Courteney Cox and Melissa Barrera break down most shocking death in 'Scream' franchise

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After nearly 30 years of terrorizing the fictional town of Woodsboro, Calif., the murderous Ghostface has claimed dozens of famous faces in the ongoing Scream film series.

With each new instalment in the slasher franchise that originated in 1996 with stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, the kills have gotten increasingly gruesome. The latest entry — Scream VI — is no exception as it moves the action to New York City where new killers donning the creepy mask and black cloak leave a bloody trail in pursuit of the Carpenter sisters, Sam and Tara (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega), their two pals (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Cox’s opportunistic journalist Gale Weathers.

Attacks happen in a convenience store, on packed subway cars and in Weathers’ fancy Upper West Side apartment, with Ghostface finding stomach-churning new ways to off his victims.

But in Cox’s opinion, nothing tops the series’ first big death — Drew Barrymore.

“I’m going to say Drew Barrymore because it was so unexpected,” Cox says when asked to rank Ghostface’s most iconic Scream kill.

In the opening moments of the Wes Craven-directed original, Barrymore’s Casey Becker answers an ominous call luring her into a deadly game involving scary movies.

The sequence runs less than 15 minutes, but by the end Becker lays in a pool of blood on her front lawn.

“To have someone that well known go within the first 20 minutes of a film, I think that was iconic. That was really bold.”

In a separate conversation last year, Campbell (who did not return for Scream VI) told Postmedia that Craven and writer Kevin Williamson did an incredible job with that scene.

“To kill off the person that people were expecting to be the lead was a very bold move,” she said.

After a story reboot last year, co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and co-writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick threw fans for a loop when they decided to kill off Arquette’s Dewey Riley.

With Melissa Barrera now joining forces alongside Jenna Ortega to battle the knife-wielding serial killer in the latest chapter, one of the new faces in this ghastly new incarnation weighed in with her pick for Ghostface’s scariest kill.

“Yes, Drew, was iconic,” Barrera tells Postmedia. “But I also really liked the opening of Scream 2 in the movie theatre with Jada Pinkett Smith. I also think it’s so mortifying. It happens in a movie theatre and people think that it’s fake. Imagine getting stabbed and dying and people looking at you and laughing thinking that it’s part of the movie. That, to me, is one of the scariest things ever.”

Scream VI is now playing in theatres.

mdaniell@postmedia.com