Scream

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C

               I love the original Scream. It has become somewhat fashionable in film circles to hate that movie, but I think that the backlash has more to do with all of the crap that was inspired by Scream rather than the film itself. Sure, we got a lot of terrible teen slasher movies with posters that look like Vanity Fair covers because Scream made a ton of money, but I maintain that the original is still a clever and fun slasher flick. The sequels are hit-and-miss. None have approached the original, but Scream 4 is my favorite sequel and Scream 3 is the only one that I think is terrible. The latest entry, simply titled Scream, is better than Scream 3. That’s about the nicest thing that I have to say about it.

               I was initially completely disinterested when this film was announced, both due to the passing of Wes Craven (RIP) and the fact that it’s been eleven years since the last one. However, the announcement that directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were taking the reins of the fifth installment gave me some hope, as they made my favorite movie of 2019: Ready or Not. However, while they are capable of capturing the balance of bloody horror and black comedy that’s integral to Scream when the franchise is firing on all cylinders, they are unable to overcome the simple fact that this series has run out of steam.

               Because this franchise is so dependent on the avoidance of spoilers, I’m not going into plot details and will instead just look at it in a broader sense. The original Scream was all about imitating 70s/80s slasher movies and the tropes that come with them. This latest entry is about the modern obsession with rebooting old properties and the generational gap between the horror fans of today and those that grew up on the movies that inspired the original. That’s why I’m actually not pissed about the title; the fact that it isn’t called Scream 5 is intentionally poking fun at the recent reboots of Halloween and Candyman. The young characters are all now completely ignorant of slasher movies and instead love pretentious modern horror films like The Witch, The Babadook and Hereditary. That is actually a pretty good framework for a new Scream film.

               The problem is that the movie doesn’t really do much with it. There are a couple of moments when characters mention the contrast between “elevated horror” and “fun horror” and some moments when the older characters seem annoyed that the younger characters can’t enjoy anything that doesn’t have a social message crammed into it, but these are fleeting moments and are usually part of expository speeches that explain the commentary of the film. The old adage of “show, don’t tell” should have been applied here, as the generational differences never really make the leap from dialogue to being actual story points. The fact that the younger characters are unaware of the supposed rules of slasher films should have been a setup for a lot of fun setpieces where they don’t do the right thing because they’ve never seen Prom Night or Halloween, but the movie never really takes advantage of this premise. Most of the scenes play out as typical slasher movie scenes, seemingly unaware of the movie’s own meta commentary.

               Lacking a meaningful integration of that commentary, the younger characters just come across as generic dickbags. Coming out of the original Scream, I remembered every character’s name and their role in the plot. Coming out of this movie, I didn’t remember any of the new characters’ names and wasn’t fully sure of their relationships to each other. I guess most of them are friends, but they don’t really seem to like each other very much and spend most of their time sitting around and spewing meta commentary about the events going on around them. This dynamic also exists in the original, as the characters are unusually self-aware, but those characters had personality beyond meta commentary that made them endearing. I’m honestly not sure if this is supposed to be a commentary on Gen Z or if its just bad writing, but it’s not particularly entertaining either way. If these characters are supposed to carry the franchise going forward, then this series is in a lot of trouble.

               As we are repeatedly told is required for a franchise reboot/relaunch, the surviving original characters (Sidney, Gale and Dewey) all return and their presence somewhat livens up the proceedings in the later stages of the film. All of them are grizzled veterans at this point, seemingly resigned to the fact that they will have to deal with this every decade or so, and might as well say “I’m getting too old for this shit.” This growth worked for me, especially as a contrast to the younger characters in their first rodeo with Ghostface, but the arc is particularly strong with Dewey. The one-time goofball deputy is now a burnt-out veteran that has become a source of strength for our heroes and this movie arguably gives him the strongest character arc in the series.

               I’m being extremely vague about the plot, but I will generally say that the motivations and mania behind the killer(s) didn’t work for me here. In the original film, I find it somewhat believable that people could snap and take their love of slasher films to an extreme, plus there was an additional backstory with Sidney’s mother that lent some credibility to the killers’ actions. The new Scream is going for a commentary on toxic fandom, but it is just too big of a stretch. Rather than an obsession with slasher movies, I’m supposed to believe that these characters are obsessed with franchise reboots to the point that they would murder people in order to reboot real-life events and it just falls flat. Scream 4 isn’t particularly popular, but I find that film’s premise (which is a commentary on the use of social media to acquire undeserved fame) to be far more plausible than this. The ending of a Scream movie is supposed to be the big payoff, but the combination of forgettable characters and an extremely abstract motivation made this entry’s conclusion completely lackluster (although, admittedly, the endings of the second and third entries left a lot to be desired too).

               On the plus side, this is the most vicious Scream since the original (which had to be edited and resubmitted to the ratings board eleven times before it was finally downgraded from an NC-17 to an R-rating). Nothing in this series has ever matched the original Scream’s opening scene, but this one does make an attempt. People are gutted and stabbed through the face. Ghostface is typically not satisfied with a single stab and usually gives a good five or six bloody jabs before the job is done. I have a lot of issues with this movie, but I can’t accuse it of pulling punches.

               Overall, the latest Scream is a solid concept that isn’t well-realized. The new characters range from dull to insufferable, the commentary is rarely more than literal commentary and the ending lacks believability. These are things that I could overlook in a random slasher movie, but I have a nostalgic fondness for this franchise that forces me to hold it to a higher standard. This entry is superior to the misguided comedy of Scream 3, but it is a long way from the wit and horror of the original.

Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scream_(2022_film)#/media/File:Scream2022film.jpeg