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could billy and stu have gotten away with it?


say they killed everyone, and sydney had never calle dthe cops

could billy and stu have gotten away with it?

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No. There was way too much evidence they didn't think about.

1. If Sydney's dad had been tied up and gagged for two days, police and forensics would be able to tell. They'd see tape marks on his mouth from his gag and probably on his arms and legs even though the tape was over his clothes, so they'd know he'd been tied up for a long time which would cause suspicion.

2. They planned on shooting Sydney's dad and making it look like a suicide, but I guarantee they wouldn't be able to fool an ME once an exam was done on the body. It's hard to face a suicide with a gun. ME's can tell when someone tries to make it look someone shot themselves but didn't. Billy and Stu probably would have just held the gun close to his head and fired, not realizing there would need to be gunpowder on her dad's hands and the gun would have to land in exactly the right spot. Plus, they'd find both of their prints and the fake blood on the gun, proving they both held it. That would poke a huge hole in their story.

3. Billy was covered in fake blood. The police would make him see a doctor, who'd be able to tell most of the "blood" wasn't real. That would raise suspicion.

4. Most importantly, there's no way Billy and Stu would be able to keep their act and stories straight. They did get away with killing Maureen and framing Cotton and did good at not getting caught for killing Casey and Steve, but by the end of the movie both of them were batsh-t crazy. They had completely lost it. If they were the only two survivors of a massacre, they'd be grilled for every detail. They'd either mix up what they were saying, let something slip, or let their true personalities get out. Billy did bet past being interrogated before by the police, but he knew his phone didn't make the calls, Stu would call Sydey which would make people think he couldn't be the killer, and he planned that all out. He had no alibis or outs after this. As soon as the police discovered the first three points and confronted the two about them, they'd screw up.

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100% agree with you

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I really doubt they would have gotten away with it, they were inept and negligent on too many levels to have gotten away with it scot free. But if they did, I reckon they'd have only gotten away with it for a short time, perhaps a few years and their case would have made to an episode of Forensic Files haha.

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"could billy and stu have gotten away with it?"

I think they could have, if it weren't for those meddling kids!

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It could go either way.

People are citing the strength of forensic evidence. But it probably wasn't as advanced in '96. I'm no expert so I have no clue, but that seems reasonable.

Plus, their story would've been so shocking and terrible as is, it probably wouldn't have crossed anyone's mind that it was a lie, at least for a while. They were already suspecting Neil.

I feel like their plan and story for after could've easily fallen apart, but it would require some chance thinking (for lack of better term) on too many other people, where it would've held up.

If/when it had fallen apart, I feel like it would've been more in the vein of Stu drunkenly mentioning to someone else a few years later something like "Oh yeah, that, well, there's some more to that than people know, but that's all I'm saying," and it would've gone from there, the other person telling the cops that or something.

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[deleted]

No, they would have been screwed due to forensics and how they kind of made up their plan on the fly.

#1) The guy they're trying to pin it on, Sidney's dad, would have bruises from his restraints around his hands, and probably from the duct tape they kept over his mouth. Forensics would look into this, and even ask Stu and Billy about it after them surviving the incident.

#2) Their ending in mind was Sidney's dad kills Sidney, and then shoots himself. The gun, however, came from Dewey, and Dewey wasn't in Stu and Billy's plan. I mean, yes, the dad could have just slit his throat or something, but the fact that they didn't stick to the plan and decided to use the gun instead of the knife was stupid on their parts. Their fingerprints would have been found all over the gun if they didn't wipe their prints off properly. The knife, I can only hope they wiped off properly if the knife was the original method for the dad to kill himself.

#3) Gale's camera was still in the house. It would have shown Billy shooting Randy in the hallway, Stu with the recorder in hand changing his voice. Police would investigate and see that the camera was broadcasting to the TVs in Kenny's van. Now let's pretend Billy and Stu just carried through with the plan without explaining to Sidney whats going on. Would the cameras still be found? Yes, because they both didn't anticipate Gale having a camera hooked up inside the house, which is why Stu had to make sue she was dead when she crashed the van. He didn't though, and she would survive and tell the police to check the footage gathered from camera.

