It’s quite ironic how just mere hours before my screening of Scream, my Twitter timeline was filled with retweets and users I follow typing up qts from Star Wars nerds complaining about how the new Star Wars show, The Book of Boba Fett, “ruins” the title character because he’s not a blood thirsty killer in it and that the show didn’t “feel” like Star Wars because it’s got characters that have their own motorcycles or something. And just mere minutes before I headed off to see it, I found a tweet of someone claiming that George Lucas never had anything to do with the success of the original Star Wars trilogy and that he just got “lucky” (Yes, believe it or not, there is still George Lucas hate out there in 2022). Perhaps that person didn’t mean to come across as bitter as they did, but with the way the tweet came out, they came across of it in a very “I know Star Wars better than it’s own creator” kind of way. (And this isn’t even bringing up the actually film’s mention of a certain installment from this same franchise and calling out the certain fanbases’ response to it).
The reason I’m pointing this out is because it’s absolutely incredible the way that the Scream franchise has stood the test of time and remained socially relevant to this day. Regardless of the actual quality itself (one instant classic followed by (for the most part) pretty solid sequels), it’s purely fascinating how any one of those movies can come out today and (aside from a few pop culture references) would still remain accurate as to the very “ins and outs” of filmmaking and the general public’s reaction to each franchise’s installment.
Every single installment has had some meaningful commentary on what goes on and off the camera. The first one is about horror classics and the tropes it follows, the second one is about sequels and the expectations of living up to the original, the third one is about trilogy capers and the misogynist nature in Hollywood (which remains awkward considering the man who produced it) , the fourth one is about reboots and remakes (which is odd because it’s technically not a reboot or remake, it’s still a sequel), and this fifth installment is about what else other than legacy-quels (or as the film call its, “requels”), the way fandom interprets it, and what happens when that toxic side of the fandom tries to take things into their own hands.
What’s odd though is that despite calling out and spoofing the tropes and clichés it does, nearly every installment (except for the original) tends to follow through some of it. The second is one isn’t nearly as good as the original, the third one fall flats compared to the first two (even if I actually don’t hate it), and the fourth one you can just pick and choose where it falls on your rankings but you still won’t have it surpass the first one.
This has always been the textbook definition of “have you cake and eating it too”! But despite all of that (and if we’re being honest because of it), this franchise still work well as it’s own thing and is able to get away with it’s meta/self-aware commentary in a way that many other franchises fall flat. It’s perhaps (by default) the most consistent horror movie franchise out there!
And the big reason why Scream 5 (or as I like to call it 5cream) works as well as it does is because it follows the meta-narrative to a t and doesn’t try to convince you that it’s trying to do anything else otherwise.
Film Synopsis: Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
Similar to the more recent “requels” that have come out, 5scream follows a new set of original characters that carry the film on their shoulders and have the legacy cast become secondary. These new characters finds a whole crew of teenagers, some of which have a connection to past of these legacy characters, and are eventually lead by legend Dewey Riley (who has had a fallout with Gale Weaters) to find evidence of the killers of the past to uncover the mystery of this brand new killer in the present. These connections and events eventually leads to Sidney Prescott to return to the spotlight and leads to more slashing and killing than ever before.
Make no mistake, 5cream contains some of the brutal, gory kills in the entire franchise. It goes all out of it and never holds back. Even during some moments where perhaps fans might feel like it takes a step too far with the killing and who it chooses to kill off, the film instead takes at least three or four steps too far with extremely affective kills and characters’ deaths that turns into an absolute blood bath by the end of it.
There’s also plenty of meta humor throughout but unlike say Scream 3, it never goes too overboard with it and makes it matter to the events that transpire throughout. You’ll be having the time of your life following these group of teenagers and seeing what sort of weird, convenient way that it leads back to the original trio of characters.
And these group of teenagers we are presented with in this installment are quite entertaining and likable in their own rights. Melissa Barrera’s Sam Carpenter and Jenna Ortega’s Tara Carpenter are probably the most engaging ones of them all with their whole sister dynamic and potential connections to the original set of characters. Jack Quaid’s Richie Kirsch fits well as the caring boyfriend even if you can see the direction his character goes by at least the 2nd or 3rd scene with him. And the rest of the new cast with the likes of Mason Gooding’s Chad Meeks-Martin, Mikey Madison’s Amber Freeman, Dylan Minnette’s Wes Hicks, and Jasmin Savoy Brown’s Mindy Meeks-Martin fit comfortably in the world of 5Scream which was is mostly their own versions of the teenagers from the original with a couple bit of new twists thrown in with their charcters.
However, the film’s weakness comes in the form of the original cast. David Arquette’s Dewey Riley is given the most screen time and is the character that gone through the most change since the last movie. He’s basically given a similar role to Han Solo in The Force Awakens of helping guiding this group of new blood through it’s bleak past to make for what is hopefully a brighter future. Courtney Cox’s Gale Weathers doesn’t have as much interaction with Riley and is treated as more of an afterthought than previous movies. Marley Shelton’s Judy Hicks has about the same amount of screen presence as she did in the previous one, which is basically in the sense that she’s “just there”! And then there’s Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott! While it’s always great to see Neve Campbell on the big screen, this does feel like the installment that adds the least amount of depth to Sidney as a character. She has less screen time here than in any of the previous movies and is given the less material to work with because the mystery that unravel here don’t amount to much to the character of Sidney herself but more of her connection to the others. The film hints early on at a connection which could make it the most personal conflict for Sidney in the franchise but then contradicts that into something a lot less interesting. It just feels like another mess that Sidney feels like she needs to clean up. Again, Neve Campbell herself is great in her iconic role as the original Scream queen but lacks a role as interesting as say, Jamie Lee Curtis in the last two Halloween movies.
This is also the very first time in any one of these movies where I could see the identity of the killer coming from the minute that the character shows up. Despite the twists and turns that the movie tries to make you keep guessing and have you think maybe it’s not that person, it always came back to that one person you’ve seen from the moment they show up. At least the Ghostface reveal in Scream 3 was still shocking in it’s own right even if it was in a very “WTF!” way!
And just like with the sequels that have come before it, it’s hard to basically tell what sort of twist, meta, and handling of story elements can be considered as lazy or clunky screen writing and the ones that are actually suppose to be that way because that was the actual point of it all.
But still, it’s hard to complaint too much when the most of the kills and blood effects still land and it’s meta commentary will have you at least thinking on how much it’s gonna piss off the worst kind of people in the very best way possible. 5cream is yet another really solid sequel that can’t quite match the original classic but it’s enjoyable enough in it’s own right that even the fumbling of the returning cast can be overlooked because of how enjoyable the new cast of characters in this entry are.
I’m not entirely sure where you go next with this franchise but perhaps, it’s best to find a stopping point sometime soon before a few years down the line we get a sixth installment that’s all about multiverses and have all of the Ghostfaces from the past come together to get revenge of Sidney or something silly like that.
(That’s actually gonna happen, isn’t it?! What have I done?!)
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