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Samantha "Sam" Carpenter is a major character in the Scream franchise.

Having run from a troubled past, the former Woodsboro resident returns to her haunted small California hometown to aid her younger sister Tara Carpenter against a new Ghostface entity.

At age 13, she discovered the secret of her birth origin — she is the biological daughter of original Ghostface serial killer, Billy Loomis who derives from the original Scream (1996). Correspondingly, this also makes her the paternal granddaughter of the first copycat Ghostface killer, Nancy Loomis, who appeared in Scream 2 (1997).

After her legal father's abandonment due to her birth origin revelation, she spiralled into a life of drugs and crime. This dismayed soon-Sheriff Judy Hicks, who Sam would babysit the son of (one of these duties was during the second Woodsboro Murders). At age 18 (likely almost 19) — with Woodsboro no longer serving her any good — she abandoned it in favor of another California town.

In her departure, Sam did not say goodbye to her mother or baby sister (then age 13). Upon arriving in her new town, she met Richie Kirsch and began dating him. Due to her punk nature and craving for attention it wasn’t very hard for Sam to convince Richie to have sex with her and vice versa. During her time in her new home town, she started taking pills to help her with her hallucinations of her biological father haunting her. Now 5 years later, Sam is confronted with both her troubled teen past and birth origin — she is Ghostface's primary target. Now a 24-year-old bowling alley attending, she joins forces with original legacy franchise survivors, Dewey Riley, Gale Weathers and Sidney Prescott, to stop the new killer.

In the end, Sam proves to embody the rules of a real-life horror movie legacy "requel" (reboot and sequel); she is both the descendant of a legacy character, and the new Ghostface entity is her own boyfriend, Richie whom she is able to kill (staying true to the original Sidney-Billy dynamic), as well as his accomplice who lives at 261 Turner Lane, Woodsboro (Macher residence), Amber Freeman.

Approximately six months later, Sam gets disowned by her mother after telling Tara the truth about Billy, as Tara disowns her mother back for what she did to Sam, as they both move to New York City along with their two close friends Chad and Mindy, but for Sam to keep an eye on Tara, as Sam became more defensive and not let anyone not even her own friends or sister push her around anymore ever since the attack with Richie and Amber. That’s where she also meets her new boyfriend Danny, but keeps their relationship a secret from everyone. About six months after she moved to New York, new Ghostface killers emerged to finish what Richie and Amber started. It turns out that the killers were Richie’s family, and they were trying to kill Sam to avenge their dead brother. In the end, the killers once again end up dead, and everyone survived this time around.

She was portrayed by Melissa Barrera, who also played Joey in the 2024 horror comedy film Abigail.

Biography[]

Scream (2022)[]

25 years since the Woodsboro Murders ended with the deaths of its perpetrators, Billy Loomis and Stu Macher, a new killer has emerged.

Five years after leaving town, Sam's sister Tara is attacked by Ghostface, Wes Hicks calls Sam to inform her and Sam makes the decision, with Richie, to return to Woodsboro. They immediately go to see Tara in the hospital, to the welcome and dismay from others, and Sam apologizes to Tara for leaving her and agrees to stay in town.

Later on, Sam is taking a break at the hospital and when she looks in the mirror she hallucinates a vision of Billy Loomis who taunts her for unknown reasons. Sam's phone rings and when she answers it's the Killer who claims to know her secret. Ghostface jumps out from behind the door and tries to attack her, however she is able to escape and she then reveals to Tara the reason she left town, when she was 13 she founds their mother's diaries which reveal that her father wasn't her father, and rather she is the daughter of Billy Loomis, whom her mother slept with in high school. After finding this information, she demanded an answer from her mother, unaware that her father was listening, and as a result he left them all. Tara gets angry at Samantha for this and selfishly demands she leave without a full explanation why she left and never told her.

Sam decides they need an expert to help them and she and Richie visit Dewey Riley who gives them two minutes with him. He explains the rules of surviving these attacks and then kicks them out of his house. However he later has a change of heart and joins Sam and Richie and the Meeks-Martin house, where the rest of Tara’s friends have gathered.

