Kirby Reed

Kirby Reed is the Final Girl of the new generation in Scream 4 (2011). She will re-appear in Scream 6 (2023), twelve years later. She also makes a visual cameo through a photograph in Scream 5. She is portrayed by Hayden Panettiere.

In the fourth film, she is best friends with Jill Roberts and Olivia Morris in Woodsboro and fellow student, Charlie Walker, is seen to have a crush on her, as they are both big fans of scary movies.

When Ghostface tries to kill her and her friends, she is forced to answer questions to save Charlie's life. She is later stabbed twice in the stomach by Charlie, who is revealed to be one of the killers. He is angry with her for not sooner returning his affections in the years they had known each other, and leaves her to bleed out. Later, Sidney hears Kirby crawl in from the basement. Her survival is confirmed in Scream 5 through an Easter egg cameo.

Background
Kirby Reed was born to the Reed family sometime in 1994, one year before Billy Loomis murdered Maureen Prescott. She lived at and grew up in 329 Whispering Lane, Woodsboro, California. She is either an only child or is the youngest daughter with distantly older siblings, as she was left home alone during the events of Scream 4 (2011 film). At Woodsboro High, she sat behind Charlie Walker during Mr. Baker's English class.

2011 Woodsboro Massacre Remake Murders
Kirby Reed is first seen speeding to pick up her friends past Sheriff Dewey Riley. He simply yells for her to slow down without any real warning or discipline. She shouts to apologize and then proceeds to pick up her friends, Jill Roberts, and Olivia Morris. It is the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro Murders.

On the way to school, Kirby almost gets into an accident. Olivia regards as a sign of the "angel of death", Sidney Prescott, Jill's cousin.

Kirby remarks how Sidney is in town as a last stop on her self-help book tour, and the "first stop on her road to a new life", which Kirby calls "very dramatic". Kirby appreciates the sentimental nature of the tour, and declares Sidney "the reason why I love horror movies".

Once the three arrive at school, they are pestered by Cinema Club nerds, Robbie Mercer and Charlie Walker. Robbie is seen with a camera against his face, filming his entire high school experience as a blog, which irritates Olivia and Kirby, but Jill is nonchalant.

Kirby states her favorite film is "Bambi", much to Charlie's amusement. Charlie is seen flirting with Kirby, which is noticeable to everyone, but it is brushed off by Kirby when Jill brings it up.

Following the discovery of Jenny Randall and Marnie Cooper's murders, Kirby is brought in alongside Olivia and Jill to the police station where they are questioned by Sheriff Riley and Deputy Judy Hicks. Another attendee is Sidney Prescott.

Inside the room where they face police questioning, Kirby fears she may not live as long as Olivia and Jill because she did not receive a phone call from Jenny or Marnie's phones like Olivia and Jill did.

Kirby is then seen at the Roberts residence, where she is staying over with Jill and her mother, Kate. Deputy Hoss and Perkins are giving the girls 24/7 police protection, though Olivia does not want to come upstairs with them.

Kirby and Jill are watching Shaun of the Dead (2004), while Jill calls Olivia next door. Kirby answers a call from Trevor Sheldon's phone, and the Ghostface voice begins speaking to her.

Meanwhile, Jill pranks Olivia next door pretending to be Ghostface. The real Ghostface claims to be in the closet, but, as Kirby checks Jill's closet, the killer reveals he did not say which closet he was in. The killer brutally murders Olivia next door while Kirby and Jill helplessly watch through Jill's window.

In the aftermath, Kirby appears stern and serious at the Cinema Club meeting at Woodsboro High the next day, which is Friday (as noted by Robbie). The group is discussing the murders and the rules of a horror remake.

She shows Sidney, who attends as guest, camera footage on her iPhone 3GS which shows Trevor Sheldon glaring at her from the back of the classroom. The scene paints a parallel between Sidney and Kirby, with both wearing leather brown jackets.

Later that night, Kirby attends the third annual Stab-A-Thon. The event is taking place at an abandoned farm on Fort Dillon Road. She tells Jill that she believes Olivia would understand and that she'd "want me to see other people".

However, she becomes irritant when she notices Trevor show up. After Gale is stabbed, she is forced to vacate the premises. Although Jill has already texted her, asking for her to pick her up as her mother is apparently aggravating her.

From there, Kirby returns to her house, where she is home alone in the early morning hours of Saturday AM. They text Robbie and Charlie to come over as well. Just as Charlie is putting on Stab 7, Trevor also appears, telling Kirby that she should not leave the door unlocked. Kirby appears deeply annoyed at his appearance, and asks what he is doing at her house. He claims Jill sent him a text inviting him over.

This angers Jill and she heads upstairs to look for her phone. Trevor then asks who sent the text from Jill's phone and Kirby laughs at him. She asks him, "Isn't your phone missing?" He says he "got a new one" and she comments on how "incredibly convenient" that is while he leaves the room.

Soon enough, Robbie dismisses himself and heads outside drunkly to do a podcast. In this, he says that he thinks Charlie will get the girl (Kirby). It is true.

Back inside, Kirby knocks Charlie out of his Stab trance and tells him he should probably make a move. Charlie asks why doesn't she. She says she already did, telling him she always thought he was cute. They kiss but are interrupted when Trevor bursts in and ruins the moment. Charlie furiously walks out, angered his moment with Kirby is ruined.

The killer first kills Robbie, who wanders around to the front of the house outside. Kirby seemingly hears the commotion and goes to the front door to investigate. She is startled by Jill coming back down the stairs who claims to have found her phone with no text sent to Trevor.

