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Maureen Prescott (née Roberts) was the mother of Sidney Prescott and Roman Bridger. While she dies before the start of Scream, she is an integral part of the series' back story. In all four films, the murderers trace at least part of their motivation back to Maureen, making her somewhat of an antagonist.

Maureen indirectly caused four (The events of 1,2, and 3 gave Sidney fame which Jill was jealous of) separate murder sprees. The fourth murder spree was caused because of fame as a result of the previous murder sprees. She is the 1st person to fall victim to the 1st Ghostface killing spree.

Background

Maureen spent her whole life in Woodsboro, except for a secret two year span in the early 70's. She told no one about this period in her life, including her family and eventual husband, Neil Prescott. During this time, she moved to Hollywood and appeared in three plays and three movies for Sunrise Studios under the stage name "Rina Reynolds". Each film was produced by horror icon John Milton. During one of his parties she was raped by Milton and his friends.

Even though Milton used her passion for acting to get her to continue on pleasing him to get better roles, Maureen didn't want to dirty things any longer, especially not after the party. She gave birth to a son, Roman, and put him up for adoption before leaving Hollywood and moving back to Woodsboro, the guy from the rape that impregnated Maureen with Roman was in fact John.

The rape affected Maureen for the rest of her life. Even though she settled down and married Neil Prescott and had his daughter, she became promiscuous. She had affairs with at least Cotton Weary and Hank Loomis, the father of Sidney's boyfreind Billy Loomis. When Mrs. Loomis found out, she left Hank to raise their son Billy on his own.

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A "Rina Reynolds" headshot.

Roman eventually tracked Maureen down, but she very cruelly rejected him. While most likely it was due to her past trauma or she simply didn't want Roman or both. She coldly said that he was Rina Reynolds' son and she was dead. She told him, bluntly, that Sidney was her only child. Roman was incensed, and began stalking her. He took footage of her affairs , including the one with Hank and showed the evidence to Billy claiming that she was the reason why his mother "abandoned him", this enraged Billy and Roman incites him to murder Maureen, Roman also told Billy to have a partner to sell out in case he gets caught and to frame Cotton. Billy, with help from his best friend Stu Macher, did as instructed and together they murdered Maureen and framed her lover, Cotton Weary. They made the scene look like a rape and planted his jacket with Maureen's blood in his car to frame him. Sidney having witness someone wearing Cotton's jacket testifies that she saw Cotton leave the house and Cotton was subsequently convicted of the murder. After her death, some Woodsboro residents referred to Maureen as a "slut". According to Roman, everybody knew about Cotton; Sidney would ulitmately suffer through the series due to her mother's past mistakes.

In school, Sidney was outed by two students as being the daughter of a "slut", and believed her to be one like her mother.

Films

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A picture of Maureen and Sidney, like mother and daughter.

Maureen's past was uncovered gradually throughout the quadrilogy, with most of the details uncovered in the third film.

Scream

In the year following Maureen's murder, the general public believed Cotton Weary raped and killed her. Reporter Gale Weathers was the only one who believed Cotton's story and clashed with Sidney over it. Sidney was haunted by her mother's death, but eventually discovered the truth: that Maureen really did sleep around, and that she was killed by Billy and Stu. Sidney killed the two in self-defense and found some closure.

Scream 2

After Mrs. Loomis revealed herself as one of the killers, she proved to Sidney that she was infuriated at Maureen ruining her marriage to Hank. The second killer, Mickey Altieri, taunted Sidney by telling her that her dead boyfriend Derek Feldman would have been the type of guy she could take home to mom, if she had a mom.

Scream 3

In Scream 3, Maureen had a much larger role than in previous installments. We get to learn more about Maureen's past and why she slept around, so there are much fewer unanswered questions. In a way, it makes this film somewhat of a prequel of the first film. In the film, Roman left old head shots of 'Rina Reynolds' at the scenes of his murders to entice Sidney to Hollywood, so he could wreak his revenge. Gale and Jennifer later investigated the headshots after Gale identified the person as Maureen and was told by Bianca Burnette about Maureen's rape and career with John Milton, implicating him as a suspect.

Sidney wound up questioning her own sanity, when Roman terrorized her over the phone with Maureen's voice. He also draped Maureen's prop body bag over himself and used her voice to torment her and make her think she was losing her mind. She also dreamed of her mother in the film, only furthering her doubts. After Roman finally revealed himself to Sidney, he filled in the gaps of Maureen's life for her, and then murdered John Milton, who may have been his own father. She was seen on video and her voice was heard for the first time.

Maureen's murder is given more insight in the film at the replicated crime scene on the Stab 3 set. Maureen's bedroom is seen covered in blood and Maureen's body bag is seen with stab wounds in the head and stomach. It is hinted, that Maureen was in her bedroom after Cotton left. Due to the presence of a cellphone, it can be inferred that Stu and Billy then called and harrassed her, only to arrive and rape her before killing her brutally. This conflicts with the original story that says Maureen was found dead in the Woodsboro town square, although it is possible that Maureen was killed in her home and then her corpse was dragged into the town square. The two then could have planted Cotton's bloody coat in his car, framing him.

Scream 4

Kate Roberts (Maureen's sister) said, that she had emotional scars, too, because of Maureen's brutal murder and implicitly complained that no one cared. Kate's death later in the film represents Maureen's, as Jill states: "I mean, for fuck's sake, my own mother had to die, no great loss there, so I could stay true to the original. That's sick, right?"

Gallery

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Maureen Prescott has a Photo Gallery.

Behind the Scenes

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Maureen Prescott as Rina Rynolds

  • She was described as "beautiful and familiar" in the Scream script.
  • Maureen was the first victim of Ghostface and the only completely off-screen kill of the series. It happened one year prior to the first killing spree.
  • Maureen was referenced by six of the seven killers. Charlie Walker was the only one, who did not mention her.
  • The publicity stills of young Maureen Prescott, or "Rina Reynolds," are actually early modeling photos of a young Lynn McRee, the actress who portrays the adult Maureen Prescott.
  • Maureen is the main reason for the killings happening due to sleeping with Billy's father thus creating a chain of events.
  • In a deleted scene from Scream 4, Sidney picks up a framed picture of Maureen.
  • Maureen's maiden name is revealed to be 'Roberts' in Scream 3. Coincidentally, Jill Roberts, Maureen's niece in Scream 4, was played by Emma Roberts.
  • It is unknown how she was killed since it was never verified, Cotton's coat was said to have blood on it and in the flashback set, there is blood everywhere. So it is presumed that she was stabbed to death like most of Ghostface's victims.


Character Guide

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