Scream (2022) Review

Wes Craven’s original Scream was a genre-defining masterpiece. Prior to its 1996 release, mainstream horror was pretty much dead. Audiences had grown tired of the increasingly ludicrous sequels popular franchises were churning out at that point. The only move left was to make a horror movie about horror movies. Through its meta deconstruction of slasher tropes, the first Scream revitalized the genre by completely rewriting the rules. From then on, horror characters had to be more self-aware than they had been in previous decades. What followed was a generation of knockoffs (Halloween: H20, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Jason X, Final Destination, etc.) and its own series of successful sequels.

However, the franchise’s momentum seems to have slowed considerably these past couple of decades, with 11-year gaps between the last several films leading up to this year’s new installment, simply titled Scream. Much has changed in horror since we last checked in with these characters, leaving this new sequel a lot of ground to satirize. It’s time once again for a new mysterious killer to don the infamous Ghostface mask and slash their way through the small town of Woodsboro. 

Scream (2022) follows the same basic premise as all the other films in the series, with a new group of teens falling victim to Ghostface’s killing spree. Seemingly at the center of this rampage is the reclusive Sam (Melissa Barrera) and her younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega). A dark family secret ties Sam to the original Scream murders and has created a serious distance between her and her sister, a fact this new Ghostface seems to have crafted their plan around. Cornered, Sam enlists the help of original franchise leads Dewey (David Arquette), Gale (Courteney Cox), and Sidney (Neve Campbell) to help stop these “reboot killings” before it’s too late.

It is undeniably great to see these characters back on the big screen after such a long break, and all three of the original actors fully commit to their respective returns, which serves as a real treat for longtime Scream fans. The central mystery is also handled with great care and truly keeps you guessing. There are moments in this movie where literally every character on screen is a reasonable suspect, which is definitely a new twist and escalation of what’s come before in this series, and created some truly intense moments. Unfortunately, these elements just don’t fully come together to recapture the magic of Scream. 

Obviously this disconnect is in large part due to the death of original director Wes Craven, who helmed all four previous movies and helped cement the franchise’s unique balance of horror and comedy. He is succeeded on this movie by rising genre star filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who, to their credit, have crafted a really good horror movie with their Scream. The problem is that they didn’t make a good horror-comedy. The other four films in the series are equal parts scary and funny, a quality sorely missing from this latest installment, which is surprising given that Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s last movie was the hilarious Ready Or Not. Their Scream is clever but lacks the solid laughs the series is known for, which makes for a significantly darker film than its predecessors. This certainly gives the film its own identity and makes it stand out from what came before it, but it also just isn’t as much fun as I would have hoped.

“Legacy Sequels” are an interesting trend. From Halloween to Candyman, the idea of a hybrid reboot-sequel is the current trend in franchise filmmaking. With Scream, screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick seem to have followed the Star Wars: The Force Awakens playbook to a tee. It’s honestly kind of startling how similar in structure the two movies are. From bringing back the original stars as grizzled older versions of their characters to help mentor the new young leads, to the climax openly revisiting the ending of the original film, the filmmakers took a heavy coat of Force Awakens and just applied it over top of the Scream movies. This certainly works, as it’s a solid sequel story structure, but it left little in terms of surprises. Once you understand the new formula the filmmakers are following, you know exactly where the movie’s going.

While I was somewhat disappointed by this latest Scream, it is nonetheless a solid horror movie. Its meta lines about the current state of the genre are a welcomed update on the original film’s “rules”, and the entire cast gives compelling performances, even if the new teens kind of blend together in your mind as the film progresses. Scream is a solid tribute to what came before, and a snarky dissection of what’s happening now. I just wish it was funnier.