Scream (2022 Review)
After All These Years, Scream Still Wants to Know, “What’s Your Favorite Scary Movie?”
After the success of 2018’s Halloween reboot/sequel (apparently the kids are calling this a “requel”), it was inevitable that other horror franchises would try to follow Michael Myers’s lead. This year, fans were given a “requel” to the 90s meta-slasher who-done-it, Scream. That’s right, a new Ghostface Killer has returned over twenty-five years after the original killing spree to continue the legacy of the cinematic spree killer. Now, I grew up in the late 90s/early 00s, and am a pretty big fan of horror, but the original Scream never held a special place in my heart. In fact, I would go so far as to call the films mediocre compared to most supernatural slashers and horror franchises. Now, I’ve listened to all the arguments in favor of the film countless times, but I never found it an especially “brilliant” deconstruction of the genre or even that funny of a horror-comedy (I did enjoy the TV series though). Still, the fandom is apparently strong enough to warrant giving Scream another chance to make a killing at the box office. So, I guess I’m giving this hit series another chance to wow me.
A new Scream means a new masked killer and this one is determined to terrorize Woodsboro once more for the 25th anniversary of the original killings. Of course, fans of the Scream series know that there is definitely more than one killer because the Ghostface Killer is a social animal that always travels in pairs. It’s not just the same old story though, since this new Ghostface isn’t after final girl extraordinaire Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), but has set his eyes on another girl with a tie to the 1996 massacre, the illegitimate and secret daughter of Billy Loomis, Samantha “Sam” Carpenter (Melissa Barrera). Sam fled Woodsboro years ago in order to escape the dark shadow of her father. In order to lure his target back, the killer attacks her younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega). Sam is thrown into the middle of a murder mystery where anyone could be the killer, even her own family or her best friends. With no one to turn to for help, Sam enlists the aid of a few experts and the three people she knows can’t be the killer, Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox), and, of course, Sidney herself. Do they still have what it takes to make it through a Scream movie or is a Gen Z killer going to be too much for these Gen X icons?
It’s taken me a long time to piece my thoughts together on the new Scream because I’m still torn over whether it’s self-aware or just lazy. By now, the Scream plots seem like the same old mad-lib of horror tropes filled out over and over again by director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson (though Scream 3 was written by Ehren Kruger). This time there is a totally new creative team behind the film led by the directors of Ready or Not, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. They’re joined by new writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, who do their best to honor Craven’s memory by embracing his formula without plagiarizing it. Scream also features a number of easter eggs, most notably in the protagonist’s last name “Craven” and a character named “Wes” (Dylan Minnette). These are clearly meant for horror fans, but Scream goes further than just a few easter eggs to appease the fans. There are whole scenes of characters engaged in in-depth discussions of genre mechanics and so-called “rules” that had me flashbacking to my classes in film school. If anything, Scream knows its stuff when it comes to the horror fandom, and proves it can bend those rules just enough to keep things interesting.
Unfortunately, like most horror movies, Scream tends to rely on the stupidity or incompetence of the characters to aid the killer in his spree. These “for #$@% sakes” moments grow over the course of the narrative to include such tropes as “somehow the entire floor of a hospital is empty” and “guess there are only a half-dozen cops in town.” At the same time, Scream allows some characters to make smart decisions that allow them to live to see another scene. These moments of triumph lure them into a false sense of security and pretty soon none of them seem to be taking the killer especially seriously, and thus the inevitable third-act slaughter is assured. The problem is that if most of the characters don’t seem too threatened by Ghostface, then the audience doesn’t feel especially concerned about their fates. Scream tries to raise the stakes with a major death (not going to tell you who), but that moment seems like an injustice given the attitudes and actions of the citizens of Woodsboro.
Though the narrative contradicts itself at times and struggles to remain “believable”, I still found a lot of things that I loved about the new Scream. For one thing, it calls out toxic fandoms which viciously attack anything and anyone who dares threaten their “previous.” The killers are so obsessed with maintaining the integrity of the fictional film series Stab, based on the Ghostface killer, that they are willing to kill in order to ensure their fandom “justice.” Sure, it sounds crazy and like there is no way anyone would ever go so far just for some movie, but is it really? Fans can turn into rabid attack dogs at the slightest provocation, and go so far as to send death threats over perceived slights. So, the idea that a few might go far enough to kill one day is a very real, very chilling possibility. It’s a thought process just crazy enough for someone crazy to subscribe to, and more than enough for Scream to find new life and an endless supply of potential future Ghostfaces.
Despite actually acknowledging how infuriating and pointless sequels, reboots, and “requels” are, I’m not mad about this particular “requel.” It’s filled with red herrings that kept me guessing right up to the reveal, and that doesn’t happen too often. At the same time, there’s a restrained feeling, as though the creative team wanted to be more, but couldn’t because of the Scream checklist of necessary plot points. That didn’t stop Scream from introducing the best new characters to the franchise since the original (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown). A solid move, considering that in another decade Sidney will be less final-girl and more final-grandma. Then again, that wasn’t a bad look for Jamie Lee in Halloween.