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#4) These idiots were stabbing themselves to appear to have been attacked before they could kill Sidney and her dad. Hell, they started stabbing themselves before making sure Randy died from the gunshot wound. Jesus, Dewey was unconscious for god knows how long and managed to live. And again, they thought Gale died when she wrecked the van when she didn't. Let's say they disarm the gun and keep it on them, then proceed to stab themselves, then Sidney and her dad. Gale would've walked in, and neither one of them would have had the strength to chase after her if she were to run away from them.

#5). If somehow by some miracle Stu or Billy managed to pull all of the aforementioned issues above off, the corn syrup on Billy's shirt would be suspect.

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"the corn syrup on Billy's shirt would be suspect."

I've brought this up here before, but why would it be suspect? Even if they would decide to examine all of the individual stains on the t-shirt, what would they conclude after discovering that some of them were corn syrup?

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Let me start off by correcting myself. Billy says “corn syrup”, yes, but I’m not taking his word at face value that that was 100% straight corn syrup. Why? Because that shit all over his shirt looks nothing like straight corn syrup. If you’ve seen corn syrup in a bottle, it looks nothing like the color red at all. All over his shirt has to a mixture of corn syrup, water and red food coloring, but it’s not 100% corn syrup.

The reason why the “corn syrup based fake blood” on his shirt would be suspect is because it makes it look like he got stabbed. Some of that fake blood might be on the floor in the bedroom upstairs where Billy got “stabbed”. Now, let’s assume in the movie’s logic that that was meant to be 100% straight corn syrup passing as fake blood, and not a corn syrup based mixture. I’ve never had the taste of straight corn syrup myself, but I’ve never met people who have eaten corn syrup straight either. I’d doubt Billy would use the excuse that he spilled corn syrup all over himself in the bedroom, or even say that he drank it straight in the bedroom without using it to bake something with it.

How would Billy explain the corn syrup all over him? That he and Sidney used corn syrup as a lubricant? I don’t think so, because A) the cops wouldn’t believe that for one second. B) no corn syrup would be found around or in Sidney’s vagina if she was found dead and C) regardless if it was meant to be 100% straight corn syrup in the movie, it still looks like fake blood based in corn syrup, and not straight corn syrup. So again, how can Billy explain that?

“Me and Sidney were role playing with fake blood in the bedroom. I was the victim. Yes I know, with her being attacked last night and me being the prime suspect, that sounds like in bad taste, but believe me, we did it. It’s my word over hers because she’s dead and I’m not. Not suspicious in the slightest. It got all over my shirt while we were screwing. Yes, my shirt was on while we were screwing, and the fake blood somehow did not get anywhere on her naked body, or her bra and panties, or the sheets and bed cover while we screwed. Just on the floor, and nowhere on the bed where we screwed.”

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Obviously it's corn syrup with food coloring.

I'm not convinced they would examine his shirt unless they had real doubts about his story. But really, if they did discover there was fake blood all over his shirt, what would they conclude? That he is a serial killer who faked his own death to fool his girlfriend and killed her anyway an hour later? There's no reason for police to jump to such conclusions. It only makes sense to us because we know the precise backstory and motive.

Billy could very well say he played a tasteless prank on Sidney (not sure why you need to add the sex angle because they were fully dressed when it happened) or that Stu or another friend played a prank on him.

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Considering that Billy was a suspect the night prior, regardless if he was cleared as a suspect, it would still look suspicious that he would have fake blood all over him, especially if he and Stu claimed they pulled a prank. Its kind of coincidental that they would pull a rather messy prank the night a masked killer is lurking around the house, again especially at Stu's house, with Stu and one of the previous suspects being the only survivors. The police would look into it regardless of what Billy and Stu say had happened.

