scream movie review 2022

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The 2022 version of “Scream” is a film for viewers raised on the 1996 version of “Scream” and its three sequels. Whereas the first script by Kevin Williamson turned the kind of conversations that fans had about John Carpenter and Wes Craven in school cafeterias and coffee houses into something daring and riveting, the new script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick exists in a world where those conversations happen on a much larger scale in Discord chats, Reddit threads, and fan conventions. It's a horror film for a world in which everyone has an opinion on horror films. Luckily, it smartly balances references to the original movies in a way that (mostly) avoids the self-aware smugness that has killed many a “re-quel,” delivering a product that feels consistent with the first four movies but distinct enough to have its own voice. Some of Craven’s craftsmanship and skill with performers is lacking here, but by the time the film is rising to the rafters in its bonkers final act, I don't think any of the true horror fans in the audience will care.

Of course, “Scream” opens with a phone call—and, yes, it’s still a landline. Once again, a young woman home alone is forced to play movie trivia with a psychopath, but the manner in which this “Scream” will update the original is apparent early as Tara Carpenter ( Jenna Ortega ) says her favorite horror flick isn’t a slasher classic but an “elevated horror” film like “ The Babadook .” How we define the horror genre has changed significantly in the last 25 years, as has the relationship between filmmakers, viewers, and even "true story" subject matter that creators mine for escapist entertainment. The characters in the new “Scream” don’t just all have the same genre movie knowledge of the original’s Randy Meeks, they would destroy him in a trivia contest.

Tara is attacked by someone wearing the Ghostface outfit from the in-universe “Stab” franchise, based on the Woodsboro murders committed by Stu Macher and Billy Loomis, but she survives, bringing her estranged sister Sam ( Melissa Barrera ) back from Modesto to their hometown. Much like Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) from the original, Sam has some dark family drama that forced her to leave her sister behind, but it feels like this new killer attacked Tara to get the big sis to come home. She brings her new beau Richie ( Jack Quaid of "The Boys") along for the ride, even though he’s never seen a “Stab” movie. By the way, they’ve made eight “Stab” movies and the last one was particularly loathed by the fan base for reportedly betraying what worked about the franchise in the first place. Of course, Rian Johnson directed.

Before Tara can even get out of the hospital, Ghostface is on a rampage, leading Sam and Richie to the man who they think can help them figure out who’s behind the mask this time: Deputy Dewey (a very effective David Arquette , given more dramatic beats than usual. I hope it leads to more work like it.) He calls Sid and texts Gale ( Courteney Cox ), and the world-famous trio is back in town before you know it, but directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett wisely don’t let them take over the narrative. They’re flavoring, a nod to the past instead of the whole meal like in some other re-quels. Think of them like the legacy characters in the Star Wars sequels—essential but not driving the story.

No, the focus here is again on a group of young people who have seen enough “Stab” movies to know that the killer is probably one of their own. It doesn’t help that almost everyone in town has a connection to the original characters—ask the Strodes how well that usually goes in horror movies—such as Wes Hicks ( Dylan Minnette ), the son of Judy Hicks ( Marley Shelton ) from “Scream 4,” or Mindy Meeks-Martin ( Jasmin Savoy Brown ) and Chad Meeks-Martin ( Mason Gooding ), related to poor Randy. And then there’s Amber ( Mikey Madison ), the one who seems most protective of Tara and distrusting of Sam. As for Samantha, she has such a close relationship to one of the original characters that she hallucinates conversations with him (that have some dodgy CGI that make them less effective than they probably were on paper). One of these young people is probably a killer. Given the track record of this series, probably more than one.

What really matters to the success of this “Scream” is the manner in which Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett build to their truly effective set pieces. One in a darkly lit hospital has the violent energy of John Carpenter and the extended party sequence/climax—it always ends at a party—is wonderfully constructed, shot with fluid camerawork by Brett Jutkiewicz and tightly edited by Michael Aller. Brian Tyler ’s score elevates the brutal violence in death sequences that don’t feel as casual or tongue-in-cheek as a lot of nostalgic horror tends to feel. So many movies like “Scream” wink at their audience and forget to be remotely scary. The new “Scream” tries to be an actual horror movie instead of just a meta reference to the genre.

While this may not be a fair game to play, it’s impossible not to consider how the film would have differed if Craven had lived to make it himself. I do think that he would have drawn a few better performances from the young cast, who are all good enough but nowhere near as distinctly memorable as the original crew, sometimes leaning into melodramatic emotions in a way that Craven would have dialed down. On the other hand, the original trio are excellent, conveying the trauma of having to go through this nonsense again in a way that feels genuine. And what really matters is how much Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have learned from the Craven originals in terms of craft. Whereas Craven used visual references to masters like Hitchcock and Carpenter, the new filmmakers have Wes himself to use as a role model, and they undeniably get to the core of a lot of what he did best in both craft and genre deconstruction. After all, there’s a reason the film’s dedication reads “For Wes” and a scene near the end even uses the phrase “passing the torch.” I’m not sure about the latter but I’m confident that Wes would be impressed enough to consider it.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Scream (2022)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.

