The Riley Curse | Ethan Landry

04. The Rules Of A Requel

"A what?" Sam asked.

"Or a legacyquel. Fans are torn on the terminology," Mindy said.

"Please speak English," Chad said.

"You remember the Stab movie that came out last year?" Mindy asked.

"Oh, yeah! The one the Knives Out guy directed? I actually really liked that one," Liv said.

"Of course you did. You have terrible taste," Mindy said.

"I hate you," Liv said her excitement disappearing. "My point is, the hard-core Stab fans hated it. You go on 4chan and Dreadit, all they're talking about is how Stab 8 pissed on their childhoods. How they crammed in social commentary just to make it elevated. How the main character's a Mary Sue," Mindy said.

"What's a Mary Sue?" Richie asked.

"You really don't want to know," Wes said.

"What's wrong with elevated horror? I mean, Jordan Peele fucking rules," Amber said and Mindy looked at her with an annoyed look. "Uh, obviously, but that's not Stab. Real Stab movies are meta slasher whodunits, full stop," Mindy said.

"Come on. It's just a movie," Sam said.

"No, it's not. To some people, the original is their favorite thing in the world. The movie that made them love horror. That Mom or Dad showed them when they were ten that bonded them together. And God help anyone who slightly fucks with that special memory. Who makes a movie they think disrespects it," Mindy said.

The one thing that was making Tatum extremely nervous about the whole thing is that everyone who's been attacked or killed has had some sort of connection to the first killers of the original murders. Which means that the children of them could be next. Meaning herself, Mindy, Chad, and Wes are all possible targets for the next attack.

"It sounds like our killer is writing his own version of Stab 8, but doing it as a requel," Mindy continued and everyone just had confused looks on her face. "Which is?" Dewey asked.

"See, you can't just reboot a franchise from scratch anymore. The fans won't stand for it. Black Christmas, Child's Play, Flatliners. That shit doesn't work. But you can't just do a straight sequel, either. You got to build something new. But not too new, or the internet goes bug-fucking nuts," Mindy said as she stood from her seat.

"It got to be part of an ongoing storyline, even if the story shouldn't have been ongoing in the first place. New main characters, yes, but supported by and related to legacy characters. Not quite a reboot, not quite a sequel," Mindy said as she motioned to Dewey.

"Like the new Halloween, Saw, Terminator, Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, fuck, even Star Wars! It always always goes back to the original!" Mindy said and she grabbed the first Stab movie.

"Are you telling me that I'm caught in the middle of a fan-fucking-fiction?" Sam asked.

"Not just in the middle, Sam. You're the star," Mindy said.

"So, not to put too fine a point on it, but according to requel rules who's next?" Liv asked.

"Going by the pattern, whoever it is has to be connected to someone that came before," Mindy said and everyone looked at Tatum. "Stop looking at me like that," Tatum said, she already knew she would be a victim soon enough, but she didn't want to think she'll be next.

"Jesus, my mom was a character in one of them," Wes said.

"No one cares about the shitty inferior sequels, Wes. You're safe. With Randy as our uncle and Tatum being related to Dewey and named after one of the victims, we're probably screwed," Mindy said.

"Reassuring," Tatum commented.

"Wait. What?" Chad asked.

"Or you're the killer, and this whole elaborate monologue is just to cover your tracks," Richie said, Tatum slightly moved away from him. She didn't know why, but something about Richie made her uncomfortable and uneasy.

"I think it's pretty clear who the killer is at this point," Mindy said and Sam looked at her. "Who?" Sam asked.

"You. It makes perfect requel sense," Mindy stated.

"That actually does make sense. Yeah," Chad said and Sam scoffed and stood to leave before Tatum started talking. Then she stopped.

"But it's always someone connected to the 'main character,' if Sam is the main character then it can't be her. Classic slasher movie rules. If you're targeted by the killer you're not the killer," Tatum said.

"Where are you going with this?" Victoria asked.

"In the first Stab movie, it was Sidney's boyfriend. From there it was either connected to Sidney or Billy Loomis aka the boyfriend," Tatum said as she looked at Richie.

"Conveniently unaccounted for when Sam was attacked in the hospital, who knows where you were when Vince was killed. Now Tara, that one's a bit harder to explain, but you could have a partner. Ghostface always comes in twos other than Roman Bridger," Tatum said, she was doing what her mom told her. Following her gut instincts. Her instincts were all pointing to Richie.

Tatum looked at Richie and he was just staring at her trying to stutter out an excuse or an alibi to prove he wasn't guilty, but no matter what it is she wouldn't believe it.

"But I don't know any of you. I didn't know you until yesterday. There would be no connection," Richie said.

"You could've lied. One Google search about Woodsboro and you would've found out about me, Chad, and Mindy. Sam would've been a bit difficult to have found out, but like my dad said, never trust the love interest," Tatum said and she looked at her friends.

"What? Mindy's not the only one who knows about horror movies," Tatum said.

"She's not wrong. We can't scratch anyone off the suspect list quite yet," Mindy said and Sam left the room. Richie stood and followed after her.