Plus, considering that most of the plan seemed to be made up on the fly as they went along (the use of the gun, stabbing each other before making sure Gale, Dewey, and Randy were dead), they probably would have came up with an excuse for the fake blood on the fly. I'd doubt they would say a friend helped with the prank, considering everyone left the party, and those who did would testify that they did not. Billy and Stu more than likely say that Randy was in on the prank, and unbeknownst to the duo, Randy survived the gunshot wound, and the police would know that whatever story they told them is bullshit.

The sex angle was a bad attempt at dry humor on my part to show the ridiculousness of Billy trying to explain away the fake blood in with the sex angle in a deadpan manner. I thought it would demonstrate how ridiculous it would be to explain away the fake blood by using that scenario. But looking back on it, the scenario is more ridiculous than the ridiculousness of trying to explain the fake blood. Still, I got to be the guy who laughs at his bad attempts at jokes.

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It's not suspicious because there's really no apparent logic in him trying to fake his own death for the purpose of misleading someone whom he kills later on anyway. I don't think this thought would even occur to the police. Kids had already been pulling tasteless pranks. This would be just another one.

Billy had also pretty much been cleared the night before when it appeared the calls came from the cellphone of Sidney's father. It's too much of a coincidence if he's also the one ending up dead from an apparent suicide at a murder scene with two survivors claiming he's the killer. Any corn syrup on a t-shirt is of no importance in that context.

Also, if Billy and Stu hadn't made all the mistakes they made, everybody would've been dead, including Randy. So Billy explaining it away as a prank by Stu or Randy is really not that ridiculous.

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Honestly, the only purpose of the misled is to fake us the audience out rather than Sidney. If they wanted to get away with it, Billy should have stayed upstairs, Stu would have gotten back in and get the upperhand on Sidney, and kill her. Maybe Sidney finds her dad tied up in the closet and then Stu kills her in front of her father. Randy would have gotten inside and Stu would have killed him too. THEN, Billy should come downstairs, revealing himself to the audience to be the mastermind. They'll kill Sid's dad right then and there, and maybe Billy stabs Stu to death as a double cross so there are no loose ends.

Then Billy would be in the hospital, and he can explain the fake blood as a prank they did earlier in the night. I can believe Billy claiming that under those circumstances, with as little loose ends as possible and less sloppy execution like we saw in the movie, but with what we saw in the movie itself, I just don't buy it. Preferably, maybe Billy disposes of that shirt somehow (maybe hide it in the spare tire compartment of someone's car), puts an identical white shirt over, and just act like that never happened.

Also, with Billy in the hospital thinking he got away with it, reveal that Gale survived and the cameras are still in the house. Possible final showdown between Gale and Billy. Gale kills Billy. Dewey can survive in this version or die, it don't matter to me.

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While that's the main purpose, the writer did not forget to offer an in-universe explanation. Billy and Stu were making their own horror movie. And they wanted to mess with Sidney's head to torture her and make her more vulnerable.

Billy absolutely wanted to reveal himself to Sidney as the killer and tell her what was going on. He wanted her to know. He also had to come down, because Sidney had locked Stu out of the house and he needed to gain her trust to get the gun.

Billy and Stu made a lot of mistakes that would've led to their downfall, but I don't think the corn syrup is one of them. Gale's camera is the biggest thing, because even if they had done everything right, they didn't know anything about it and they certainly would've been caught once the police discovered the footage.

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There's a possibility and I could go into detail on how and why but I think it defeats the purpose because they made it clear that wasn't their plan. They wanted it to be one big huraah. They were willing to go out with a bang for the plan on that night. It was heavily clear. Also a bit of bad writing as they were so clever and precise before the ending but when it got there they seemed a lot more clumsy and foolish almost to the point that'll make you think it wasn't them the killers.

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