Dewey introduces the teens to Stab and the history of Billy and Stu and they attempt to figure out the connection between the Killer and Samantha. Mindy, who has the same traits as her uncle, deduces that the Killer is attempting to create a "requel" - a reboot / sequel - to Stab 8, which at that point is just called Stab, which received poor reviews amongst fans and is a generally hated sequel. They realize the Killer is probably a Stab fan who is using Sam and Tara to make the movie. They are using Tara and her friends as the new generation and using Sam's connection to Billy Loomis as a way to weave the legacy characters, Sidney, Dewey and Gale, into the story. Sam gets angry when she is accused of being the Killer, and flees. As she drives, she has another hallucination of Billy and just narrowly avoids a fatal car accident.

After Judy and Wes are killed, Sam arrives on the scene and learns about their deaths. A news van pulls up, and a woman approaches Samantha looking for information. It is revealed that it's Gale Weathers. Sam then spots Deputy Vinson at the crime scene, despite the fact that he should be watching Tara at the hospital and she races back to save her sister, with Dewey joining her. They are able to distract the Killer long enough to catch him off guard, however Dewey sends the sisters away and prepares to kill Ghostface once and for all, resulting in his own death.

Sam decides it's time to leave Woodsboro and ignores Sidney Prescott's request for help. Along the way, Tara realizes she forgot her inhaler and they stop at Amber's house to get another one, unaware that Amber's house is 261 Turner Lane, Stu Macher's old house. They arrive in time to interrupt Ghostface as he's trying to kill Chad Meeks-Martin and they call the party off.

After Mindy is attacked, an argument breaks out amongst the group resulting in Amber Freeman unmasking herself as one of the killers, shooting Liv straight in the face after insulting her. Richie and Sam flee to the basement to hide and Richie deduces that Tara may be the other killer, resulting in Sam abandoning him. She finds Tara tied up upstairs and hesitates to untie her. Sidney and Gale arrive at the house and it's finally revealed that the other killer is none other than Richie the whole time, and Tara’s second attacker through the phone.

He mocks Sam about how it wasn’t very hard to trick her into thinking he was a good guy and it was easy for him to get in Sam’s pants. Richie goes on to get in her head by making fun of her issues due to her messed up child and teen hood much to Sam’s annoyance. He and Amber reveal that they are trying to make a new Stab movie after the fail of Stab 8 and they are pinning Sam as the killer, as she is the daughter of Billy Loomis, say they found out her secret from her mom who was drunk saying things she remembers. Amber goes to grab Tara so they can finish her off together however it is revealed that Sam did untie her and wasn’t fooled at all into turning against her own sister. Tara taunts them with a phone call. Amber looks for Tara who jumps out and attacks her. Samantha then fights Richie as Amber returns to the kitchen after quickly getting up, beating up and knocking out Tara, where Sidney and Gale gang up on her.

Sidney and Gale kill Amber by setting her on fire, and as Samantha and Richie fights to the death, as they both fall downstairs, Sam gets pinned down as Richie taunts Sam, mocking how she’s gonna beat him, but she reminds him not to mess with the daughter of a serial killer, as Sam outsmarts Richie and repeatedly stabs Richie 22 times in a fit of psychotic rage and then Richie injured and full of fear begs Sam to stop and begs for his ending, as Sam sadistically twists his words and taunts for his ending as she slits his throat open, finally killing him.

Sidney warns her that the Killer always comes back, so Samantha shoots him a extra three times. A burnt Amber comes running at them from the kitchen with a kitchen knife, foolishly attempting to attack them all herself and Tara shoots her through the head finally killing her and putting an end to her and Richie’s killing spree forever.

Outside, Tara, Mindy and a still alive Chad are taken to hospital and Sam thanks Gale and Sidney for their help. Samantha asks Sidney if she will be alright. Sidney knowing she will endure similar things she went through replies to her with a slight smile saying, "Eventually." As Sam prepares to leave in the ambulance with Tara, she hallucinates Billy standing behind her once more, indicating that he still is, and will continue to, haunt her. But knowing for now she’s going to be okay.

Scream VI[]

Sam and Tara are now living in New York City with fellow survivors Chad and Mindy. She attends a therapy session with her new therapist, Dr. Stone, where Sam tells him about her lack of Billy Loomis' (her biological father) hallucinations, but that she feels there is still a darkness inside of her as when she was stabbing Richie to death, "it felt right". This makes Dr. Stone uncomfortable and he ends their session and reveals that he has to share this information with the police. Sam storms out of the house, telling Dr. Stone that he's the same as the rest of them.

