Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Scream (2022) ahead!
The character of Wes in Scream, a meta slasher that proved a huge success upon release. The famed helmer’s teen horror was such a hit that Scream spawned an entire franchise, with Craven returning to direct the movie’s first three sequels.
Unfortunately, Craven died in 2015, a few years after the release of his final movie, Scream 2022’s character Wes was not the killer (as some fans theorized pre-release), his subplot was a perfect tribute to the late master of horror.
Not only was Dylan Minette’s Wes the character who brought the cast of Scream 2022 together and set the story in motion at the beginning of the movie, but Wes was also the savviest of the ensemble. Like Craven, Wes was well aware of horror movie conventions and cliches and prepared for any villain’s potential attacks, with the character even being mocked by his peers for his safety-first attitude. Unlike most screen teens, Wes was more than prepared to handle a masked killer, and, in true Wes Craven/Scream movie fashion, this did nothing to stop him from receiving the most violent death in Scream 2022. The shockingly brutal end meted out on Wes was a bloody reminder of Craven’s take-no-prisoners approach to the genre and a fitting tribute to the genre legend’s legacy.
Later in Scream 2022, when the partygoers raise a glass “to Wes,” it’s a tongue-in-cheek and very fitting send-off to the co-creator of the original Scream movies. However, the detail that makes the moment particularly effective is when the sardonic ing star Amber notes that Wes would hardly have approved of the wild teen party, another subtle wink at the director’s legacy as a teen horror legend. Indeed, Wes Craven’s original Scream famously featured a scene wherein the comic relief character Randy warned his co-stars not to engage in underage drinking, premarital sex, or drug use if they wanted to survive the night.
Thus, Amber noting that “Wes” would disapprove of shots in his honor was already a clever nod to the original movie’s legacy, but the irony was underlined when she turned out to be one of Scream 2022’s killers. While it was a fitting tribute already, revealing that the character scolding her friends for dishonoring the memory of Wes was secretly an obsessive horror fan willing to kill for the genre made the tribute to Craven perfect. As far back as the pre-Scream New Nightmare, Craven railed against the creative limitations of conventional studio horror moviemaking, which makes Scream 2022’s killer insisting that Wes’ memory needed to be honored a perfectly ironic in-joke.
