Ghostface Unmasked: Debating the Best (and Worst) Scream Films

[00:00:00] What's your favorite scary movie? Ghostface is calling and we're answering. In this Bonus Episode, we're ranking the Scream Movies, revealing our favorite Ghostface Killers and asking Leah for her Top 3 employee picks.

[00:01:00] Get ready for a screen filled showdown as we dive into one of the most iconic horror franchises of all time. Welcome to the No More Late Fees Podcast. I'm Jackie. And I'm Danielle. And in this Bonus Episode, we're wrapping up our time in Woodsboro by ranking all the Scream Movies and debating which Ghostface Killer reigns supreme.

[00:01:22] And of course, we're joined by our guest and fellow podcast fellow podcaster Leah from the Ashley and Jessie cast. Welcome back. Hello. Thank you for having me back. I'm so excited. I think I might be the biggest fan of this movie ever. Well, we're really excited too. I think we like we did Scream 1 and Scream 2 pretty fast on the podcast. So we were like, Oh, we just need to hold out on screen.

[00:01:49] Because we don't have any other screams within our timeframe of 95 to 2005. So it's just like, it's the end of an era. It really was. To say goodbye. Yeah, I mean, I was such a huge fan of this franchise. I never like in between three and four, like all those years, I never thought they would come out with another one. It was so exciting when they finally did.

[00:02:14] I can't wait till we dive into rankings because that should be very interesting. But before we hop into all that, what have you guys been watching lately? Leah, what have you been up to like, catch us up anything new? How's the podcast going? A lot of questions.

[00:02:33] The podcast is going great. I just did a series on Macaulay Culkin over Christmas and New Year's. And actually, less than a week ago, I interviewed Ryan Cabrera, who was like, my first ever celebrity interview on the podcast, which was so exciting. And he was so awesome and so great to talk to and my listeners have wanted him on forever, obviously.

[00:03:00] So because if anyone doesn't know, my podcast started off, it was like literally just us reviewing Newlyweds and the Ashley Simpson show and Jessica and Ashley Simpson's music and stuff. Then a couple years ago, I expanded to like, any pop culture topic I want to talk about basically. But all the all the OGs, like I still do a lot of episodes on Jess and Ashley, but of course, all the OGs like love Ryan Cabrera.

[00:03:24] Everybody wanted him on so bad. And it was like, perfect. And he's he reimagined his single on the way down. I don't know if you guys know. Yeah, he re recorded it with multiple, like legendary people like Joey Fatone, AJ McLean, Taylor Hanson, like all these boy band people. And so he's out promoting a single and we talked about so many different things that I wanted to ask him like I it was great. Like it was awesome. So that's coming out in a few days on the podcast.

[00:03:53] Oh, that's exciting. And like, I know the Ashley Simpson of it all with him. But like, I just love that to me. So I'm like, how did him and Joey become such good friends? Like I saw them at I saw Joey at his wedding. I was like, wait, they're friends. I had no idea. So that was interesting. Did he give you any fun tidbits about anything?

[00:04:14] He told me Joey is his crush. Same girl, same. I was like, who can blame you? Yeah, I mean, I asked him about a lot. I asked him because he was discovered by Joe Simpson, Ashley and Jessica's dad. Joe said, just come to LA right now move in with us. So Ryan lived with Ashley, Joe and Tina for a year, then started dating Ashley. He was there during the whole SNL incident. So I asked him what that was like for him.

[00:04:44] We got to we got to so much. So anyone who's like even vaguely interested in him, trust me, you'll you'll like it. And he's he's friends with everybody. Like, I don't know. I guess he's just I mean, I love talking to him for sure. But I guess he's just one of those people that's just very, very well liked in the industry. Like everyone seems to love him. That's why he has he has so many people on the song. And it's pretty cool. So awesome. So can't wait to tune in. When is that going to be live?

[00:05:12] January turn to. Well, that's really cool. I can't wait to listen to that. Jackie, any fun things that you watch this week? I have been on a Sex and the City rewatch kick. I don't know why. Don't know why either. It doesn't hold up. I'm on season two of In Just Like That. So it's almost done. Oh, so you really went all the way through. I did. I. It was just I needed some background noise.

