Mark Reviews Movies: SCREAM (2022)

Scream, Paramount Pictures

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | January 13, 2022

Scream, the latest entry in that same-named horror franchise, actually seems a bit ahead of the curve this time. The series, of course, began with the 1996 movie with the same title—making this one a kind of reboot and definitely, if not completely, a full-blooded sequel within the series. It's also, to some extent, a direct sequel of sorts to the first movie, which acknowledges but off-handedly dismisses most of what happened in three installments between them.

While that may sound a bit complicated for a film that's basically the story of a masked killer stabbing and slashing a bunch of people, that's what this series has always been—for better and, in the case of the majority of these movies, for worse. The uncertainty of what to call this entry is a big part of the joke here.

As movies are rebooted and given long-delayed sequels for a quick payday from nostalgia-craving fans, the rules of what a sequel should be—instead of what it could be—have changed. In its bloody and self-referential way, this film takes on that trend, the inherent laziness that drives it, and the mindset of people who define so much of their lives, personalities, and tastes by defending their supposed possession of pieces of popular culture from any perceived slight.

This is the first installment not to be directed by the late Wes Craven. In taking over this fifth film, the directing team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, as well as the screenwriting pair of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, seem particularly determined to pay homage to what has come before it. They're equally resolute in bringing this series into the contemporary world of horror movies.

Our introduction, for example, once again has a teenager being harassed and tormented by a creepy voice on the other end of a phone call. The voice wants to know what the young woman's favorite scary movie is.

The lines of the conversation and the general beats of the scene remain the same as they've been since the 1996 movie. Tara (Jenna Ortega), though, has a few tricks, including a cellphone app locks the doors, and a different understanding of what a good horror movie is. One has to chuckle at the explanation and and immediate dismissal of the term "elevated horror," just as one squirms at how cunningly and brutally Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett stage and pace this familiar sequence (which itself has become a cliché in horror since the first movie, as Tara notes).

Anyway, another Ghostface killer—or set of killers, since even the characters know there's never just one slasher—has returned to the sleepy town of Woodsboro. Tara's attack brings her older sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) back to town. When another Ghostface victim turns up, Sam and her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) enlist the help of retired cop and longtime Ghostface-survivor Dewey (David Arquette).

The rest of this is pretty much formula now (Indeed, it had been since before the original movie was released). Sam, Richie, and Dewey figure the killer or killers have to be among Tara's friend group, as has been the case with every previous Ghostface. Among those friends are Wes (Dylan Minnette), the son of now-Sheriff Hicks (Marley Shelton), and Tara's best friend Amber (Mikey Madison), as well as twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown). The latter twin has taken after her horror-movie-obsessed uncle, and there's a much-appreciated bit of simultaneous self-reference and self-critique in one scene, as Mindy actually uses her knowledge—unlike so many characters in this franchise's previous installments, who conveniently forget it when the killer arrives. At the time, she's watching a movie-within-the-movie of the first movie (Those in the know will know, and one had better be in the know to get a lot of this), just to make sure the point is clear.

In other words, the self-awareness here pays off—not only in terms of how these scare sequences play out (The filmmakers tease us with obstructed views and rising music in one scene, which is doubly funny, because, by then, we know that they know how cheap and clichéd the trick is), but also in what the film has to say about the modern state of horror, fan culture, and movies in general. There's the apparent necessity of bringing back "legacy" characters, so we get Dewey, Gale (Courteney Cox), and, of course, Sidney (Neve Campbell), who finally seems content—but doesn't fool around when she warns any people hiding to show themselves.

There's a bit less for those returning characters to do in this installment. To be fair, that's part of the in-joke. Besides, Cox, a far more introspective Arquette, and a still-formidable Campbell know exactly how to play what they've been given. The new actors and characters, especially Barrera's Sam (who has a secret that could make her an obvious suspect—or just makes her a fiendish subversion of that gimmick) and Brown's in-the-know horror buff, are solid as the next-generation cast of suspects/victims/survivors.

Most of the humor comes from the characters' awareness that they're basically in a theoretically redundant reboot/sequel—or "requel," as some demanding and angry fans of the franchise-within-the-franchise have dubbed the most recent entry of the movies-within-these-movies (It excluded a number from the title, just as this film does). The concept is consistently amusing, but it's particularly biting in the third act. Without giving away the game, the revelation of the killer or killers' identities is far less important than a motive that will surely anger certain people—and, hence, prove the whole point.

Scream is smarter, funnier, and scarier than any entry in this franchise, apart from the superior and standard-bearing first sequel, has been. The film has a point to make and does so with cutting, bloody efficacy.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products