The horror genre has been thriving for years now, to the joy of fans like me. Some of the best horror movies returned to theaters with new sequels, including the Scream franchise (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). But Wes Craven's 1996 original is still the most iconic, and Skeet Ulrich recently addressed a long-standing question about the Wes Craven classic.
Scream is one of the best horror franchises ever, and folks like me regularly re-watch them annually. There's nothing like the 1996 original, although fans are still wondering which Ghostface killed Rose McGowan's Tatum in that iconic garage scene. During a reunion panel at Midsummer Scream (via The Wrap) Ulrich was asked who killed Tatum, and he responded with:
To be honest, not even [screenwriter] Kevin Williamson knows who killed [Tatum]. And he wrote the damn thing.
Talk about a bummer. Despite how long moviegoers have been wondering about Tatum's death in Ghostface, it sounds like there is no concrete answer. Per Ulrich, neither the cast nor writer Kevin Williamson made it clear if Billy Loomis or Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher was the one who murdered Rose McGowan's character with a garage door. So I guess this mystery is going to stay alive for the time being.
McGowan was a truly iconic in the original Scream movie. What's more, her character Tatum was recently honored in Scream 7, with Sidney naming her daughter after her High School best friend. Alas, there's no indication as to who actually killed the beloved scream queen. Skeet Ulrich went on to say:
And we never discussed it. So, it’s really fan theory, which I think is great. But, I don’t know. No one knows.
Add it to the list of Scream fan theories that are still plaguing the beloved slasher property. Along with the idea that Stu Macher is still alive, the question of which Ghostface actually killed Tatum is still around. And it's more than possible that we'll never get an actual answer.
Scream fans love to re-watch and dissect each movie, and figure out which of the killers is responsible for which character death. But when it comes to the very first movie in the franchise, an official answer may never come. Instead, folks can continue to the debate for the foreseeable future.
Personally, I always assumed that it was Stu who murdered his girlfriend in that iconic garage scene. He's noticeably missing prior to that going down, and I thought it would be especially brutal for him to betray Tatum in that way. On the flip side, other fans think that Stu would chicken out and Billy would be the one do murder her via a garage door.
The Scream franchise is streaming now on Paramount including Scream 7, which arrived as part of the 2026 movie release list. Since the movies are doing so well at the box office, we'll have to wait and see if/when an eighth movie is officially greenlit by the studio.