Sam returns to the apartment that she shares with Tara and Quinn and is surprised to see Tara isn't there. Quinn, who is hosting one of many men that she usually does, tells her that Tara went to a frat party with Chad, Mindy, Anika, and Ethan. Sam, who has been hovering over Tara since arriving in New York goes to the party where she finds a student, Frankie, trying to take advantage of her and so she tases him in the testicles. On the way back to their apartment on Sam's demand, Sam and Tara argue about Sam not being able to let go of what happened in Woodsboro and Sam is then ambushed by students who believe the conspiracy that she framed Richie.

They return to their apartment and Sam spends some time alone in the foyer. When Danny returns home, they kiss in secret before another resident returns. Sam goes back upstairs and a news report reports on the murder of Jason. Sam asks Quinn to call her dad, Detective Bailey, and he informs her that her drivers license was found at the scene of Jason's murder and that she needs to come down to the police station for questioning. Despite her reluctance, Sam allows Tara to come with her.

Along the way, Sam gets a call from Richie's old phone number and when she answers, it's Ghostface on the other line. He threatens the sister and then ambushes them from an alley. They evade him and run into a Bodega which Ghostface follows them in to. Ghostface kills multiple customers. The Bodega owner tells them to go out the back and tries to shoot Ghostface with a shotgun. Sam and Tara ask the owner for the keys to escape and whilst grabbing them, Ghostface jumps out and stabs him in the heart, he then takes the shotgun and kills the owner. He stalks the girls through the Bodega and they are able to escape, leaving Jill Roberts and Charlie Walker's old Ghostface mask behind.

Sam and Tara are interviewed by Detective Wayne at the police station but the interview is interrupted by the arrival of FBI Agent, and Woodsboro Survivor, Kirby Reed, and it is revealed that Kirby and Sam were friends/acquittances at Woodsboro High, despite their age difference. The sisters leave the police station and are ambushed by reporters, including Gale. Sam and Tara argue with Gale and both try to clock her in the face, with Tara succeeding. They leave in a taxi, with Gale telling them that Sidney won't be coming to New York. They meet with the rest of the group at the University campus where Mindy explains the rules of the new movie and her suspects list. Sam and Tara offer to host everyone in their apartment so they can be together and safe in numbers.

The survivors have a heart-to-heart with each other and Chad nicknames them the "core four". Sam then confesses that she is dating Danny and ignores his subsequent phone call when he's trying to warn her that Ghostface is in Quinn's bedroom. They hear grunting and screaming coming from Quinn's room and initially believe it's Quinn having sex, but soon realize it's sinister and Quinn's 'dead' body is thrown through the door. Tara and Chad escape through the front door and Sam, Mindy and Anika are forced to climb over a ladder between their apartment and Danny's, resulting in Anika's death after Ghostface flips the ladder whilst she's climbing across.

The next morning, Gale reconciles with the group and takes them to an abandoned theatre that is registered under Jason's name. Inside is a shrine dedicated to Ghostface, containing his old costumes and masks and various pieces of clothing and Stab memorabilia. Sam and Gale have a heart-to-heart about Sam being cut off by Christina and her desire to have a family again and Gale tells her that she can still have a family even if it's only with one person. Wayne shares an idea he has on how to capture Ghostface and has Sam and Tara walk through a park, with him watching over them, whilst Kirby traces a phone call from Ghostface that he hopes will be triggered by Sam and Tara being out in public. It works and Sam receives a call and they track the call to Gale's penthouse on the Upper East Side.

Sam and Tara steal Wayne's police car and race to Gale's penthouse where they arrive just in time to interrupt Ghostface from finishing Gale off. However, as Gale passes out she asks them to tell Sidney that Ghostface never got her. Gale is then taken to the hospital with a weak pulse with her fate left unknown. The core four go to the hospital, with Ethan, to await news on Gale and Tara then comes up with a plan to trap Ghostface in the shrine so they can kill him. Wayne agrees to the plan and tells them to travel in public. The group go to the subway however are separated from Mindy and Ethan who are held back by commuters. On the subway, Sam notices multiple commuters wearing Ghostface costumes and becomes nervous when one commuter approaches them sinisterly, however they disembark without issue.

