Scream (2022)

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Scream Reviews

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Just when we thought they were out of ideas for this franchise, 2022 gives us 'Scream' - and this time it's about the "Requel", which is exactly what this is, and honestly the first time I've heard the most fitting term for it. In case you're wondering, from what I can gather this movie defines the term as a movie that acts as a bit of a reboot, but still a bit of a sequel. Often, these are the movies that call themselves by the original title, like 'Halloween' (2018), 'Candyman' (2021) or even 'Jumanji' (2017).

That said, a requel doesn't have to have the same name as an original. The new 'Star Wars' trilogy, 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' and 'Tron: Legacy' are all examples of the same idea, and it all seems to ultimately boil down to a matter of nostalgia. So really, the most "meta" thing about this movie is, interestingly enough, the title itself. I'd consider that rather clever, but it doesn't come without irritation, considering the titles have flown so perfectly from 'Scream' to 'Scream 4'. Then this comes along and calls itself 'Scream' just to mess with us, yet makes fun of the idea of a title like this within the film, so you can't be mad at it. But, moving on.

The film opens with the typical phone call and attack. This time, this victim is high schooler Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega). However, the attack ultimately fails and leaves her hospitalized. Tara's friend, Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette) notifies her estranged sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera) about the attack which sends her running back to her hometown of Woodsboro. There, she reunites with this feature's teenage team of could-be victims, Wes, Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison), and twin brother and sister, Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown, respectively), whose uncle was everyone's favourite movie expert in the original, Randy (Jamie Kennedy).

With a whole new threat looming over Woodsboro coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the original murders, Sam and her boyfriend, Richie (Jack Quaid) begin to seek help from the experts; namely, Dewey Riley (David Arquette) who is the one to dispense this film's rules this time; #1 - Never trust your love interest; #2 - The killer always has something to do with the past; and #3 - The first victim always has a circle of friends that the killer is part of. Dewey has also since been divorced from Gale (Courteney Cox), who has gotten back on TV with a morning show of sorts. As for our literal "Scream" Queen, Sidney (Neve Campbell), she's notified about the murders as well and eventually gets dragged back into things.

While this all sounds like a whole lot more of the same, the film does play with certain things, largely having to do with the gap between generations. We find out a few family ties here, and not all of them are as pleasant as finding out a couple of twins are Randy Meeks' niece and nephew. But for every element of good in this, there's some kind of element of "lame". For me, at this point, Sidney ought to be a regular "Ripley", but if I'm honest, there's not a whole lot going on with our "legacy" characters here, and things feel a little phoned in. I suppose in fairness, we're supposed to focus on this new group. But I was ready to see Sid kick some ass in this.

To reiterate my thoughts on the series as a whole, I consider the first three and last three to be sort of self-contained trilogies. But really, the only reason 'Scream 4' starts the second trilogy has to do with things taking place several years later, where our mains have become, as I mentioned before, "legacy" characters, and there's a whole new generation of victims-to-be. Interestingly enough, however, 'Scream 4' really does kind of stand on its own, being released not only eleven years after 'Scream 3', but eleven years before this one. So while I say "beginning of a new era", it's really more of a bridge movie, making this one the real beginning of a new era - evidently, one marked with Roman Numerals this time with the release of 'Scream VI'.

Of the series, I would probably consider this to be the most middle-ground I've felt about a chapter. There's something about it that doesn't feel quite right, but I can appreciate what they did with it. I have to also say that the big reveal of the killer(s) also left me pretty lukewarm. BUT, there's actually a more fun reveal here that lies elsewhere and does provide a pretty badass twist to the end. This one's actually a pretty fitting tribute to the legendary Wes Craven (as "for Wes" comes up at the end), but if I'm honest, there was a part of me when this came out that felt a tad board with these movies. After all, it has been six movies in the span of 26-ish years. How much more could they do? Are they gonna go full 'Jason Takes Manhattan' and unleash Ghostface into the big city or something??...

3/5

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