By Geno McGahee
In 1996, the horror genre was reborn and the direction was changed with the release of Wes Craven’s SCREAM. It was a slasher that was self-aware and took jabs at the slasher game in a loving way. It was a massive hit. On a budget of 15 million, the film brought in 173 million at the box office and the franchise began.
SCREAM was followed by the less than impressive SCREAM 2 in 1997 and SCREAM 3 in 2000. Despite the arguable lack in quality, the films still performed well at the box office, but it would take 11 years before it would return with SCREAM 4, but it would not come close to the success of the three prior films. Now, in 2022, here we go again with a relaunch of the series with SCREAM. Much like RAMBO and HALLOWEEN, it’s a sequel and fresh start at the same time.
Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) discovers that her sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega), was attacked and stabbed several times by Ghostface. Damn that Ghostface has returned and he means business and the first scene of the film is almost identical to the first scene of the 1996 original. Sam returns to Woodsboro after years with her boyfriend.
At the hospital we meet all of Tara’s friends and this is where the film starts to immediately lose it. They are all the same and interchangeable. In the original SCREAM, the characters were well-defined and unique. It was easy to start trying to figure out who the killer was and what the motives could be. In this latest entry in the series, the characters aren’t very defined.
Sam and her boyfriend go to see Dewey (David Arquette) and he is now retired from the force and living in a trailer. He starts breaking down the rules of surviving a horror movie and this is some good stuff. Arquette is really good here and being a huge fan of SCREAM, it was nice to see this character return and see this version of him.
Also returning are Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), a journalist still, returning to Woodsboro to cover the new murders. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), a mother now, living a normal life, is also brought back. Remarkably, we even get a dead character back as Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) comes back. It was nice to see everyone return on this one and they brought back Billy Loomis is a relatively cool way.
The deaths are piling up and they are brutal. The murder of Sheriff Hicks (Marley Shelton) in broad daylight, in her front yard, was very memorable and effective. This film really handled the kills well.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Sam Carpenter turns out to be the daughter of Billy Loomis and the film’s focus is mostly on this. Barrera is not a bad actress but she just doesn’t have the presence to carry this off. On the surface, this seems like a cool thing but it wasn’t sold very well and a lot of the delivery, especially of the tough girl lines, wasn’t very believable.
The first half of the film was pretty good and kept my attention, but as the film continued, it started to drag. As with every SCREAM film, you hang on for the great reveal, but the end result didn’t add up to much. In other entries in this series, the reveal would save it a little, but not here. In some ways, this film is better than the rest with the exception of the original, but it just never holds it together and relied a little too much on nostalgia.
SCREAM has done very well at the box office and they’ve already announced another one on the way, which is great, but I just wish that they focused more on the character development and motives. This film is good but it could have been great had the motives and payoff been better.
I recommend SCREAM, especially if you enjoyed the rest of the series. It pays tribute in a good way to the original, but misses the mark in the end.
