30 years ago, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson completely reshaped the horror genre forever with the release of the meta-slasher classic “Scream.” Centered around Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), Dewey Riley (David Arquette, until 2022’s “Scream”), and a rotating cast of Ghostface killers, the “Scream” franchise has expanded into a series of seven films, three seasons of a TV show, a video game, and multiple documentaries. Which is to say, the world of “Scream” beyond the original Woodsboro Murders (which inspired the film-within-a-film franchise of “Stab” movies) is incredibly expansive. To make a mark on the franchise and establish a legacy beyond adding to Ghostface’s body count is no simple task, but the incomparable Hayden Panettiere did exactly that when she brought Kirby Reed to life in 2011’s much better than you remember “Scream 4.”
“Scream 4” arrived over a decade after “Scream III,” with Williamson returning to write the screenplay and reuniting with Craven for what would become his final film. This was a slasher movie for a new generation, one who was well-versed in the “rules of survival” made famous by Jamie Kennedy’s Randy Meeks in the original “Scream” and who was existing in an era where horror remakes reigned supreme. It was also a terrible time to be a woman with interests in male-dominated industries. We were just a few years away from the hellscape that became known as Gamergate: the targeted, misogynistic harassment campaign waged against diversity, feminism, and progressive changes in gaming culture that would infect all corners of fandom, horror included.
But Kirby was the antidote to the tired, regressive idea that “women don’t love horror,” and her adoration of the genre elevated her to an all-time great character in the “Scream” franchise.
Kirby Reed beat Ghostface at their own game
Horror has always had an affinity for sprinkling in nerdy characters who understand the genre’s rules (Randy Meeks in “Scream,” Evil Ed in “Fright Night,” the titular “Monster Squad,” etc.), but these characters are almost exclusively portrayed by geeky outsider boys whose love of horror puts them at odds with the rest of the world and makes them underdogs in the face of danger, all while giving horror fans a character to root for as being “just like them.” Women who love horror in horror movies, by and large, are presented as dark outsiders (see: goths, wannabe witches, and weirdos), and, thus, are too “edgy” to survive the film as a final girl.
Kirby Reed subverted all of that. In “Scream 4,” she proudly claimed and proved, “I could trivia your ass under the table, cinema boy,” even as she unknowingly flirted with one of the film’s Ghostfaces. They’re impressed by her collection of 1970s horror classics including “Suspiria” and “Don’t Look Now,” movies I also loved during that time period and seldom had anyone to talk to about them outside of the internet. No one in the movie thinks her affinity for the genre makes her weird, and it proves to be her greatest superpower.
When she gets her inevitable call from Ghostface, she famously laundry-lists just about every horror movie remake released in the last decade after being caught in a trick question to beat the killer at their own game. (For the record, what constitutes the first slasher movie is still hotly debated by film historians, and I am firmly on team “Black Christmas,” not “Peeping Tom” or “Psycho,” but whatever.) She knows more than either of the villains in the movie, and they know it.
Kirby Reed is a true survivor
Kirby is a horror fan, yes, but she’s not an isolated outsider who struggles to socialize with her peers. She mouths off to cops, wears a cool leather jacket, has a spunky short haircut, and can hold her liquor despite being underage. Kirby is the coolest of cool, and she’s got a stronger grasp of the horror genre than anyone else in the franchise, Randy Meeks included. Fans loved Kirby so much that there was an active campaign for her to return when the franchise was revived a decade later, given that we never actually saw her die after she’s attacked in “Scream 4.”
And return she did in “Scream VI,” now a former special agent in the FBI who has channeled the trauma of surviving the second round of Woodsboro Murders into helping stop killers. Or, as she puts it, “I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being afraid of monsters; I wanted the monsters to be afraid of me. […]” Indeed, Kirby not only refused to go down without a fight, she also refused to stop fighting even after she got back up.
At the end of the film, she has a moment with Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown), a symbolic passing of the baton that originated with her uncle Randy, as the person in this world who actually understands the “rules” of the genre inside and out — and, therefore, can keep people alive. Losing Hayden Panettiere at such a young age is devastating, but we can at least take solace in knowing that part of her legacy is Kirby Reed, a woman who personified what it means to survive a world that wants you dead … and dig some great movies while doing it.
