Richie Kirsch

Richard "Richie" Kirsch is the primary antagonist of Scream 5 (2022), the fifth installment of the franchise.

He is a devout fan of the in-universe film Stab, and the false ex-boyfriend turned arch-nemesis of the film's protagonist Samantha “Sam” Carpenter. As a fanatic, he plots a 25th anniversary killing spree with secret girlfriend, Amber Freeman in order to make a new legacyquel for the series in their own image.

He was portrayed by Jack Quaid. While in-disguise, he is voiced by Roger L. Jackson, and in-costume scenes were portrayed by Keith Ward and Paul Burke.

Background
Richie was an obsessed fan of the original Stab film. He believed that the "whole franchise went off the rails by number 5" (agreeing with Jenny Randall that Stab 5 was poor). Despite this, he showed some form of appreciation for the sequels, but felt none of them matched the original.

He was excited to see the reboot, Stab, the eighth film in the series. However, he swirled into a rage after he deemed the film the worst in the series, claiming it ruined the franchise. Richie started lurking the Stab reddit, where he met Amber Freeman, another fan of the series who also hated the eighth film and lived in Woodsboro, California.

After a correspondence, the two began a romantic relationship and began to plot a murder spree that would inspire a new reboot that would "save" the franchise. Amber informed Richie that the town drunk was the mother of a woman named Sam Carpenter, Billy Loomis' illegitimate daughter. Richie tracks Sam down and starts dating her, six months before the events of the film.

Legacyquel
One night, Tara Carpenter, Sam's estranged sister, is attacked and stabbed repeatedly by Amber in Woodsboro. Richie had previously recorded a video of Amber brushing her hair in her room, which they then used to trick Tara into playing along. Richie may have also been the one talking to Tara on the phone.

Tara is badly injured, but survives the attack. The next day, Richie is seen at work flirting and spending time with Sam. Tara's attack tricked Sam into returning to Woodsboro. Richie came with for "moral support", but in reality went with because he needed to aid Amber on their killing spree.

He would later take the role of the Ghostface and was the one who killed both Sheriff Judy Hicks and her son Wes. After successfully killing them, he and Amber later go after Tara and Sam at the hospital. First, Amber attacks and he pretends to save the two sisters. However, he then comes out of the shadows, and as the same Ghostface with the disguised voice he tries to kill both of them. However, before he could kill them, Dewey intervenes and leads them to the elevator, where he sends them off alone without him to guard them. He returns to search for Richie, but instead, Amber stabs and kills Dewey.

Tara is traumatized by this and demands that they leave Woodsboro and go somewhere secret. Richie drives them out of Woodsboro, but secretly hides Tara's inhaler. She realizes her inhaler is missing, but remembers she left one at Amber's house previously. Richie drives them to Amber's house, where there is a party going on. Richie gets everyone to leave the party.

Amber leaves Chad Meeks-Martin for dead as Tara and Sam arriving at the house. Inside the house, Richie asks Mindy if they have any beer. He then returned from the basement and attacked Mindy, stabbing her, however Richie did not succeed in killing her due to Sam's intervention. During a conversation between the suspects later on, Amber reveals herself to be one of the two killers by killing Liv. However, Richie runs with Sam downstairs, and as he remarks that there must have been two killers, Sam begins to suspect that he was the more prominent Ghostface, and she ran to save her sister, and later help Sidney Prescott, who tracked their whereabouts.

As the protagonists fight Amber on the stairs, he comes and pretends to help, until he stabs Sam with a knife, just before he reveals himself to be Ghostface and therefore the second killer as well as the more prominent one. He revealed that he used the disguised voice machine while he was Ghostface, and that he was bossing Amber around as the two of them wanted to make a "requel" by killing innocents and making them look like villains in their movie.

Richie then sends Amber to kill Tara. However, Amber warns Richie that Tara is not there. Richie and Amber did not know that earlier, Sam released Tara and staged a little trap for the two Ghostfaces. After Amber finds the protagonists, who throw her into the stove and burn her alive, Richie starts to battle with Sam, and reveals his true colors one more time, implying that she should have never trust a lover and that villains like her meet their ends.