They open the front door to look for Robbie, Charlie, and Trevor, but find Sidney suddenly on the doorstep in tears instead. Sidney grabs Jill's hand, telling her they need to hurry and leave. They start to leave but see Robbie walking up the steps, fatally stabbed. He tells them to run, before collapsing.

The three girls notice Ghostface rushing in from behind. Kirby runs to another room downstairs while Sidney and Jill run upstairs with Ghostface(Charlie inside the costume) following them. Sidney soon joins up with her and Kirby leads the way to a room in the basement. They lock themselves in.

Charlie appears at the sliding doors, with his hands covered in blood, claiming he found Robbie's dead body. Kirby refuses to let him in, for fear of her own life, but Ghostface soon attacks him.

He yells for Kirby and the outside lights go out. Once they flicker back on, Charlie appears outside tied to a chair. This scene likens itself to the first movie, where Casey Becker is trying to save her boyfriend, Steven Orth, who was tied up outside to a chair.

Kirby, assuming the role of Casey, receives a call from Charlie's phone at 2.57am, and is forced to participate in movie trivia from Ghostface (who turns out to be Jill Roberts on the other line). She correctly answers the warm-up questions which consists of horror villains' weapons. When the Ghostface voice asks her about a groundbreaking horror remake, she interrupts him and names all the horror movies that have been remade. Thinking she has answered correctly, she heads out and unties Charlie.

He says, "Kirby, this is making a move!" before stabbing her in the stomach, revealing that he is the killer. This refers to their previous talk back in the house, where Kirby told him she already made the first move.

He continues to speak to her, telling her, "Four years of classes together and you notice me now?" Saying this reveals his obsessive crush on her but also his psychotic resentment at never having received attention from her the way he wanted.

He catches Kirby from falling and yells, " You stupid bitch. It's too late," before stabbing her once again in the same location. His voice seems to be breaking and quivering at this point as if he's going to cry. "Doesn't happen as fast as it does in the movies, I know," he says as he painfully holds her in place.

These are his last words to her before he lets her fall to the ground. Kirby is left to hold her bleeding stomach. Sighing, he regretfully runs his fingers through his hair and walks away from the scene of the crime.

Soon after, Sidney hears a noise coming from the basement and calls out Kirby's name, before Charlie grabs her by the neck.

It is likely this is when Kirby managed to let herself in through her own basement, and waited until the police arrived, remembering Sidney's words that she got through on her cell.

Aftermath
Kirby was presumably resuscitated after she was rescued from her basement, after suffering two stabs to the stomach. It is unknown whether she overheard Jill's rant to Sidney, and the subsequent chaos. Her reaction to finding out Jill was a serial killer is also unseen.

Woodsboro Survivor Interview
In 2018, Kirby gave a public interview about her survival with Bloody Disgusting 7 years after her near-death experience. By October 2021, it had received 4.6 million views on Youtube.

Sixth Ghostface Massacre
TBD

Behind the Scenes

 * Her casting call states: "Cute and quirky, was a tomboy until a year ago, now she’s alternative, cool and sexy. Jill’s best friend. She’s a pop culture, horror aficionado, and a nerdy flim geek"
 * She is based on Sidney. However, toward the end of the film, she seems to be based on Sidney herself. Examples of this are, when she was about to go outside to investigate a noise, much like Sidney did earlier when she heard the sound of windchimes, and when she and Sidney locked themselves in her basement to hide from Ghostface. This is what Sidney did in the first movie when she locked herself in her bedroom when Ghostface attacked her at her house.
 * Kirby is shown to be in some deleted scenes on the DVD release. The first is, where she can be seen at the water fountain with Robbie, Charlie, Trevor, and Olivia, where they are discussing the murders. The second is, when she arrives at Jill's house where during Dewey's test he found her by the front door. The next is, where she and Trevor are watching Sidney, Kate and Jill being escorted by paramedics. A fourth one is where Robbie and Charlie invite her to the Stab-a-thon and the last one where she sees Robbie outside of her house walking with his headset and iPhone.
 * Hayden Panettiere had stated, she had good preparation for Scream 4 as shortly before production, the power inside the actresses home was shut off briefly. When the lights came back on, she had witnessed her office door being rattled, as someone was trying to break in. She grabbed her panic button and a taser and locked herself in the bathroom. After 15 minutes, with no sign of the police and her alarm had been going off with her dogs barking, she crawled out of her tiny bathroom window and ran around the side of her house to find sniper lasers being aimed at her. She yelled out to the police, that she was the owner of the house and to not shoot.

Trivia

 * She is quick witted, strong, and very sassy. She has quickly become a fan favorite amongst fans of the Scream franchise.
 * Kirby's fate has been the topic of much debate with most asserting that she is alive and a considerable amount of others concluding, that she is deceased. In Scream, 10 years later, it was finally confirmed that Kirby did indeed survive.
 * Interestingly enough, Kirby (arguably the most fleshed out character) is the first character within the "new generation" of Scream teens we are introduced to following the opening kill; a tradition utilized in the original Scream, when audiences were introduced to a then-adolescent Sidney Prescott after the sadistic murder of Casey Becker.
 * It has been speculated, that Charlie didn't really want to kill Kirby, so he didn't stab her deeply enough to kill her. He wanted Jill to think Kirby was dead so she wouldn't go back and finish the job. He tricked her by saying "already taken care of."