Scream (2022)

Twenty-five years after the original Woodsboro murders Ghostface re-emerges to terrorise the residents once again. 

As is now traditional with Scream movies it opens with a young woman being terrorised by an anonymous caller. Tara (Jenna Ortega) initially ignores the call from an unknown number but is forced by circumstance to answer the call and take part in the killer’s game related to answering questions about the original ‘Stab’ movie. That is of course only after they have a conversation about the merits of “elevated” horror movies versus classic slasher films. Our killer thinks that The Babadook and The Witch sound boring in comparison. 

The film then goes on to introduce us to our new main character. Tara’s sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) of course has links to Woodsboro’s history that she has hidden from her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) and her sister but will inextricably link her to the murders. Sam is determined not to fall into the usual horror movie traps and seeks out the help of Dewey (David Arquette) and confronts Tara’s high school friend group who are all suspects. 

As the murders rack up Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Gale (Courteney Cox) are drawn into the web and attempt to hunt down the killer or killers. 

Scream is a really good entrant into the franchise. It does exactly what the original film was so good at and creates a funny and inventive meta horror movie. Its targets are the current state of horror movies and the fact that slasher movies are still fun even without the deeper layer of “elevated” horror films as they refer to them and toxic fandoms who say they want originality but actually just want more of the same. It is here that the film has its master stroke idea – “the requel”. A film that is not a sequel and not a reboot but something in between. It then goes on to skewer fan expectation with jokes about legacy character appearances, sequels that do not have numbers in the title and franchises that go down hill on the fifth film (which of course is the number not in this title). 

There are tributes to Wes Craven (1939-2015), the director of the first four movies both in the film and at the end whilst the references to the original film are many in number. On that note it really will elevate your enjoyment to refresh your knowledge on that film before going into this. 

New directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet also seriously amp up the brutality and volume of blood with the murders with one in particular being pretty spectacular. 

The fact that as with the original two films this tells you exactly what it will be before going on to surprise you whilst doing just that is what is so enjoyable here. After an initial viewing I could happily say this sits alongside the original two films in quality. 

You can see my Scream franchise ranking here Scream – Ranked