My take on Who Killed Who in Scream 1996

Warning btw I'm gonna say something a lot of fans will probably disagree with it, but opinions exist. If you disagree, you're free to do that of course.

Maureen Prescott: Billy Loomis (Not in the movie but thought I'd just add that I credit this one to Billy more, because he had motive for this kill and I think Stu was just there to help out, while Billy did the dirty work.

Steven Orth: Stu Macher. This one is commonly accepted as Stu, he gutted him and he did have a sort of personal motive to it, and Billy's on the phone here.

Casey Becker: Billy Loomis. I did see that Kevin Williamson confirmed it was Stu, but I disagree with it only because that shot of him raising his knife is the exact same as when Billy does it before he tries to stab Sidney. It does seem like Casey knew this person more (Stu) but I do think this was Billy. It honestly depends though cause Kevin intended for it to be Stu most likely, while Wes directing it intended for it to probably be Billy with the use of similar shots later on.

Principal Himbry: Billy Loomis. I can understand some people saying it's Stu as he is seen going back towards the school, but I think it fits Billy more, it's a pretty calculated straight-forward kill, no messing around.

Tatum Riley: Stu Macher. I understand why a lot of fans think this was Billy, his suspicious gesture to Stu could be a 'I just killed Tatum', but for me it is not evidence and I will never consider it as evidence. It can mean anything, it can mean absolutely nothing. We simply don't know. And keep in mind that Billy is supposed to be suspicious after his arrival at Stu's house. He becomes increasingly more suspicious like the "You don't still think it was me" look he gave Sidney, and how we first see him right after we see Tatum die, but again it seems to be on purpose so that his fake-out death throws you off. It wouldn't land as well without that suspicious wink and without him arriving right after see Tatum die. But what makes me say it's Stu is how the killer acts nothing like Billy. He's clumsy and messy with it, and he uses the garage door to kill her, instead of choking her or just stabbing her right away.

So this is a big part of it for me, and especially considering how the killer re-enters the house. If it was Billy, he'd just leave through the wide open garage door, not re-enter the house to then exit again and go around to the front door, it's simply illogical. That's why I think this killer was someone who belonged in the party and was always inside. And there is a noticable time gap between Tatum's death and Billy's arrival. The teens haven't even voted on a movie yet when Tatum goes to the garage. They had one vote which didn't go anywhere, then Randy started showing off Jamie Lee Curtis movies to Sidney, then Gale and Dewey arrive and cause some fuzz there, then Tatum is killed by this goofy killer, and the next time we see the teens they're on Bob's death scene in Halloween 1978 which occurs around 1 hour and 5 minutes in, and Stu is standing in the doorway with Sidney after Tatum's death which highlights this more, as she's no longer with Randy, so guests started leaving, the teens voted for a movie, landed on Halloween, then started watching and watched it for a while. I think it's possible they watched the opening scene, then skipped parts of the movie for it to be more exciting also, but there is still a noticeable time gap in which Stu can easily slip out of the party to kill Tatum. I always found the "he was busy hosting" argument to be very weak, anyone who's been to a party before knows that a group of drunk teens aren't laser-focused on one specific person the whole time, it's not like he can't make excuses to be gone for a few minutes or just slip past everyone. I made this one pretty long cause people will just clown you right away if you don't have anything to back it up with which is understandable so I thought I'd do my best at explaining why I think it was Stu in this kill.

Kenny Brown: Stu Macher, I don't really have much for this one other than Billy faking his death inside, I feel like he'd be noticed if he left to go act as Ghostface. Randy could've gone upstairs, Sidney could've gone upstairs again, it could falter his fake-death thing if he's not there shortly after it happens, but it might've been Billy who knows. I think it's Stu here, and he also attacked Dewey in the doorway.

The post looks very odd right now with the short amount of text on all the kills except Tatum's which has a massive paragraph. If you disagree you can say why and back your claims up as well. I am not going to bother at all with any comment that's just simply "no billy killed her". I'd also like to add that I think Billy told Stu when they planned everything that Tatum has to be gone by the time Billy arrives because she'd get in the way of him sleeping with Sid, and Stu then saw an opportunity to take her out his way and he did. Tatum could've just said "No" to grabbing beer, she could've waited a long time, she could've had friends come along with her, some teens could've tried to use the garage too, so to me it just doesn't seem plausible that Billy was 'waiting for her', as he can't really know exactly what will happen. Sure it's likely she agrees to grab some beer for her boyfriend, but again, she COULD have said no, she could've brought people with her, it seems more like an improvised thing Stu thought of on the spot with the fuzz of all the teens being gathered around Gale and Dewey at the time. And when Billy arrives he also looks away at the mention of Tatum, which to me seemed like he was possibly stressed that Tatum was still alive and present at the party. Could've meant nothing at all, but it could also be that he simply got stressed Stu hadn't gotten rid of her yet. Tatum's words "I wanna be in the sequel" could also be where Stu got his quote "These days you gotta have a sequel" from.