Rating: 8.4
The new Scream is a perfect legacy sequel! Am I the only one who saw it as a response and commentary on the Star Wars sequel trilogy? Everything from the commentary on fandom to the structure of scenes in the film felt very much akin to scenes from “The Force Awakens” in an attempt to comment on the nature of these reboot sequels. Even the mention of Rian Johnson, the “Knives Out guy” was hilarious to me and so cleverly woven into the narrative. (Justice for “The Last Jedi”!!) I loved the meta commentary in this one, especially in how it dealt with toxic fandom and the issues with fans of franchises these days. It gets very on the nose and even aggressively attacks modern trends regarding Hollywood films and reboots, and I just loved it because it is so true. The film was just super self aware and in the best way… it truly fit right in with the rest of the Scream franchise, tonally and plot-wise, and in my opinion is the best since the original!
I loved the reboot elements of this film and how they worked hand in hand with the meta narrative, from a derivative third act finale (which is intentional and recognized within the film), to new characters that have some mysterious relation to old ones, as well as how the old characters were used. I loved the new cast, and what genuinely surprised me was how central they made the new characters. While the legacy cast was there, the new ones did get to be front and center, and I liked that the film took the risk to focus on them, as so many “requels” generally focus more on the legacy characters. Melissa Barrera, coming off a fantastic role in “In the Heights”, is phenomenal here and I truly think she rivals Neve Campbell as a lead of this franchise. I loved her character and her performance! And don’t worry, the old characters are back too and it is great to see them! David Arquette’s Dewey is easily the best in this film and interacts with the new characters in such interesting ways. He really is the Han Solo of this one, I love what they did with his character! Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell also slip right back into their roles as Gale and Sydney, but unfortunately I felt like they were slightly underused and I missed them a little bit in some scenes.
And wow did this film ever bring gore back to the franchise! The directors of “Ready or Not” were the perfect choice to take over from Wes Craven. They handled it with the same level of care and attention as Craven did and really seem to understood what makes a Scream movie great. Sure the movie can be kinda cheesy and has plot conveniences, but thats just what happens in this franchise! I thought they did a fantastic job of playing with expectations, using lighting, sound and editing to really build tension and surprise the audience! There’s a scene where they keep making the audience think Ghostface is behind doors when he really isn’t, which leads to a great jump scare later. I just thought it was a genius way to handle the scene and completely play with the audience. They also handled the twist so well, and did a good job of hiding it. I couldn’t guess who the killer was, and while I jokingly did because I recognized an actor from another film where they have a similar role, I didn’t think I would be right at all. The villain motivation was so clever and I love how it connected to themes of toxic fandom — just think of how mad some fans got after “The Last Jedi”.
Ghostface is also handled perfectly; just as good as he’s always been. Like I said gore was brought back to the franchise, as some of the kills are brutal. They truly are some of the best in the franchise and were so cool. I especially loved the Psycho shower scene reference with one of them, and I always love how complex Ghostface makes them. He’s so creepily playful in the buildup, and then savagely kills his victims… I love it, he’s such a great horror villain!
This movie had some awesome surprises for fans of the Scream franchise, and I’d say for movie fans in general as well (especially Star Wars fans who can take a joke). It might piss some people off, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I would love to see another one from this team and cast! There’s a lot of potential for stuff to come! It truly is a perfect legacy sequel!
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IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
RT Audience Score: 83%
Metacritic Score: 60
CinemaScore: B+
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Paramount
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Screenplay by Guy Busick & James Vanderbilt
Cast: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jack Quaid, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown
Runtime: 1hr 54min
Rating: 14A
Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new Ghostface emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.
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Fun Fact: The first Scream film not directed by Wes Craven, who passed away in August of 2015 from cancer. The character of Wes was named in honor of him and the film is dedicated to him in the end credits.
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