in the refreshedScreamfranchise, Sam and Tara Carpenter won’t be back for the next movie, which could hurt the series as a whole. In the fifthScreammovie, Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega joined the cast as Sam and Tara Carpenter,sisters who the new Ghostface targets. It turns out that Sam’s biological father is Billy Loomis, the killer from the first film, tying them into the film’s overall mythology.
By the end of that fifth movie,Sam and Tara had entrenched themselves as the new main protagonistsof theScreamfranchise, solidified when Neve Campbell left as Sidney Prescott after that movie. However, things drastically changed between the sixth and seventh films, whenthe franchise fired Barrerabecause of some real-life controversy and Ortega left after that decision.With Sam and Tara Carpenter now gone,Screammight struggle to match its recent success.
Sam’s Connection To Billy Made Her A Different Kind Of Final Girl
Sam Is The Daughter Of A Previous Killer Who Became A Hero
One of the biggest shocks in the fifthScreammovie came whenSam revealed to her sister that her biological father was Billy Loomis(Skeet Ulrich), the original killer from the first movie. In that film, Billy and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) were dating at the time of the Ghostface murders. It wasn’t until the end that Sidney realized it was her boyfriend and his best friend, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), who were the killers.
One thing that theScreamfranchise has always done isconnect the Ghostface killers to past killers or victims. However, this was a new direction for the franchise to go, with the daughter of a killer as a new victim and not as the killer. Having her related to Billy really delivered an interesting change to the story dynamic. Most people suspected her of being the killer inScreamandScream 6, but by making her a hero instead, it delivered something new to the series.
The Killers Were Almost Always Related To Past Victims/Killers
Since mostScreamcharacters related to past killers ended up as bad guysthemselves, most people expected Sam to follow in their footsteps. In the first film,Billy wanted to kill Sidney since her mother had an affairwith Billy’s father, ruining his parents' marriage. Billy’s mother was the killer in the second movie, seeking revenge for her son’s death. The third movie revealed Ghostface was Sidney’s half-brother, who felt he always lived in her shadow.
Sidney’s mom cheated with Billy’s dad
Sidney’s half-brother
Jill is Sidney’s niece
Fans of the stab franchise
Det. Bailey, Ethan, Quinn, Jason
Det. Bailey is Richie’s father
The fourth movie had Sidney’s niece as the killer, for the same reason as her half-brother in the movie before it. In the fifthScreammovie, the film took a turn though. With relatives of both Billy and a former victim in Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy), it was easy to see one of those young adults as the new Ghostface. The franchise turned things around, though, when it made the killers nothing more than fans of the movies made about past murders in the franchise.
This allowedScreamto subvert expectations, sinceSam was easily the number one suspect thanks to her dad being Billy.Having a long history of relatives being killers, that made the doubt about her innocence one of the best parts of the story, both with the viewers questioning her, but the characters in the movie also looking at her with suspicion.
Sam Is A Flawed, Layered Character
What really makes Sam Carpenter different from other characters in theScreamfranchise, specifically when compared to Sidney Prescott, is Sam’s inner struggle. Sidney, from the start, was ready to defend herself and her friends and was always a hero.Sam always had to fight the fact that her father was a serial killer, and she always feared that it would corrupt her and hurt the people she cared about. Even other people believed she was the killer, even after she and her sister escaped the real Ghostface killer.
Scream 6really delved into this idea since she had sadistically killed one of the Ghostface killers, Richie (Jack Quaid), at the end of the previous movie. She had visions of her father, Billy (who she had never met), pushing her to pick up the mantle and the way she killed Richie made it look like she had made her decision. She needed to throw away the mask and become her own person or let his influence corrupt her. This was a perfect way to make her an unreliable final girl, all the way until the end ofScream 6.
Sam’s Relationship With Her Sister Felt Realistic
Sam & Tara Were Highlights Of The Last TwoScreamMovies
One of the biggest differences between Sidney Prescott and Sam Carpenter in theScreamfranchise is that Sidney was alone, other than her friends, butSam had a little sister to protect in Tara. Sidney had a brother she never knew about, and he tried to kill her. That meant that Sam was not only fighting for her own survival, but she wanted to do everything she could to help protect her sister, even putting her own life at risk to do so.
Seeing Sam and Tara together was a great part of the rebooted franchises. Yes, there were other good characters,including Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin, but Sam and Tara carried the two movies they starred in on their shoulders. What made it work so well was that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega had great chemistry together, and it really felt like these sisters loved each other and would die for each other.
This also makes it good that the two left before the seventh movie because therumoredScream 7storyhad the franchise destroying that relationship. In the rumored script that ended up scrapped when Ortega and Barrera left the franchise, Tara dies. Her death pushes Sam over the edge where she finally gives in to her father’s deadly influence. This proves Sam’s conflicted nature, but destroying these sisters would have been tragic.
Not Finishing Sam’s Arc Could Seriously Hurt Scream 7 & Beyond
Sam Deserves To Finish Her Story
While killing Tara or having Sam turn evil isn’t something most fans want to see, nothaving the sisters inScream 7seems wrong. By having the story return to Sidney, it seemsScreamis moving backward after spending two movies moving forward with fresh stories and characters.The new movie is supposed to see Sidney, her husband Mark (Patrick Dempsey), and their kids, who went into hiding after the fifth movie. The new Ghostface killer targets this small family.
However, eliminating Sam and Tara Carpenter and not allowing Sam to finish her story seems wrong. If the franchise kills either of the sisters or both, that would ruin what the last two movies had built up. However, if the franchise just ignores them, returns to Sidney, and pretends their story never existed, that seems to be a disservice to Sam especially. While Sam got a nice ending inScream 6,there seems to be more to tell about her in her character journey, and just moving on without finishing her story could hurt the future of theScreamfranchise.
Scream
Created by Kevin Williamson and originally helmed by Wes Craven, the Scream franchise takes a meta approach to the slasher horror franchise, centering on teenagers well-versed in the genre who find themselves hunted and killed by figures donning the Ghostface mask. The first four movies revolved around Neve Campbell’s Sydney Prescott as she frequently found herself the target of different Ghostface killers, while the fifth and sixth installments introduced new protagonists, sisters Tara and Sam, with their own dark past connected to the original Ghostface killer.
