Mikey Madison Gave Us a Deranged, Fire-Burning Killer

The Big Picture

• Mikey Madison shines as Ghostfacekiller Amber in Scream (2022), delivering a chilling performance that steals the show.
• Madison's talent for portraying unhinged characters is showcased in both Scream and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood .
• With Anora receiving early Oscar buzz, Madison's star is on the rise, cementing her status as a promising young talent.

Everybody loves a scream queen, but some praise is owed to the performer behind the mask as well. Stepping into the role of an iconic slasher villain is a big deal for any actor, and in recent years the one who made the most of that opportunity is Mikey Madison in 2022's Scream. Madison is currently earning rave reviews for her lead performance in Sean Baker's Anora which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. But before she was headlining a festival darling, she was Amber, the best friend of Jenna Ortega's Tara who is revealed to be one of the deranged, psychotic Ghostfaces in the fifth Scream film.

Scream (2022) revived the franchise following an 11-year hiatus. The fifth film (and first without franchise creator Wes Craven) was going to make or break whether Scream was fertile ground in the 2020s horror landscape. It needed to work — and for the most part, it did. The movie sharply turns its sights on the tropes of legacy sequels and delivers another duo of killers who are among the best in the series. Madison plays Amber with a deranged glee that is undeniably entertaining. It makes sense she fits the character so well because she played a crazed killer just as well in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood three years before. Madison portrays one of the members of the Manson family in the film's fictionalized re-imagining of the infamous murders being thwarted. With these two roles, Madison gave us a one-two punch of deliriously unhinged acting that lit up the screen — literally.

Scream (2022)

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.

Mikey Madison Gave Us One of the Best Ghostface Killers

Madison's Amber is a huge part of the success of Scream (2022), a character who quietly floats throughout the first two acts before stealing the final stretch of the movie. Amber's reveal is the most memorable moment of the film; during a moment of chaos, she pulls out a handgun and brutally shoots a red herring character in the head. Madison delivers the chilling line, "Welcome to act three" with a devilish grin, and it becomes her movie from that moment through the end. Ghostface is one of the most iconic villains in horror cinema and has been portrayed by a wide variety of performers who all make their own mark on the franchise. Since it is a series built around a whodunnit formula, there is a method to building a character that makes enough of an impression without being too obvious. Amber is there just enough to not be forgotten so that when she does make her grand reveal, it's exhilarating.

The 'Scream' Franchise: All of Ghostface’s Kills, Ranked

Yep, every single one.

Post-reveal, Madison makes Amber one of the most delightfully unhinged Ghostface killers in the whole series. She gives an animated performance, with big gestures and wild facial expressions that elevate her to a special class. Amber sits toward the top as one of the most entertaining Ghostface killers, along with the original duo portrayed by Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, and Emma Roberts who really made a meal out of her Scream 4 performance. Madison's presence is a clear highlight for Scream (2022), and one that strangely reflected her work with Tarantino a few years prior.

Mikey Madison's Performances in 'Scream' and 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' Are Similar

With only a few small roles under her belt, Madison landed a prominent role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where she made a huge impact as a prominent member of the film's fictionalized Manson family. Madison portrays Sadie, based on one of the real Manson murderers, Susan Atkins. Despite having limited screentime, and only appearing in the film's final act, Madison makes big choices that clearly indicate how twisted her character is. Tarantino assembled a lot of rising stars for the Manson cult, including Sydney Sweeney, Austin Butler, Maya Hawke, and Margaret Qualley. All fit in the movie well, but Madison brought a live-wire burst of energythat made her impossible to forget.

Tarantino's revisionist film imagines the notorious murders being thwarted in its explosive climax, where Madison meets a fiery end that is eerily similar to her demise in Scream (2022). Both films feature a shot of Madison racing straight toward the camera, bloodied and screaming, with a weapon in hand. Both movies also see Madison engulfed in flames at the hands of the protagonist. In Scream's case, Madison is set ablaze by a gas stove top. In Tarantino's film, Leonardo DiCaprio takes her out with a flamethrower.

You might think Amber's demise was an intentional reference to Madison's previous role as Sadie. But Madison confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the similarities were a coincidence. Scream's directing duo, Radio Silence, who helmed the recent vampire horror-comedy, Abigail, even considered changing her fate as a result, before deciding to leave it as is. Going down in such a shocking way after making a vivid impression as a psycho killer makes Madison's portrayals in both films memorable, and forever intertwined.

Mikey Madison Is About To Have Her Star-Making Moment With Sean Baker’s ‘Anora'

Madison's next movie sees her take a break from the knife and fire. In Anora, Madison portrays a sex worker named Ani whose relationship with a Russian oligarch begins as a fantasy romance before shifting into chaos. Madison is already receiving early Oscar buzz for the performance, which seems set to catapult her into a new stratosphere of stardom. But her early thriller and horror roles won't be forgotten in the shuffle, as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream (2022) are the movies that put her on the map, and paved the way for her well-deserved success. With Anora being one of the most universally praised movies to come out of Cannes this year, and Madison's performance being at the forefront of those conversations, hopefully, this means we'll be seeing her lead more movies. No matter what type of films she winds up in, there's no doubt she is one of the most exciting, intense, and magnetic young performers to break through in the 2020s. Anora will show Madison in a new light, but if we're lucky, she'll pick up the knife again and give us horror fans another killer performance.

Scream (2022) is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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