[00:05:40] And like I watched the series a lot in like the mid aughts. And so I was like, oh, I'll just throw it on in the background. And then I'm like, well, now the series is done. I should watch the movies. And then I'm like, well, done the series and the movies. I should do the reboot. And so here we are. I feel like I could watch it if they just gave me a full cut of just Samantha.

[00:06:10] Yes. If I just like watched her, I would be very happy. It's not bad. Like it's not horrible. But I think what it is is that everyone that not everyone, a lot of people didn't realize how shitty Carrie was. And I was like, I don't know how you missed that because I thought she was shitty when I was watching it. Yeah.

[00:06:33] There are a lot of problematic episodes as well that I was like, oh, that this didn't age well. I am really enjoying Nicole Ari Parker on and just like that, though. She plays Lisa Todd Wexley, a friend of Charlotte's, and she's so fabulous in it. And she's just so beautiful to look at. I'm like, I could just stare at you all day.

[00:06:56] I just feel like they were like, oh, we did an entire series with any in New York without any black people, really. I think girls is worse than Sex and the City. But then they were like, overdid it, right? Like it was like every main character had. And like a minority friend. Yeah.

[00:07:19] I was so happy to, I'm probably going to say her last name, Chudry Seema. It was like Carrie's friend. Like it was very, yeah, everyone had a pal. There was an episode that I was just like cringed the whole time in the original series where Samantha's dating a black man. And she goes like, yeah, that episode was bad. You don't even have to talk about it.

[00:07:44] It's awful. And I'm just like, oh, I want to skip this. Like, I just want to erase it from my brain. Did you ever watch, did you watch Sex and the City? Did you do a rewatch if you did, Leah? Oh, I'm, I'm a big fan of the original series. I totally agree about the cringe. And there are so many things that don't hold up.

[00:08:03] But I find that when I rewatch it, which I feel like I rewatch it every few years, I always find like, I feel like one minute I'll be like, this is so bad. Like, I can't believe that this exists. And then the next minute I'll be like crying because there'll be like a really beautiful moment between the friends or like some of the relationship stuff. I really enjoy the Miranda and Steve relationship. And as someone who also has had like, an on and off like mess type of Mr. Big relationship. Yeah. This is actually embarrassing to watch.

[00:08:33] I feel like watching myself. But, but yeah, I, I think the Carrie is so interesting. I feel like she totally gave me like unrealistic expectation. Really, they all did of like how many men I was actually going to date. Right? And I don't mean that in a slut shamey way. I mean, I know they just did it because they needed episodes and they needed, they needed pictures and stuff.

[00:09:00] But still, I was like, I, I think I thought that like being like a single woman in her thirties was going to be just like one after the other. Like, time with all these guys. I'm on episode 780 and I still have not seen a new love interest. What's going on in this story? It's bad. It's bad.

[00:09:21] But yeah, it, every now and again, I'll rewatch a few episodes, but I do think what makes it good is the, the heart of it is the friendship between the girls. So that makes up for all of the craziness. But my mom and I were talking, we were rewatching Girlfriends and that one's a good one. So if you haven't watched Girlfriends before, you should definitely watch it. It's a, it's a good one. But let's get into the rank the scream franchise.

[00:09:49] So each of us, I'm going to give you guys time to rank all of the scream franchises, even after the third one, how, what order they would be in for you. So that's going to be hard for me because I don't, I barely remember the last few ones that came out. Okay. So mine is one, two, three, four, six, five. One, two, three, four, six, five. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:10:19] I always, the original is always number one. Right. Two, three, and four, I can interchange depending on my mood at the time. Mm-hmm. But generally I keep those in order. And then I really don't like scream five. And I thought scream six was a big improvement. Still not really like as good as the first four, but yeah. So I'm one, two, three, four, six, five. What happened in five again?

[00:10:49] Five was. Oh, it's like a regurgitation. It was like, okay, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I think I have mine now. Okay. All the word away. So coming in at number five, at number six is scream five. Yeah. Coming in at number five is scream six. Coming in at number four is scream three.

