|
|
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Surprise, Sidney! | „ |
| ~ Stu revealing himself as the other Ghostface killer |
| “ | You see, Sid, everybody dies but us, everybody dies... but us! We get to carry on and plan the sequel, cause let's face it, baby, these days, YA GOTTA HAVE A SEQUEL! | „ |
| ~ Stu gleefully expressing his desire to go on a second killing spree |
Stuart "Stu" Macher is the secondary antagonist of the 1996 slasher film Scream, the first installment of the Scream franchise.
He was an eccentric Woodsboro High School student and the best friend and deranged accomplice of Billy Loomis, who gleefully assisted him in the rape and murder of Maureen Prescott. After that murder, Macher helped Loomis carry out the infamous 1996 Woodsboro massacre, kickstarting the events of the franchise.
He was portrayed by Matthew Lillard, who also plays William Afton in Five Nights at Freddy's Film. While disguising his voice, he was voiced by Roger L. Jackson, who also voiced Roman Bridger, Jill Roberts, and Beth in the same franchise and Sel-Makor in Star Wars: The Old Republic. For his in-costume scenes as Ghostface, he was portrayed by Lee Waddell, Dane Farwell, Tony Cecere, and Skeet Ulrich.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He helped his best friend Billy Loomis brutally murder Maureen Prescott, the mother of Billy's girlfriend Sidney, and framing her lover Cotton Weary for it, resulting in him being falsely put on death row for rape-and-murder.
- While Billy did it out of revenge for his mother Nancy leaving him upon finding out her husband had an affair with Maureen, Stu went along with it purely for enjoyment.
- He also stabbed her in the crotch, which can be considered rape. This also makes him unique to other Ghostfaces, as they never killed somebody in that practical way.
- While this act was never shown on screen, it had a lot of impact on the plot itself and left a huge mental impact on Sidney.
- A year after Maureen's demise, he and Billy decided to go on a second spree to target Sidney.
- He murdered his ex-girlfriend Casey Becker's new boyfriend Steven Orth by gutting him alive while making Casey watch to torment her, before doing the same to Casey and leaving her hanging from a tree for her parents to find, for no reason other than pure pettiness for her dumping him.
- He set up his current girlfriend Tatum Riley, who was also Sidney's best friend and Dewey's sister, to be killed by Billy during his party by telling her to go to the garage to get more beer before locking her in, where Billy killed her by crushing her head with the garage door.
- He tried to kill Randy Meeks as he lied on his couch, only stopping because he heard Sidney's screaming outdoors, and him killing Randy would cause Sidney to realize he was Ghostface.
- He murdered Kenny Brown, the cameraman for Gale Weathers, by slitting his throat and leaving him to bleed to death.
- When Randy started to suspect he was Ghostface, he proceeded to try and frame him as Tatum's killer, trying to convince Sidney to give him the gun she had so that he could kill him and possibly her.
- After he and Billy revealed themselves to Sidney as the ones behind the Woodsboro massacre and Maureen's murder, he explained his and Billy's plan of killing Sidney and her father Neil before framing Neil for the murders, allowing them to go on a second killing spree.
- Near the end of the film, Stu is shown breaking down in tears when Sidney says that she called the police on him and Billy, with him saying that his "mom and dad are gonna be so mad," creating the possible implication that he may care about his parents due to seemingly caring about what they think. However, this likely wasn't out of genuine care for what they would think of him, and it's likely that he was simply scared of getting in trouble with them. This is without mentioning that Stu was disoriented in this moment and thus wasn't thinking straight, meaning it's likely that he was simply reverting to childish instincts and became worried about getting in trouble with his parents as opposed to letting them down.
- He tried to kill Sidney by choking her while claiming he "always had a thing for her".
- He didn't seem to actually care about Billy, as they were only killing out of mutual sadism, and Stu took extreme pleasure in stabbing Billy, much to his anger.
- While the series has a high Heinous Standards with many nasty killers, some of which exceed his kill count, Stu still manages to stand out for a multitude of reasons:
- He and Billy were the original Ghostface killers, with his actions in the first film going on to influence many other Ghostface killers that would follow, such as Charlie Walker and Quinn Bailey, with Quinn even calling Stu her favorite, giving him points in influence.
- He is one of the most brutal Ghostfaces, with him gutting Steven alive and disemboweling Casey and leaving her corpse for her parents to find, allowing him to stand out to characters such as Roman Bridger, whose kills never reached the same kind of brutality.
- He is the only killer that doesn't have a clear motive, as he does it just for fun, unlike other killers who want fame, recognition, or revenge.
- He's one of the most personal killers in the series, with him brutally raping and murdering Maureen Prescott, which would lead to Sidney becoming incredibly traumatized by the event.
- He and Billy were both planning on going on a second killing spree, something no other Ghostfaces planned on.
- While He is shown to be shocked when Billy Loomis stated his true motive behind going on a killing spree, which could be construed as Stu having standards against child abandonment. However, it's also just as likely that he was simply shocked that Billy had a motive at all, and even then he is quickly shown getting over this and referring back to his sadistic ways, making the idea that he has standards even more unlikely.
- Although he has many comedic moments throughout the film, the vast majority of them happen before the reveal, with the ones after the reveal merely showing more of his childish and sadistic personality.
- Though he is undoubtedly insane, nothing implies he cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, meaning he has agency.
- Although his motive is supposedly peer pressure because he is "far too sensitive," this excuse is never explored at all.
Trivia[]
- In an interview with the Pop My Culture podcast, Matthew Lillard revealed that Kevin Williamson's original pitch for Scream 3 had Stu Macher revealing himself to actually have survived the first film's events and orchestrated the events of its sequels from prison, manipulating high schoolers into becoming Ghostfaces to cause new attacks and target Sidney Prescott, but the Columbine High massacre forced the studio to create the new plot with Roman Bridger out of concern for movies promoting violence to youngsters. Had the original plot been used, it's unknown how this could have affected Stu Macher's Pure Evil status.
- In the early script by Kevin Williamson, Stu’s reason for killing people was that he (along with Billy) got groomed and raped by Sidney’s mom, Maureen Prescott. Had this been kept in, he wouldn’t qualify as Pure Evil due to having a genuine tragedy.
External Links[]
- Stu Macher on the Villains Wiki
- Stu Macher on the Ensemble Dark Horse Wiki
- Stu Macher on the Scream Wiki
- Stu Macher on the Horror Film Wiki
[]
 
| ||
|
Ghostface Fanon | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Live-Action Features Live-Action Television See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Live-Action Films Scripts See Also Thank you Wes Craven for haunting our dreams since 1984, Rest in Peace. | ||
 
| ||
|
Animated Features Live-Action Features Live-Action Television See Also | ||