When Scream was rebooted in 2011 with Scream 4 there had been plans to produce a fifth and sixth film in the meta slasher franchise provided the fourth entry went down well with audiences. However, due in part to Scream creator and writer Kevin Williamson being unable to finalise a script, and then the passing of franchise director Wes Craven, these entries were put on hold indefinitely. Following the collapse of The Weinstein Corporation following the #MeToo movement, the Scream IP was picked up by Spyglass in 2019 and work begun on a fifth entry. Finally releasing in 2022 following pandemic related delays, the fifth entry in the franchise, simply title Scream, sought to reboot the franchise for a second time. No matter how meta Scream was, doing a reboot of a reboot was always going to be a risky move…but somehow they pulled it off.
Twenty-five years since the original Ghostface killings, and ten years since the last ones, Woodsboro has never truly moved on from its grisly past. When Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) is hospitalised following an attack by someone wearing a Ghostface mask, her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) returns home to Woodsboro to care for her, bringing her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) with her.
With the Carpenter family bearing a dark past, it doesn’t take long for Ghostface to strike again, and by following the rules of ‘requels’, successfully lures Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) back to their hometown.
Despite knowing that Scream had received a strong critical reception I was sceptical as to how well it was really going to be able to pull off being the second reboot in the franchise and being a sequel to a reboot itself. But clearly, I should have put more faith in the formula, because Scream is excellent, even if it does tread a lot of the same territory as its predecessor.
Where Scream 4 concerned itself with Hollywood’s obsession with reboots during the late 00’s, reboots that often didn’t care for the source material, Scream places its targets on the recent trend of what it terms ‘requels’. Part sequel, part reboot, but entirely obsessed with ‘passing the torch’ from one generation to another. Films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2018’s Halloween are films it highlights as the kind of reboot we’re dealing with here, a reboot designed to cash in on nostalgia above all else.
Twenty-five years since the original Ghostface killings, and ten years since the last ones, Woodsboro has never truly moved on from its grisly past. When Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) is hospitalised following an attack by someone wearing a Ghostface mask, her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) returns home to Woodsboro to care for her, bringing her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) with her.
With the Carpenter family bearing a dark past, it doesn’t take long for Ghostface to strike again, and by following the rules of ‘requels’, successfully lures Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) back to their hometown.
Despite knowing that Scream had received a strong critical reception I was sceptical as to how well it was really going to be able to pull off being the second reboot in the franchise and being a sequel to a reboot itself. But clearly, I should have put more faith in the formula, because Scream is excellent, even if it does tread a lot of the same territory as its predecessor.
Where Scream 4 concerned itself with Hollywood’s obsession with reboots during the late 00’s, reboots that often didn’t care for the source material, Scream places its targets on the recent trend of what it terms ‘requels’. Part sequel, part reboot, but entirely obsessed with ‘passing the torch’ from one generation to another. Films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2018’s Halloween are films it highlights as the kind of reboot we’re dealing with here, a reboot designed to cash in on nostalgia above all else.
With that knowledge in mind, Scream (2022) is for the most part a re-hash of Scream (1996), complete with the satirical self-awareness the franchise is loved for. Of course, there are misdirection’s thrown in there to keep you off the scent of who the killer really is, and there are plenty of nods to fan criticisms of the previous three Scream sequels, but at its core this is the same film we all fell in love with at the very beginning.
The film spends a very decent chunk of time commentating on fandoms and the artificial divide between slasher movies and the more recent wave of ‘elevated horror’, and it’s really great. Whilst Scream doesn’t try to be anything but a slasher movie, it absolutely throws in some ‘elevated horror’ genre tropes as a tongue in cheek nod to how silly the whole thing is.
It is of course great to see Campbell, Cox, and Arquette return, but much like the majority of ‘requels’ they are not the stars of the show. In face they constitute little more than cameos in the grand scheme of things. The focus is placed firmly on the new cast, led by Barrera, who delivers a fantastic leading lady performance. Personally, I feel like Quaid stole the show, but the majority of the new cast of characters were fun and interesting takes on characters from the original Scream. They don’t often get much screentime through, in fact the entire film is kind of dominated by Barrera and Quaid, and whilst that’s not a bad thing as such, it means that the new characters aren’t as fleshed out or as memorable as those from the 1996 original.
Scream is one of the best entries in the franchise, and whilst it’s exact position in comparison to the 1996 original and Scream 2 is a little in flux for me, rest assured it’s up there with the best the franchise has to offer. If you’re a fan of the Scream films, horror films (slasher or otherwise), or just movies in general, then you’re sure to have a good time with Scream. In fact, I’d argue that the more of a film buff you are, the more you’ll get out of it.
The film spends a very decent chunk of time commentating on fandoms and the artificial divide between slasher movies and the more recent wave of ‘elevated horror’, and it’s really great. Whilst Scream doesn’t try to be anything but a slasher movie, it absolutely throws in some ‘elevated horror’ genre tropes as a tongue in cheek nod to how silly the whole thing is.
It is of course great to see Campbell, Cox, and Arquette return, but much like the majority of ‘requels’ they are not the stars of the show. In face they constitute little more than cameos in the grand scheme of things. The focus is placed firmly on the new cast, led by Barrera, who delivers a fantastic leading lady performance. Personally, I feel like Quaid stole the show, but the majority of the new cast of characters were fun and interesting takes on characters from the original Scream. They don’t often get much screentime through, in fact the entire film is kind of dominated by Barrera and Quaid, and whilst that’s not a bad thing as such, it means that the new characters aren’t as fleshed out or as memorable as those from the 1996 original.
Scream is one of the best entries in the franchise, and whilst it’s exact position in comparison to the 1996 original and Scream 2 is a little in flux for me, rest assured it’s up there with the best the franchise has to offer. If you’re a fan of the Scream films, horror films (slasher or otherwise), or just movies in general, then you’re sure to have a good time with Scream. In fact, I’d argue that the more of a film buff you are, the more you’ll get out of it.