"Scream" (2022) - Film Review
The town of Woodsboro cannot catch a break. Yet another copycat Ghostface slasher is on the loose in Scream (2022). The fifth movie of the Scream franchise begins without the familiar faces of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Instead, the audience meets Tara (Jenna Ortega), a young girl home alone with a ringing landline and a lurking murderer in a Halloween mask, like so many before her. Unlike those unlucky people, Tara actually escapes from the Ghostface killer and stays alive.
Tara’s group of friends call her estranged sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), back to Woodsboro while Tara lays unconscious in the hospital. Sam left Woodsboro as soon as she turned eighteen and is dreading returning, so she brings her boyfriend, Richie (Jack Quaid), for moral support. In the hospital, Sam and Richie meet all of Tara’s friends: Amber (Mikey Madison), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Wes (Dylan Minnette), Liv (Sonia Ammar), and Chad (Mason Gooding). Determined to figure out how to stop Ghostface from coming after her sister again, Sam enlists the help of someone who has lived through a tragedy like this - Dewey. Dewey is the only one of the original survivors who still lives in Woodsboro, and he begrudgingly gets pulled back into his past. But not before calling Sidney and Gale and warning them that Ghostface has a new copycat and their nightmare continues.
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Scream (2022) is the first of the sequels that truly felt unnecessary, and that’s surprising because the movie was clearly made as an act of love for the director of the four original films, Wes Craven, and his legacy. Despite the plethora of jokes poking fun at their own existence, the sequels that came between Scream (1996) and now always brought something new to the franchise. They never felt like a retread, despite all the ways the sequels paid homage to the original. Both within the fictitious world and in reality, there’s a sort of reverence for the original Scream. The opening scene with Drew Barrymore has been parodied time and again, even in other Scream movies. The movie-within-the-movie, Stab, was inspired by the events of Scream (1996). Any new character is starstruck around Dewey, Gale, and Sidney because of what they lived through as the first survivors. As Sidney says, “You don’t fuck with the original.” But that’s unfortunately what Scream (2022) feels like it’s doing.
The issue isn’t that the main focus strays from Dewey, Sidney, and Gale; that already happened in Scream 4. Unlike that sequel, this crew of newbies cannot fill the shoes of the giants who walked before them. The one exception is Jenna Ortega, a true scream queen of yesteryear. She opens the movie with the ever-so-familiar scene where a phone is ringing and a voice wants to know, “what’s your favorite scary movie?” It is quite impressive that the series can keep this scene fresh, despite how often it’s been recycled throughout the five films. After this scene, thanks to Ortega, there was electricity in the theatre. An excitement, remembering how delightful these movies are. The twists and turns, the red herrings, the “rules” scene, all before the inevitable reveal of the killer. But it was an excitement that quickly faded.
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Unlike the rest of the sequels, where the audience is kept guessing until the third act about who is doing the killing, the person (or people) wreaking havoc on the town of Woodsboro is fairly obvious from the get-go. The choice of villain is expected and easily sussed out at the time of their introduction. The Scream franchise has built its longevity on the identities of the killers and always constructed logical backstories for each of them. This time, with the killer reveal, there is an attempt at making social commentary about the toxicity of fandom and the entitlement people feel toward the pop culture they grew up with. It feels shoehorned, out of place, and not fully realized.
Most unexpected of all is the tonal shift of this most recent sequel. The others are, for lack of a better word, goofy. They’re self-aware about how ridiculous they are, yet also manage to create decent scares and a fun whodunit mystery. It’s impossible to see Gale Weathers’ hair in Scream 3 as anything other than comedic. The opening scene fake-out in Scream 4 functions in equal parts as a charming introduction and as a jumpscare. For goodness’ sake, there’s a song and dance scene in Scream 2, not to mention the meta-ness of it all that characters love to point out. There is eccentricity and a sense of humor baked into Scream’s DNA, and the franchise is all the better for it. Scream (2022) is blindsidingly serious at times, a complete shift from what the audience is used to. There are moments that try to match the breeziness of the first four, but that special spark is missing.
Because of the tonal shift, the lack of Dewey, Gale, and Sidney is deeply felt. They are there, peripherally, but it isn’t enough. Seeing them all together in Woodsboro again feels like a homecoming, and it’s a shame the audience doesn’t get to revel in that.
2 / 5 Stars
Key Takeaways + a Few Spoilers:
I spent the entire movie thinking the actor who played Liv was Samara Weaving. Color me absolutely surprised that it was not her!
Honestly? I’m kinda bummed I figured out who the killer was. I was actively hoping it was not the obvious choice.
The way I felt personally attacked when Jenna Ortega’s character said she liked “elevated horror” movies and proceeded to list a bunch of movies I love…like damn, don’t come for me like that!
Having binged all four in the past two days in preparation for this one, I may be rating this a little harshly, but it really did not hit the same notes as the original four for me.
I knew my girl Mindy was gonna live because, as stated in the rules of Scream 4, gays live. Famously, Ghostface threw the first brick at Stonewall.
I absolutely would not end this review without including Gale Weathers’ iconic Scream 3 bangs:
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