They arrive at the shrine, and Sam sends Danny away as he previously told Sam that she shouldn't trust anyone, not even him. They go into the shrine and Sam hallucinates Billy again who tells her to take his knife from the glass display case it is in so she can fight, and Sam obliges. She then notices that the door has been chained shut and gets a call from Wayne who tells her that Kirby was fired from the FBI because of her mental health and they turn on Kirby. Sam, Tara and Chad run from Ghostface and then fight him, and when Chad holds Ghostface back to let Sam and Tara run, a second Ghostface appears and the two stab Chad and leave him for dead. Sam and Tara return to the theatre and the two Ghostface's corner them and they prepare to fight. Kirby comes out and reveals that the two Ghostface's knocked her out and then Wayne shows up and shoots Kirby, revealing himself as the killer.

The two Ghostfaces unmask themselves, revealing them as Ethan and Quinn and they reveal that they are all family of Richie's, being his siblings and father and that they want revenge against Sam for killing him. Sam and Tara evade the trio and flee to the upstairs where Tara slips off the railing. Sam holds onto her as Ethan stabs at her from below, and Tara tells Sam that she has to let her go, and so Sam gives Tara Billy's knife and lets her go and Tara falls to the ground and stabs Ethan. Quinn climbs up to the second floor and tries to ambush Sam but Tara presumably kills Ethan stabbing him in the mouth, as Sam taunts Quinn, much to her horror and fury as she foolishly attempts to kill Sam for her insults, but she shoots her in the head and kills her.

Wayne horrified by the death of his two other kids, then attacks her and Sam ragefully attacks back as the two go flying off the edge of the rail and to the ground. Wayne is knocked out and when he wakes up he gets a call from Sam who uses the Ghostface voice to taunts him and she then emerges behind him wearing Billy's old mask and robe and uses Billy's knife to stab Wayne to death by stabbing him forty times and before killing him she tells him she's nothing like her father since he's a cold blooded murderer, and knowing how dangerous Wayne is she stabs him through the eye, putting an end to the entire Kirsch family once and for all. Danny shows up with police officers who he called for help and tells them that Mindy and Gale both survived their wounds. With the killings coming to an end once more, Sam watches as Kirby is wheeled into an ambulance and she tells Sam to call her if she ever needs anything. They witness as Chad is wheeled out of the theatre, still alive and they embrace as the core four.

As Chad is driven away by ambulance, Sam reveals that she still has Billy's mask in her jacket but then drops it to the ground as she walks off with Tara and Danny.

Abilities[]

• Gunmanship: Samantha was able to handle a small firearm as she shot Richie two times in the chest and once in the head lethally killing him. At the end of Scream VI, she quickly shoots Quinn directly in the head fatally killing the latter.
• Knifemanship: After having a vision of her father, she was able to stab her ex-boyfriend in between his mouth before repeatedly cutting him twenty-one times and fatally slashing his throat. In the sequel, when getting trapped and surrounded by the new Ghostface she manages to escape due to Kirby’s diversion which allowed her to grab her father’s old knife and stab Ethan in the chest rapidly enough that it subdued him but does not kill him due to his high tolerance of pain and after turning the tables on Detective Bailey Sam even manages to sneak behind him to stab his whole body from arms to shoulders until finally impaling him into his eye which kills him.
• Skilled Strategist: Another one of her skills is planning reliable tactics for after she survived the Ghostface attack at the hospital, she turns to Dewey for information on how to find out the next approaches of danger. Sam was able to distract Amber as Ghostface by keeping her on the phone which bought time to save Tara then when it was revealed that both Richie and Amber were the masterminds, she was against the belief that her sister was the second killer as stated by her ex-boyfriend and she frees her from the closet before temporarily being held hostage with both Sidney and Gale. In the end, when both the killers were about to stage the bodies, Her sister called the landline telephone which got Richie off guard Tara briefly pins down Amber while Sam escapes the kitchen and lays a trail of blood for Richie to follow allowing to pop out the upstairs closet and lead him back downstairs to get stabbed by her, successfully surviving with everyone else. Sam’s tactics were improved in the new Scream as when the new killers trap her and her friends in the old theater as a kill box, she was able to provoke Quinn to charge at her and Tara by insulting her late brother which allows her sister to smack the latter in the face with a brick and for Kirby to shoot Detective Bailey in the chest of his bulletproof vest which briefly stunned him allowing the survivors to climb up the rails to the exit. Until they get sidetracked by the Detective who fires his gun on them which causes Tara to lean down on the edge that Sam tries to pull her up on but is unable because of the blood making her slip while Quinn is on top of the floor with Sam and Ethan is attempting to slash Tara from the bottom this made her realize to hand her father’s knife for Tara to use against him when she lets her fall, and pick up Kirby’s gun to fire on Quinn which successfully defeats the two then after subduing Bailey by falling off the edge of the platform she hides with her sister while he’s still unconscious. As he wakes up, he gets a phone call from Sam who uses this as an advantage to con the latter of his plot to show the world her true colors and frame her but instead gets ambushed as she as Ghostface stabs him to death ending the rampage.