114 minutes

Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter

David Arquette as Dewey Riley

Jenna Ortega as Tara Carpenter

Jack Quaid as Richie Kirsch

Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers

Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott

Mikey Madison as Amber Freeman

Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin

Dylan Minnette as Wes Hicks

Skeet Ulrich as Billy Loomis

Kyle Gallner as Vince Schneider

Roger L. Jackson as Ghostface (voice)

Reggie Conquest as Deputy Farney

Chester Tam as Deputy Vinson

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Tyler Gillett

Writer (characters created by)

Kevin Williamson
James Vanderbilt

Cinematographer

Brett Jutkiewicz
Michel Aller
Brian Tyler

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Scream Reviews

Now, if we can "turn a blind eye" to its narrative slips, we can enjoy a film that is on par with the rest of the saga... [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 14, 2023

While the film tries to evoke the clever, meta film dialogue of the original, terms such as “requel” are better left unspoken.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Scream 5 successfully revives a beloved series with lovable new faces and reveals that live up to the franchise.

Full Review | Aug 9, 2023

Scream once again slices open the horror genre in a clever, meta, & BRUTAL way. Some of the best kills yet some of the best performances yet

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Scream is a brilliant "requel" with cleverly fascinating meta commentary on the horror genre, toxic fandoms, social media, and much more, ultimately becoming a strong contender for this new year's Top10.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 25, 2023

A pleasing ode towards all four predecessors and Wes Craven himself, Scream is bound to impress the majority of its audience with witty one-liners, gory kills and a whole lot of nostalgia.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Long story short, it does feel as if it has all been done before and that the promising new directors are still trying to find their footing in filling in Craven’s massive shoes. But it’s hard to keep a self-aware slasher down on the entertainment front.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Scream (2022) is the first of the sequels that truly felt unnecessary, and that’s surprising because the movie was clearly made as an act of love for the director of the four original films, Wes Craven, and his legacy.

...like with almost every other reboot I’ve seen in the last few years, I wanted it to be so much more. It’s a passably entertaining but also constantly frustrating revisit to a franchise I adore...

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 3, 2023

I had a ball with it... you really kind of want to lean into it.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Mar 15, 2023

[T}his Scream is the burnout C-student younger sibling of a former valedictorian.

Full Review | Dec 16, 2022

Unlike the recent James Bond outing, Scream understands its essence and embraces it whole-heartedly.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2022

Guaranteed to have audiences shrieking and jumping out of their seats, Scream is the most brutal, bloodiest and best film since the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 12, 2022

This “requel” (to use the film’s own terminology) cranks up the self-awareness of the already meta film series to deliver a blistering indictment of fandom culture...

Full Review | Oct 27, 2022

Whether you want to call it Scream 5 or simply Scream, one thing is certain: This film is a bloody and brash experience, an absolute treat that easily carves out a place as one of the best of the series.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 23, 2022

Scream radically reinvigorates the franchise in ferocious fashion, serving up spooky spectacle and masterful meta commentary on modern horror and fandom.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

As someone who loved the original Scream, and the slasher genre in general, I was excited to watch the 2022 version, set in the same town, but 25 years later – and it did not disappoint.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2022

Its cultural critiques are no longer well-taken, and this corporate concern stopped being a goof on endless slasher clichés and started simply putting them to work quite a long time ago.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 24, 2022

Perhaps I was wrong for thinking that resuscitating this old franchise meant they had something new to bring to it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 16, 2022

... Literally conceived for fans of the original and instead of holding back out of fear of tainting a classic, it steps on the gas and goes beyond. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2022

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Neve campbell and courteney cox in ‘scream’: film review.

Ghostface returns to terrorize a new group of Woodsboro teenagers in this resurrection of the beloved ‘90s meta-slasher franchise, which also brings back David Arquette.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Neve Campbell (“Sidney Prescott”) stars in "Scream."

The Scream franchise hatched by writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven in 1996 injected new life into the slasher film by observing the rules of the genre while simultaneously subverting them. Its meta mischief and high body count spawned a voracious new generation of horror nerds and raked in $608 million in global box office. Revisiting the property 11 years after Scream 4 , the new installment — made with Williamson’s blessing and dedicated to the late Craven — goes back to the original for inspiration but seriously over-indulges in self-referential cleverness, to the point of undermining the actual scare factor.

It’s hard not to groan when imperiled Californian teens sit around contemplating who might be responsible for the bloody slaughter once again unleashed on suburban Woodsboro, along with who might be next to feel the knife, and one of them pipes up with the realization of the killer: “Oh my God, he’s making a requel!” You might be more inclined to respond positively to a legacy character telling the latest sinister voice at the end of a phone line, “You really need some new material.”

Full credits

Distributor: Paramount Production companies: Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Project X Entertainment, Radio Silence Cast: Melissa Barrera, Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Marley Shelton, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett Screenwriters: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick, based on characters created by Kevin Williamson Producers: William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein Executive producers: Kevin Williamson, Chad Villella, Gary Barber, