Woodsboro

Woodsboro is a fictional town created for the Scream horror film franchise. It serves as the primary setting for the original 1996 film Scream and appears in subsequent entries, contributing to the series’ recurring sense of place. The town is depicted as a small, close-knit community located in Northern California, with typical features such as a high school, a local police presence, and residential neighborhoods.

Within the narrative, Woodsboro becomes the scene of a string of murders tied to a mysterious killer wearing a Ghostface mask. The events unfold through the perspectives of teenagers, their families, and local authorities, including a deputy sheriff and a tenacious reporter. Central figures associated with Woodsboro include Sidney Prescott, who becomes a focal point of the killings, and Dewey Riley, a member of the local law enforcement, who works to solve the case alongside Gale Weathers, a visiting journalist. The killer’s use of horror-film motifs and meta-commentary about slasher cinema are prominent elements of the story set in Woodsboro.

The town’s experience with violence shapes its portrayal across the film series. In later installments, Woodsboro is revisited or referenced, expanding the backstory and continuing to explore how a small American town handles trauma, media scrutiny, and the recurrence of violent crime. In both its within-universe role and its place in horror cinema, Woodsboro functions as a recognizable, fictional archetype of a rural or suburban American town under siege.