However, she eventually gets the upper hand and she stabs him angrily multiple times. Being all crazy back at him as Richie fearfully in pain begged for her not to kill him, begging for his ending, as Sam twists his words with no mercy slits his throat, putting an end to Richie's killing spree forever. The others arrived, and Sidney warned that the killers will come back for one last time. Sam then shoots Richie in his chest and face multiple times to make sure that wouldn't be the case.

Personality
Richie appeared to be very nice, shy and supportive to help Sam, but in reality like Amber, Richie is a sadistic and psychopathic cold blooded killer who enjoys hurting others. Whatever love he gave to people, most notably to his girlfriend Sam, was all a ploy to avoid suspicion. The only exception for his cruelty is Amber, who he seems to truly love, and was even visibly horrified when Dewey shot Amber when she was under the mask. Richie even took the advantage of Sam and Tara's argument he overheard, to trick Sam into turning against Tara because of her rude behaviour and her miracle survival, and somehow tied up, trying to make Sam think she's the killer but it didn't fool Sam at all and untied her so they can stop Richie and Amber with the help of Sidney and Gale.

However, unlike Amber, whose sadism is largely motivated by thrill-seeking and curiousity, Richie's sadism is largely motivated by ego and self-righteousness. As a result, both killers have their own characteristics. When Richie attacks people (like Wes or Mindy) there tends to be only one deep stab wound. As opposed to Amber, when she attacks her victims (like Tara or Chad) they tend to be stabbed brutally numerous times.

Richie flatly rejected the idea of "toxic fandoms", declaring that fandoms are about love and passion, and genuinely viewed himself as a kind of hero to save his beloved Stab franchise that he felt had been ruined. The fourth murder spree had not been adapted into a film because years prior Sidney had threatened to sue Sunrise Studios, the company making the Stab films. This resulted in the creation of a reboot called "Stab", which was universally panned. Richie and Amber were especially upset, though Richie was clearly more angry about it than Amber. So, Richie devised a way to get Sidney to come to Woodsboro and kill her, so Sunrise Studios would be able to make a film based on true events again.

Victims

 * 1) Wes Hicks - Stabbed in the neck.

Trivia

 * Richie is the fifth Scream villain to team up with a woman Ghostface, after Nancy Loomis and Mickey Altileri, Charlie Walker and Jill Roberts, Piper Shaw and Kieran Wilcox, and Beth with Jamal Elliot, as well as being the first male Ghostface so far who wasn't a subordinate to his female accomplice.
 * Richie is also the third Scream main antagonist to be a love interest of some sort, the first being Billy Loomis himself and the second being Kieran Wilcox.
 * Behind the scenes photos have confirmed that Richie was the Ghostface who attacked and tried to kill Mindy Meeks-Martin. Richie also had to have been the Ghostface who attacked Sam in the hospital break room since Amber was busy at the time.
 * Prior to the film's release, many fans thought that Richie wouldn't be any sort of villain. On a list made by the website of the Collider, he was ranked as the 8th most suspicious character, behind many other protagonists. However, this was ultimately debunked and in large, since the movie points out that he is not only one of the movie's two Ghostfaces, but also the smarter, more scheming and more prominent one, who directly gives Amber orders and plays with Samantha's insecurities.
 * There were 5 hints for Richie being the secret killer. One is that when the victims suspected that Amber is attacking them with the voice disguiser on, he honestly admitted it wasn't Amber and indicated that there is another killer. Two is that Dewey told Sam to never trust a love interest. Three is that he asks Mindy where there is some beer, and he goes to the basement while Amber is hosting the party. Four is that he takes Sam to the basement and tells her that there are two killers, as he even attempts to shift the blame on Tara who is obviously innocent. Five is that he shouts "Wait" with a slightly edited and yet still mostly recognized voice as he talks to Sidney on the phone. This was all before his confession as a Ghostface killer.