Scream (2022)
Directed by Tyler Gillett
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.
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In the movie’s opening phone call, one that mirrors the call Drew Barrymore received in the original, Tara (Jenna Ortega) — after initially ignoring a strange call on “the landline” — tells the strange voice on the other end (again Roger Jackson, franchise MVP) that she prefers “elevated horror” like “The Babadook,” “Hereditary” and “It Follows.”
A voice on the phone strikes up a conversation about scary movies, but the reference goes over Tara’s head because she’s into “elevated horror,” like 2014’s The Babadook or 2017’s Get Out .
While there are plenty of meta jokes and cool, hip references to The Babadook and It Follows, the film still feels dated.
“I’m more into elevated horror,” she bites back, citing A24 fodder like The Babadook that’s more focused on theme than grisly jump-scares.
So you get the scene where someone explains the rules of being in a horror movie (this time done by the returning David Arquette), along with scenes referencing recent developments in the genre, including “elevated” options like The Babadook and It Follows .
But this movie also understands and references "high-minded" horrors like The Babadook and Hereditary .
“Scream” is hip with the times much in the same way its predecessors were, throwing nods to Rian Johnson, “It Follows” and “Hereditary” and playfully toys with audience expectations.
Scream is hip with the times much in the same way its predecessors were, throwing nods to Rian Johnson, It Follows and Hereditary and playfully toys with audience expectations.
What’s the most impressive about this installment of Scream is how much fun it’s having, poking fun at the horror genre, with characters referencing films such as It Follows or Hereditary , but also riffing on the Stab series in its own Scream universe.
In the movie’s opening phone call, one that mirrors the call Drew Barrymore received in the original, Tara (Jenna Ortega) — after initially ignoring a strange call on “the landline” — tells the strange voice on the other end (again Roger Jackson, franchise MVP) that she prefers “elevated horror” like “The Babadook,” “Hereditary” and “It Follows.”
No more last-century horror shoutouts when the kids have such newbies as "It Follows," "Hereditary" and "The Witch" as reference points.
But this movie also understands and references "high-minded" horrors like The Babadook and Hereditary .
This year’s Scream (not to be confused with 1996’s Scream , of course) contains a moment with a Matryoshka doll of references: a low-angle shot of a showerhead echoes the scene from movie-within-a-movie Stab in 1997’s Scream 2 , which was obviously itself nodding to 1960’s Psycho .
In order to illustrate exactly what’s so wrong with Matt Bettinelli-Olphin and Tyler Gillet’s Scream (from here on referred to as 5cream , because I genuinely think I might have a psychotic break if I keep trying to talk about both the original film and this reboot), I’ll present to you a working theory of mine about the intentions behind Wes Craven’s Scream series and how they slowly changed over time.
The first entry in the franchise without Wes Craven at the helm, Scream combines a fresh cast with legacy characters for a bloody, ruthless whodunnit.
Wes Craven’s Scream franchise pumped fresh blood into the veins of the floundering slasher genre at the end of the 90s and has continued to inspire the horror landscape over two decades later.
When the first Scream released in 1996, the film was instantly iconic among horror fans for its ability to deftly tread the line between homage and parody as it spoke to the rise of slashers.
“Scream” is hip with the times much in the same way its predecessors were, throwing nods to Rian Johnson, “It Follows” and “Hereditary” and playfully toys with audience expectations.
Scream is hip with the times much in the same way its predecessors were, throwing nods to Rian Johnson, It Follows and Hereditary and playfully toys with audience expectations.
What’s the most impressive about this installment of Scream is how much fun it’s having, poking fun at the horror genre, with characters referencing films such as It Follows or Hereditary , but also riffing on the Stab series in its own Scream universe.
In the movie’s opening phone call, one that mirrors the call Drew Barrymore received in the original, Tara (Jenna Ortega) — after initially ignoring a strange call on “the landline” — tells the strange voice on the other end (again Roger Jackson, franchise MVP) that she prefers “elevated horror” like “The Babadook,” “Hereditary” and “It Follows.”