Committed Murders[]

• Richie Kirsch: Self-defense as the latter had a gun pointed at her and she mercifully stabs him repeatedly before slitting his throat.
• Quinn Bailey: Self-defense as the latter was about to charge at her with a knife before getting mercilessly shot in the head point-blank.
• Wayne Bailey: Mercifully stabs the latter rapidly all over his arms till he gets subdued and Sam's awareness of him being too dangerous of threat to leave alive, executes him by impaling his eye with her knife.

Gallery[]

Sam's character poster for Scream (2022).

Sam's character poster for Scream VI.

Sidney, Gale, Sam, and Tara screaming.

Sam pretending to don a Ghostface mask with a dreaded stare.

Sam and Tara's friends visiting the latter at Woodsboro Hospital.

Sam with Gale.

Sam attacking Ghostface (possibly Richie or Amber).

Sam furiously stabbing Richie to death.

Sam angrily taunts Richie over his cowardice.

Sam continues to taunt Richie by cleaning her knife like other killers.

Sam, Sidney, and Gale glaring at Richie's corpse.

Sam, Sidney, and Gale in complete shock after Tara shot Amber to death.

Sam in the kitchen with her knife wound that Richie gave her.

Sam and Tara's angry stares.

Sam sadistically taunting Quinn over Ethan's supposed death.

Sam tries to shoot Bailey in the head, only for the gun to be empty.

Sam screaming sadistically as she taunts and charges at Bailey.

Trivia[]

• Sam's last name is named after John Carpenter, the director of the Halloween franchise.
• In Scream VI, she is the first and only member of the Carpenter family to smoke.
• The figure from Sam's hallucinations isn't the real Billy Loomis, because the real Billy was dead for the past 25 years, which means he didn't even know she existed. There are also numerous differences between Sam's hallucination and the actual person:
  • The real Billy was immature and self-centered, while the imaginary Billy was fatherly and encouraged Samantha to do the right thing.
  • Both the imaginary and the real Billy were sadistic, but the real one was a hypocrite in his quest to kill Maureen and Sidney for things that are rather minor compared to his own actions, while the imaginary one honestly believed that making Samantha into a hardened and lethal survivor will make her more mature and give her a better perspective on life.
  • The real Billy didn't know Samantha even existed, and the movie implies that he wouldn't have been a good father to her even if he knew. In contrast to him, the thought-form version knew everything Samantha knew and was open-minded in his own ruthless way.
  • While the imaginary Billy never said anything bad about his original incarnation, it's implied that he doesn't approve any of the real person's actions.
  • While by no mean heroic, the imaginary Billy isn't a villain like the original one.
• Sam's name and family heritage are a stealth pun for Sam Loomis.
• Due to Sam’s actress, Melissa Barrera now being fired from the film, due to her support in defense of Palestinian civilian casualties caused by the 2023 Israel–Hamas war on social media accounts, Sam will not reappear again in Scream 7, which has been confirmed to be in development.
  • Jenna Ortega, who played her sister, Tara, also left the production shortly afterwards, although supposedly only due to scheduling conflicts.

External Links[]

• Sam Carpenter on the Scream Wiki
• Sam Carpenter on the Horror Wiki
• Sam Carpenter on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki

Navigation[]

Heroes

Movies Sidney Prescott | Gale Weathers | Dewey Riley | Randy Meeks | Cotton Weary | Mark Kincaid | Kirby Reed | Sam Carpenter | Tara Carpenter | Chad Meeks-Martin | Mindy Meeks-Martin | Danny Brackett Television Emma Duval | Audrey Jensen | Noah Foster | Brooke Maddox | Jake Fitzgerald | Maggie Duval | Gustavo Acosta | Marcus Elliot | Liv Reynolds | Kym | Amir Ayoub | Manny