[00:11:21] Coming in at number three is scream four. At number two is scream two. And number one is scream. Now, at first I was like, oh, I really thought it was one, two, three, four. But after rewatching three, I was like, oh, yeah, no. Yeah. Yeah. And I think four gets a lot of hate and I don't know why. No. It's not as bad as they make it seem. It was a fun twist. I don't think it's bad at all. I love scream.

[00:11:50] Like I was so, we don't have to get into it. Obviously we're doing scream three, but like, I was so as like an obsessed fan of this franchise. I never thought I could be like as happy with it as it was, as I was. I thought like, oh, this is like in no way ever going to compare to the original series and the original trilogy. And I absolutely love scream four. So you guys are haters out there. Jackie. It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me.

[00:12:20] At number six is scream four. And it's only because I haven't watched it a whole lot. And because we were doing the podcast, I'm like, well, I don't want to watch scream four until I rewatched scream three. So now I can go back and rewatch scream four. So that's, it has an asterisk because I haven't seen it. I think since I saw it in theaters when I came out. And spoiler alert.

[00:12:48] I think Emma Roberts being evil is just like perfect. Why would you say something like that? I'm just, I, I'm just saying her acting skills are impeccable. I can't believe she played so far from herself. It's crazy. But yeah, I do love how many Nepo babies are in the scream franchise, which it just hit me. We have Emma Roberts.

[00:13:17] We have what's the Quaid kid's name? Jack. Jack. Moore. Macaulay Culkin's brother. Cuba Gooding Jr.'s son. It's Nepo baby all over that, that franchise. I love it. Nepo babies. Carrie Fisher. She's, you know, in it. So, yeah. Coming in at five is scream three. I'm, I have hard opinions. Sorry. Okay.

[00:13:46] And number four is scream five. Because I love Jack Quaid so much. I'll watch pretty much anything, anything with him in it, which is, it ranks higher probably than it should. But I will watch it over scream three. The only thing I really liked about it was that they introduced the new core four. And I like them. Yes.

[00:14:09] And I did not realize, because I have not seen this movie since probably it came out. Scream three was just not high on my, my rewatch list. And I didn't realize that Heather Matazaro, like, was Randy's sister in scream three and then reprised her role in five. So I was happy about that. Number three is scream six.

[00:14:38] Number two, scream two. And number one, scream one. Interesting. I just feel like scream from scream one to scream two. They were, it was definitely like a lot of, they were really rushing to do it. It wasn't horrible, but they were rushing. And then not having Kevin Williamson, which, you know, the regular, the main episode, you can hear my thoughts on that. Yeah. I think that really threw things into a tailspin.

[00:15:07] Why the third one was like, we're going to sit, we're going to sit this franchise down for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, since we were just kind of talking about some of the killers, who was your favorite scream villain? Are we outside, outside of Stu and Billy? Okay. Because we already know that standard, but who was like maybe second best?

[00:15:35] For me, it's spoilers for scream two, Debbie Salt, a.k.a. Mrs. Loomis. That's my favorite as well. All right. Oh, man. Who was my favorite? It definitely wasn't the one in New York. Horrible. I was like, really? Yeah. Yeah. Bad. I would, again, I thought Jill was a surprise.

[00:16:05] Like, I was like, okay. Because that was the, well, no, that wasn't the first girl. But yeah, I liked her. It was, I was surprised by that one. Yeah. I was genuinely surprised too. Yeah. Well, I'm glad we all came to a consensus pretty quickly on that since our rankings were widely varied. Yes.

[00:16:29] So now it's time to put Leah in the hot seat and have her give us three employee picks. So let's see what movies she'll stock on the shelves at Blockbuster. Okay. Okay. So I tried to pick three movies that were like, kind of in a way related.

[00:16:48] So I picked one movie that was one of the many that came out around this time that were totally just like copying Scream and like benefiting off of the revival of Splashers. Then I picked one movie with an actor from this movie in it. And then I picked one movie just from the year 2000. So the first movie that I have is Cherry Falls with Brittany Murphy and Jay Moore.

