After a 10-year hiatus, Ghostface has returned to Woodsboro to slash, stab and slice his way through a new group of not-so unsuspecting teens, in addition to getting his licks in on the surviving members of the original cast.
What’s your favorite scary movie?
Now in its fifth installment over 26 years, the franchise originally conceived and piloted by legendary horror director Wes Craven is back on the big screen for the first time since 2011. This new entry — simply titled “Scream” once again — is the first film in the franchise without Craven calling the shots, since his death in 2015. Attempting to fill his gigantic, blood-stained shoes is directing tandem Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who made a name for themselves in 2019 with their quasi-horror hit “Ready or Not.” In Craven’s wake, Olpin and Gillett have crafted a film that would’ve made their predecessor proud. “Scream” is a fun, all-knowing, and sufficiently scary horror flick that pushes all the right buttons for fans of the franchise.
The film opens with the obligatory phone call scene which quickly turns into a bloodbath for whoever is unlucky enough to pick up the phone. This time around, it’s Jenna Ortega (of “You” Season 2 fame) but instead of being the traditional opening kill, Ortega’s character pulls a franchise-first by surviving her encounter with Ghostface. Her near-death experience brings her estranged sister Sam (Melissa Berrera) out of the woodwork and back to Woodsboro, a place with a dark link to her past that could explain the re-emergence of the knife-wielding killer.
As Sam, her sister and boyfriend (Jack Quaid), along with their group of friends, try to unravel the mystery of the latest iteration of Ghostface, news of the new killings eventually bring franchise-staples Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette back into the fold for one last sequel. Following its self-defined “requel” rules, the film places most of the focus on its newcomers while relegating its legacy characters to supporting roles. The choice does wonders, not only for repetition sake, but for its overall quality as well. Where another film starring Campbell, Cox and Arquette could have been disparaged for rehashing the same story with the same cast, “Scream” subverts expectations by thrusting fresh — soon to be blood-spattered — faces into the spotlight. This is a film that thrives on subversion, which makes a lot of sense for a franchise that’s relied heavily on time-honored tropes to get scares from its audience. It understands that fans of the previous films know what to expect, and takes pleasure in slicing those expectations to ribbons.
The film's meta-contextual dialogue takes shots at everything from its own title to other legacy film franchises like the latest Star Wars trilogy, particularly Rian Johnson's “The Last Jedi.” The “Stab” movies-within-the-movies have also always been a clever way for the “Scream” films to poke fun at themselves, and the fictional flicks are again put to great use. One standout moment features a character watching “Stab” and pleading with a character to turn around, only to turn around herself and come face to face with the killer. Across the board, “Scream” is full of fun, audience-including moments that help drive home its finer points.
It also has time to comment on the obsessive culture that franchise fandom can sometimes breed — and while it isn’t exactly new territory for the franchise — the modern-day update is a cutting commentary on the most maniacal side of internet movie obsession.
Despite it’s fresh take on decades-old mythos, “Scream” still has its faults, one being — of all things — the sound mixing. There are multiple scenes in which background music almost entirely drowns out the dialogue, and of everything fans wanted in this latest offering, the baffling use of a DJ Khaled song surely wasn’t on the list. The former transgression seems like an oversight in production more than anything, and it wouldn’t be surprising to hear a tighter mix on the eventual Blu-ray and streaming releases. This film is also partially built on its recognition and avoidance of bad horror movie tropes, but “Scream” still commits a capital offense by introducing a character in one scene, and killing them in their next appearance.
Still, the fifth entry in the self-aware, genre-reviving franchise is bloody fun for anyone with even a passing interest in scary movies. Having seen the previous four films will help in picking up the more subtle nods and references to the franchises history, but the film will find similar significance with anyone just becoming acquainted with the franchise — or simply in search of a good time at the movies. With a solid, unpredictable story, a good cast and a runtime under the two hour mark, “Scream” — woefully not titled “5cream” — is destined to outperform the previous two sequels at the box office and satisfy its bloodthirsty fanbase, and it might even create some new fans in the process too.
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