Slicing its way into theaters this January is the fifth entry in the Scream franchise, Scream (2022). 11 years removed from Wes Craven’s Scream 4, Scream comes at a time when sequels, remakes, and “requels” are booming across all genres. Halloween and The Matrix revisited theaters to mostly mixed reception, but Scream seems to be checking the right boxes for most audience members eager to revisit Woodsboro. Despite missing Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson, Scream puts in the work to add elements to the franchise that make it a timely and engaging sequel that reaffirms the status of Ghost Face, and the iconography he carries. In a franchise that maintains relevancy based on how it exists within the parameters of whatever phase Hollywood is in, Scream takes a jab at reboots and relaunches in an era where legacy sequels reign supreme.
It feels ridiculous not to mention how we’ve gotten to this point where multiple films are releasing that take a stab at legacy sequels or nostalgia. It started in 2015 when The Force Awakens rejuvenated the Star Wars franchise under the Disney umbrella. A seamless mix of practical and digital effects. Icons of the past roaring through the stars with new characters living inside of them as we point out memorable props or lines of dialogue. The Force Awakens was, “gifting Star Wars back to the fans”. A clever marketing tool designed to make the fans feel like they were listened to and were a part of the creative process. In some capacity, fans are a part of the process when a film is being made, but they should never dictate the story. There’s a reason why fans buy tickets, and why creators make the movies we buy tickets for, just look at the last two blockbusters released at the end of 2021. The Matrix Resurrections took a look at how it was forced to exist, No Way Home essentially pulled fanfiction from the web and turned it into a film, and those films released within seven days of each other. Two weeks removed from those, and Scream gets in a yelling match with radicalized fans of franchises, and their hyper obsession with making sure the story goes back to the basics and adheres to their wants. In that sense, it’s as timely as ever, even if it fringes on being annoyingly self-aware with callouts to some of the most popular horror films of our time. With this new wave of storytelling going back to the roots because “fans” felt betrayed by the sequels they didn’t write; it’s set a dangerous precedent in how movies may be made going forward. Thankfully, Scream leans into this just enough to make it an enjoyable continuation in a franchise that’s reveled in being meta since the beginning.
It’s important to note how obvious it is that Wes Craven is no longer in the director’s chair. The look of the film is missing some of the campy flair of the past films that made the franchise distinguishable, and the dialogue is noticeably weaker. Like most directors working today, Matt Bettinelli-Opin and Tyler Gillett are no different than anyone else. They don’t bring any signatures, or a voice that sets the look of the film apart from anything else being made today. Which is a shame considering how creative Wes got with camera placement and angles to generate thrills or comedy. This time around, it draws so much attention to itself that it feels like the movie is constantly elbowing the audience. It isn’t as bruising as Ghostbusters: Afterlife may be, but it should leave most people yearning for a better talent behind the camera. The same can be said about the script as well. Previous entries feel condensed and focused, as the mystery intertwines an expansive cast with standouts. Scream is desperately missing a script that threads the needle of the mystery, while bolstering it with a memorable cast. They’re visibly distinguishable, but they don’t leave a lasting impression. All of them are some hollowed out version of a trope (jock, pretty girl, horror expert, sassy friend), but with needing to integrate the legacy characters back into the story, the movie can get lost often. Especially when they actively try and force the legacy characters to exist in this story when they don’t have much reason to. Outside of the title, you might wonder why Neve, Courteney, and David reprise their iconic roles at all. None of the material they’re given is clever or emotionally engaging whatsoever. It all hinges on making sure the audience is familiar with a select group of faces to keep our attention. Just in case we begin to realize that the story isn’t particularly engaging.
On a positive note, you can clearly tell how much affinity this crew has for the Scream franchise. Although “it isn’t Wes”, nothing is, and working beneath that shadow is already a daunting task, but they make the most of it. Going as far as conceptualizing a story that Wes probably would have formulated. His attention to the trends in the landscape, and how he used that to influence his movies was always impressive. Although he was much better at maintaining some subtlety in the camerawork, Scream is aware of the current climate, and how that built the story of this fifth entry. There is a frustrated, hyper-obsession with blockbusters leaning on nostalgia and revisiting the past to yank a reaction out of the audience. It makes it seem like these producers and studio heads are socially conscious of our wants, desires, and frustrations, because they went in a direction we feel as if we could have written. Movies, at any point, should never be made like this. That’s how we’ve gotten a grueling amount of terrible multi-million-dollar films since The Force Awakens, but in Scream, it feels as if it’s servicing a larger idea. Although “it isn’t Wes”, latching the story onto a dictated POV of Ghost Face, allowed the narrative to be manipulated by its antagonist. Like most horror films, the final girl is never in control of the narrative, she’s the reaction to the killer’s action. She lives in their world, and this movie understands that to a T. When we do get to the latest stages, it resurrects some iconic moments, in familiar environments, but it feels deathly hollow. Most times the problem would be the writers or directors who misunderstand storytelling, but this choice comes with benefitting the overarching theme and logical evolution of franchise-based storytelling. The obsession with going back to the basics, manipulating what once was to “revitalize” it for a new audience because they print the studios’ money, is prevalent and incredibly true. When you scroll through social media, there are people who actually write letters to multi-media conglomerates, asking them to cater to the fans because, ``it's what they want”, because they are the repeated business that keeps the franchise alive. Their entire identity has been built around intellectual property, and any deviation or remote criticism is viewed as a betrayal to what the obsessive, rabid fans want. I’d like to say that Scream is waging war with something that doesn’t exist, but Batman v Superman and The Last Jedi would say otherwise. It’s impressive that this franchise, out of all of them, was the first to lambaste radicalized fans and their unbearably toxic tendencies centered around franchises.
All in all, Scream is a mild delight. It struggles with some of the fundamentals that Craven and Williamson excelled at, but the core traits of the franchise rage on. It’s blaring and unsubtle in its presentation to the point of rolling your eyes into oblivion, but it’s difficult not to enjoy watching it. Unlike what they’re doing with Michael Myers (the absolute bare minimum), the fifth entry in this franchise adores what came before whether people loved them or not and twisted it into a narrative that is a product of the moment. Just as the original was, the sequels to follow, Scream 4 at the dawn of the social age, and hyper-active nostalgia driven storytelling infiltrating movies every weekend in 2022. We probably won’t be looking back on Scream as fondly as we have the others, but it’ll cement its place as one of the few horror sequels that embraces the past, to inform what’s being made today. Not enough movies today understand how to do that without completely misunderstanding the foundation. Wes Craven was scary good at that, and this honors that legacy as well as it could have by adding another level to the haunted horror nights of Woodsboro.