No more last-century horror shoutouts when the kids have such newbies as "It Follows," "Hereditary" and "The Witch" as reference points.
While there are plenty of meta jokes and cool, hip references to The Babadook and It Follows, the film still feels dated.
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Confusingly bearing the same title as the 1996 original (a joke, I suppose on the recent “Halloween” and “Shaft”), it follows the format of what critic Matt Singer calls “legacy sequels” – in this picture they’re annoyingly referred to as “requels” – like “The Force Awakens” or “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” that surround a new cast with a few of your favorite old characters and basically re-enact the original picture with enough nostalgic nods to give undiscerning viewers obsessed with their own childhoods quote-unquote “all the feels.”
The movies cited are the recent Halloween films that brought back Jamie Lee Curtis, but a more appropriate reference point may well be The Force Awakens , which brought back beloved Star Wars heroes but made them background players in a younger cast’s story line.
Though it shares a title with the 1996 slasher satire that launched a new era of meta moviemaking (and three sequels), 2022’s Scream actually follows the model of 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens: task beloved characters from the original film with handing off the baton to a younger generation.
They’re pandered to with ‘legacy sequels’, like The Force Awakens , Ghostbusters and, well, this, which give them the nostalgia hit of seeing old characters again, while trying to tempt them with new ones.
Ever since the world flocked to the one-two punch of Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, major movie studios have been exploiting a whole new way of rehashing beloved franchises.
It is, instead, a “requel,” a half revisiting and half reinvention that brings in older characters to mingle with brand new ones, much as The Force Awakens did for Star Wars in 2015.
This year’s Scream (not to be confused with 1996’s Scream , of course) contains a moment with a Matryoshka doll of references: a low-angle shot of a showerhead echoes the scene from movie-within-a-movie Stab in 1997’s Scream 2 , which was obviously itself nodding to 1960’s Psycho .
Also on the chopping block is the recent obsession with “requels” – ie the sequel that’s really a sly remake à la Jurassic World and Ghostbusters: Afterlife .
Ever since the world flocked to the one-two punch of Jurassic World and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, major movie studios have been exploiting a whole new way of rehashing beloved franchises.
Whatever you call it, big franchise pictures like Jurassic World , Ghostbusters: Afterlife , or even never-rebooted MCU entries tend to have at least one or two characters who can speak self-referentially about the events of previous installments.
They make fun of “The Witch,” “Jurassic World,” “The Last Jedi,” Jamie Lee Curtis, David Arquette and Courteney Cox’s divorce and on and on.
But as the commercial success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Jurassic World , and Ghostbusters: Afterlife makes clear, requels can be big business.
Like Ghostbusters: Afterlife , the 2018 Halloween , and Jurassic World , these films have to offer something new, but not too new.
Instead, we’re reminded of Danny Glover’s immortal line from the Lethal Weapon movies: “I’m too old for this shit.”
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The comedy sometimes gets a little too lost in its own self-awareness, but the commentary on fan culture is surprisingly sharp, channeling some of the same sentiments that Lana Wachowski put into the recent The Matrix Resurrections .
It’s hard to not compare 2022’s “Scream” with “The Matrix Resurrections.”
If Scream isn’t quite as successful of a reheat as The Matrix Resurrections, it’s because it doesn’t progress much beyond its self-referential, meta playfulness.
2022’s Scream may cut deep into the issues with legacy reboots, but it ends up being a solid example of how to do one right; it’d honestly make a great double feature with The Matrix Resurrections of all things.
Famed slashers such as Michael Myers of Halloween , Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street , and Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th are renowned for their immortality—no matter how many times they meet their demise on-screen or a “final chapter” is proclaimed in their saga, they eventually return for more.
Scream is a joyous and triumphant return for one of the most inventive franchises in horror history, arriving at a time when traditional slashers like Halloween Kills are comfortably co-existing with genre mash-ups like the terrific Freaky and Happy Death Day .
Y si ya había un Loomis -uno de los asesinos- en la Scream original, que aquí un personaje se llame Sam Loomis, como el psiquiatra que atendía a Michael Myers en Halloween ...