The Film Experience

By Glenn Dunks

Movies made predominantly out of a requirement for fan service can go one of a few ways. They can give audiences just what they wanted (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies), they can give audiences what they didn’t know they needed (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies), or they can be a complete and utter dog’s breakfast (as we’ve seen with some MCU movies).

The Scream franchise isn’t as long-running or as mythologized as iconic horror brands like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or A Nightmare on Elm Street. But what it does have that those series do not is a consistent core—both in characters (Sidney, Gale and Dewey) and tone (comically meta slasher)—that has remained unwavering across 25 years and five individual movies. Fan service here then is actually quite tricky...

This is not a franchise that can wildly pivot like last year’s ridiculously, stupidly audacious Halloween Kills. It’s also not a franchise that can just rest on its laurels. Its fans demand more (and more). You can’t just chuck a sub-title on. Scream: Ghostface’s Revenge in Space? No way. I know this because I am one of those fans and I have spent a solid chunk of the last 25 years feverishly obsessing over the production, the release and the fandom of each subsequent instalment of the franchise created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven. I’ve visited the filming locations and everything!

Which brings us to Scream—not Scream 5, and definitely not 5cream for reasons that become quite clear. It is the first of its franchise without Craven at the helm, and just the second without Williamson. As you would expect, coming eleven years after Scream 4, the film is very aware that legacy sequels are all the rage. Scream 4 was also a legacy sequel, but this time it's more clearly crafted as a relaunch for a new era. This ‘requel’ (the official term is up for debate) is nonetheless still very ensconced in the world of Woodsboro, the fictional ‘Stab’ franchise-with-a-franchise, and Ghostface lore that it can’t possibly function without everything that came before. So not at all like the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre coming next month, then. It has more characters than it knows what to do with and maybe one too many ideas. How can they juggle all of this while making fans and newcomers happy? It probably shouldn’t work.

And yet.

Here, the team at Radio Silence (Ready or Not) have found a way to use that creative friction to their advantage. And in a way that rewards additional screenings (I have seen it twice already). This is a very online movie where message boards, fan forums, YouTubers, and Reddit play a big role. Probably the movie’s best and most astute line comes about ‘fan-fucking-fiction’ and anybody who has ever come across the toxicity of fandom will recognise the jokes. The meta elements of the earlier films have been multiplied exponentially, which could irk the more casual viewer who has never heard of Film Twitter. But if you thought a Scream movie in 2022 wouldn’t reference Jordan Peele or the ill-conceived Flatliners remake, then where have you been?

Visually, it’s the best-looking Scream movie since Craven’s first sequel in 1997. It’s a darker film than the others. And gorier, too. The bloody effects of the stabbings and shootings are at times gruellingly realized both physically and emotionally, which was something Scream 4 lacked. This is one area writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick really succeed. Elsewhere they make big choices around formula and tone without being incongruous to what audiences expect. Let me tell you, the full-body thrill I got from one character saying “Welcome to act three” is entirely indescribable.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett deliver some of the franchise’s biggest shocks. Their energy comes through the material, and I suspect Wes Craven would approve heartily. The return of Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette again imbues the film with a rare emotional current, elevating it over other more prolific franchises. Together with the rest of the mostly well-cast ensemble (highest praise going to Yellowjackets star Jasmin Savoy Brown), Scream fuses three different generations of horror while giving credence to each of its' characters' experiences with the events of 1996 and beyond.

I am typically not a very precious person about spoilers, but to discuss much more would likely mean dulling some of the surprise punches. These films really benefit from not knowing where the story and its characters are going. My Twitter DMs are open, I guess, if you need to spill your guts out about what happens to that one person in that one scene. I will say that this Scream features one of the most suspenseful sequences of the franchise, a moment-by-moment game between the camera and the viewer. It uses technology in some fun ways but doesn’t overdo it. A decade later and Woodsboro Hospital is still massively under-staffed. And because it’s the queerest horror franchise, yes there is a gratuitous male shower scene.

Scream was everything I wanted. It was also everything I didn’t know I needed. Which is exactly where you want to be with the fifth film of any franchise, least of all one that began 25 years ago, tepidly on opening weekend, before exploding with word of mouth. It’s a scream, baby. I can’t wait to see it a third time.