Credit: Scream 2
There are a lot of movies out there that end up getting rid of characters that appear to be too important to lose, and fans lose their minds when this happens, but from the perspective of the writer, it’s ridiculous to feel sorry for this. It’s up to each individual when it comes to whether they’ll regret killing off a character, especially in a horror movie, but sometimes things are improved by the death of a key character, and then sometimes they’re allowed to get more and more ridiculous if that individual leaves behind a legacy such as Randy’s. To be entirely fair, Randy Meeks was a fun character in the first two Scream movies, but after his death, his advice continued to become more and more cringe despite the fact that he knew so much about horror tropes. What’s truly interesting is that his niece and nephew from the last movie picked up his propensity for learning as much about movies as they could, but they took it to such an extreme that one can’t be faulted for thinking that the killers would eventually dip and ruin the tropes by doing what was least expected. This was the same issue with Randy since, at one point, his cinematic knowledge would have become a moot point since the killers weren’t brain-dead morons and could have switched things up at any time. The only thing that made his advice and knowledge relevant was the decision of the killers to stick to the traditional points that Randy had laid out. In other words, Randy was a fanboy. He wasn’t a guru with years of accumulated wisdom.
Credit: Scream 2
He was a great character until the attempt was made to stretch past his boundaries.
It’s always interesting to see which characters can transcend their boundaries and which ones need to stay in the lane they’ve been given since stretching past those boundaries is possible, but it’s not always advisable. Randy is the type of character that was meant to be the film geek, the guy who pines after the hot girl, and the individual that has a lot of great advice but is somehow treated by the fans as a person that’s a lot more popular than he should be. In the first two movies, he was great since he provided comic relief and a few very needed pointers that could have been valuable had he not been fooled just as much as everyone else. Trying to justify the idea that Randy should have survived is kind of foolish since those who are too aware of what might be happening might need to meet their end to give the story a chance to shock the audience.
His death proved that legacy characters aren’t always safe.
One of the biggest reasons why his death wasn’t a mistake and shouldn’t be that big of a regret is that he served a purpose by showing that even legacy characters, aka survivors, can be killed in a horror movie. Just because someone survives the first movie doesn’t mean that they’re going to be standing when the credits roll on the sequel. Randy was a bit meek, no pun intended, and easy to back down in the first movie since he did fear Billy and thought Stu was his friend, but he served his purpose, kind of, as the eccentric movie buff that had a great deal of cinematic knowledge that still didn’t keep him from being shot. Even his advanced knowledge in the sequel wasn’t enough to keep him from daring to speak ill of Billy and Stu, which drove Ghostface into a bit of a frenzy. His death wasn’t a mistake and should only be a mild regret since it served another purpose, to show that anything can happen to anyone unless they have the thickest plot armor around.
Credit: Scream 2
The writer might regret killing Randy, but it was the right move.
The fact that Randy’s influence has reached into the most recent movie in the form of his niece and nephew proves that people can only be pushed so far out of their comfort zone before they need that blanket or binky that will give them some sense of security. The legacy that was given to his niece and nephew is an annoying trait that one might have thought had died out by the third movie since Randy had finally given his last bit of advice. But that would be inaccurate since, of course, Randy was a planner and was paranoid about thinking ahead and creating advice that could be followed by those who survived. His death was tragic to be sure, but it pushed the story forward, while his legacy feels like it might be holding it back a bit.
This was arguably the peak of Jamie Kennedy’s career.
Jamie Kennedy has been keeping busy since the Scream movies, kind of, but hasn’t really done much of worth since then. Recognizing him in various movies and TV shows has been possible, but at the same time, his overall popularity hasn’t been as high as it was when he was a part of this franchise.
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