[00:17:16] I'm not recommending it because it's like an Academy Award winning film. So let's just be clear about that. I'm not saying this movie is amazing. But it really like scratches that itch if you want like a teen slasher that has like a little bit of something extra in it that makes it just like a little bit more like, okay, there's something going on here. I don't know if they exactly got it right, but it's not boring or dull for sure. So yeah, I love Brittany Murphy.

[00:17:45] Obviously, I think like we all do. And yeah, it's it's very interesting. Like when they reveal the killer at the end, I'm like, okay, like a fun movie from that era to watch. If you like this type of movie. And I feel like a lot of people haven't seen it. And a lot of people haven't heard of it. Have you guys seen it? Yep. I have not seen it, but I shelved it many times. Yeah, for sure.

[00:18:12] And then the second one I picked, so I picked another Neve Campbell movie, Wild Things, which is one of my favorite, like, especially when it comes to campy movies. Wild Things is like, if anyone out there hasn't seen it, it's like a roller coaster through the swamplands of Florida. It's it was like controversial at the time.

[00:18:40] It is one of those movies where like you're trying to put the pieces together as it's going through scene by scene and figure out like who's behind everything. And then, you know, down to like when the credits are rolling, you, you know, there might be like another twist, you know, and it's like it's like one of those like sexual thrillers that's like just very over the top. And like with the the I don't even know how to describe it, like the sexual thriller type of music.

[00:19:10] Like, it's just it's it's very, very, like it's very specific. Like, I don't there's not a lot of movies like Wild Things. And I saw it when I was way too young and I was like absolutely positively scandalized. Neve Campbell is really good in it. She plays like the wrong side of the tracks type of girl. And Denise Richards plays like the rich schoolgirl in town. Matt Dillon plays the guides counselor. Kevin Bacon plays the cop.

[00:19:38] Bill Murray has an amazing role in it. I forgot he was in that one. Okay, my third one. So I picked another movie that came out in the year 2000. Probably my like one of my all time favorite movies. Center Stage. Did you guys cover that on here? Not yet. I don't know why I haven't made it a birthday movie yet. But yeah. Yeah, so I was when this came out, actually, I was a competitive dancer as a kid.

[00:20:06] So like, this movie was like, literally like our Bible. Yeah, it was everything to us. And like, I mean, we would literally like, just, you know, when you're doing dance competitions, there's like so much downtime, because all the other people have to go from all the other divisions. And you're just like sitting there. We would like walk up to people and just be like, hey, do you want to see the dance from Center Stage? Like, obsessed. And to me, it still holds up.

[00:20:35] Like, I still watch this movie regularly. I, I think the dancing is phenomenal. The acting is like, you know, there's ups and there's downs. I love Zoe Saldana in it. She's absolutely amazing. She plays like the rebellious ballerina. And Amanda Schull, who plays the main character who has like, you know, she has like all the zhuzh of a dancer, but they're like, she's not the best technical dancer.

[00:20:59] Like she has to, you know, battle that type of mentality and be the iconic diva star that she is. And it's, oh, Peter Gallagher plays the like very serious, like dance. Like the principal or something. I don't know. But yeah, anyway, absolutely, absolutely love Center Stage. And like, don't even love it ironically, like genuinely. It's a classic. And that soundtrack is a banger. Oh my gosh. Banger after banger.

[00:21:29] So many good songs. For real, for real. Love, love that movie. I don't care who hates it. No, they need to get some taste. Right? Well, why don't you tell everyone where they can find you, your podcast, your social media. Yeah. My podcast is the Ashley and Jessica cast. So you can find that wherever you get podcasts. The Instagram that I post on constantly. So definitely follow it.

[00:21:59] It's just at Ashley and Jessica cast. And you guys can follow us at NoMoreLateFees on all the platforms. At this point, I don't even know what's legal, what's not. Yeah. Just search. We're at NoMoreLateFees everywhere. Yeah. Pretty much. And check us out next week as we cover Snow Day. Oh my gosh. I'm super excited.

[00:22:30] Like, it's a canon event. That's all I'm going to say. It's going to be something. And as always, be kind and rewind.