SCREAM
Do you like scary movies…about scary movies? If you’re anything like me, the answer is a resounding “yes!” But the latest entry in the SCREAM franchise, SCREAM (2022) (trailer here), might still test your limits. As a lifelong SCREAM fan, I truly haven’t been this excited for a film since…well, 2011’s SCREAM 4. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s effortless blend of comedy and thrills revitalized horror in the 90s, all packaged in the form of a self-referential roller coaster of a whodunit. The franchise cemented its place in pop culture by outlining the “rules'' characters should abide by to survive a scary movie, but zigging every time you thought it would zag and keeping you guessing who the killer(s?) were right until Ghostface’s mask came off. Since then, each SCREAM sequel has commented cleverly on the state of horror at its moment of creation.
SCREAM (2022), without spoiling anything, covers “requels”: loose sequels with new characters that retain a connection to the original film and legacy cast of a franchise, while relaunching it entirely for a new generation. The excitement of any SCREAM film lies in going into the experience blind and trying to put the pieces together before the third act, so I don’t want to say too much...but that excitement feels notably absent here as SCREAM (2022) follows the exact rules it’s trying to criticize. There are a few promising moments, fun kills, and stellar performances (Mikey Madison, Jenna Ortega and YELLOWJACKETS’s Jasmin Savoy-Brown ftw)—but they’re all tempered by just as many questionable decisions that made me sorely miss Wes Craven’s signature touch. All of that to say: seeing Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette in another SCREAM film is so much fun, and SCREAM (2022) is still an entertaining moviegoing experience. It just feels a bit hollow this go-around, straining under the weight of its own metafictional ambitions. This SCREAM fan is going to need a few more rewatches to make up his mind.
—Neal Mulani, Development Assistant
