Those that know the Scream series front to back and every which way from Sunday probably looked at this idea and said ‘huh? But, but Stu’s dead.”. And they wouldn’t be wrong in their assumption since near the end of the first movie he had a TV smashed over his head and he was electrocuted just to make it final. But the theory that Jeremy Dick of MovieWeb and so many others are continuing to push at this moment is that maybe, just MAYBE, Stu is alive and has been orchestrating every event that’s happened since the first movie. Maybe he reached out to Billy’s mother after recovering, maybe he managed to find Roman in the third movie, and maybe he even enticed Sidney’s cousin in the fourth. That’d be pretty dark however, and it’s been explained that the idea of a grown man using teenagers to do his dirty work was scrapped after the Columbine killings, which was likely for the best at that time. It does lend a darkness to Scream that would take it far beyond anything that’s been done yet, but likely as not there would be plenty of individuals that would threaten to boycott the movie simply for the sake of claiming that it promotes teen homicide. Apart from that however there are very few options as to how the character of Stu Macher could possibly come back since the death scene he was given wasn’t gory and final, like say, a bullet to the head, but the implication was still there since not a lot of people could hope to survive having a television slammed into their face. Add that to the blood loss that Stu had already experienced and it’s not entirely likely that the character could come back.
Matthew Lillard is all for it however as he’d be one of the first people trying to resurrect Stu in order to have another go at Sidney, as quite a few killers in the movies rarely pass up the chance to take another shot or stab at those they missed in the first place. But again, the logistics of making it happen would be incredibly sensitive since just bringing Stu back to life wouldn’t be as easy as snapping one’s fingers or even saying ‘oh, well here’s what happened…’. The understanding was that the two who thought they’d get away with the entire thing ended up being the last victims in the movie and their death scenes were done well enough that a lot of people couldn’t see them walking away afterwards. Billy’s was definitely more decisive since there’s really no way to come back from a bullet to the ol’ front lobes, but the idea that Stu could have still been alive, whimpering and crying as he did, while his head was stuck in a TV is kind of hard to swallow, largely because he’d already taken so much damage. But this is Hollywood after all, where movie magic reigns supreme at times, and as a result it could very well happen that Stu is still alive and in prison somewhere calling the shots. It would almost have to be this way since there hasn’t been much mention of him throughout the last few movies save by reference. There’s been mention of Scream finally taking on a supernatural lean and going so far as to incorporate ghosts or zombies, but that idea doesn’t appear to hold much weight with the franchise since Wes Craven created a very realistic setting and story that was grounded, more or less, in what could pass for reality, and it sounds as though this is the way people want to keep it.
There’s always a possibility that Lillard could come back as a different character that’s somehow connected to the whole mess, but there are plenty of fans that would likely point out his presence and wonder just whether or not he was going to be channeling Stu or someone related to the character. In other words it could be a mess if things aren’t handled correctly, but Lillard is ready and willing to come back. There are definitely characters that won’t return since their death scenes were pretty obvious and aren’t bound to be given the miraculous treatment that allows the ‘oh they weren’t really dead’ ploy to take effect. At this point it’s kind of hard to imagine why Scream 5 is even happening since a character such as Sidney Prescott would either need to be traumatized beyond all rational thought by now or have been turned into the freaking terminator due to her many brushes with death. As I’m leaning towards the latter it stands to reason that if a group of motivated killers can’t kill this woman, and even her own family member can’t get the job done, then she should likely come back as a grizzled veteran that would chew up any wannabe killers for lunch. Brodie Lancaster of MTV has more on this subject.
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