Scream Star Reflects on Their Character’s Emotional Death

As with most entries in the Scream franchise, this year’s sequel saw a number of characters meet their demise at the hands of Ghostface, though this entry managed to elevate the stakes by having entirely unexpected characters’ trajectories come to an end. As opposed to how some horror franchises shockingly bring characters back after their seeming deaths, things are often pretty definitive in the Scream series, which confirms that the character won’t surprisingly return in a future installment. The performer behind the figure recently opened up about the emotional day of filming the on-screen death. The new Scream is out now on home video.

WARNING: Spoilers for this year’s Scream sequel below

After surviving four films facing off against Ghostface, David Arquette’s Dewey finally met his fatal end in the latest film, which meant saying goodbye to a character near and dear to his heart.

“I haven’t talked about it much. It’s a very fresh wound,” Arquette shared with Empire Magazine. “They had not given me a heads-up, so I was like [mimes thumbing through the script], ‘Wow, Dewey’s got some good stuff to play this time!’ And then, ‘Oh, that’s why!’ I had to put it down, I had to walk around and kind of process it. I understood where they were coming from, as far as gutting their audience. It was hard. It’s been such an ongoing film series throughout my life, 25 years of my life, so it definitely cut deep.”

Even with that emotional connection to the character and what the franchise has meant to him, Arquette confirmed that his actual preparation that morning was as professional as any other day, though the intensity of the actual battle was elevated once filming got underway.

“That morning, I got up, cooked myself some breakfast, and then I went to work and did the scene,” the actor remembered. “I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. We amped up the fight scene a little because I’m a professional wrestler. We made it a little more intense. If you have a lot of action, you’re going to get banged up a little, and if you have blood on you, the longer it goes it’s just kind of sticky and uncomfortable. So you’ve got to get into a Zen place, so you’re not angry. And I was angry anyway. So I just had to get into a real Zen place, just breathe through and know that this will be over soon. But it was emotional. I did it, and I hopped in my car, drove home, washed all the blood off, and that was it. I packed up a few things and then hit the road.”

As far as what made Dewey so compelling, Arquette believes it was original director Wes Craven, who passed away in 2015, who injected his warmth into the character, as the actor recalled, “In retrospect, there was a lot of Wes there … Some of his humor and sweetness was attached to Dewey. I think losing Wes affected us all in a really heavy way. He was a little bit of an angel to me, as far as keeping my character alive. And [directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] are not! They’re Ghostfaces!” Upon remembering the character’s death was in the screenplay, he joked, “Then I take it back! [Writers] Jamie [Vanderbilt] and Guy [Busick], you’re Ghostfaces!”

Scream is out now on home video. A sixth entry is set to be filmed this summer.

How did you feel about the character’s death? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!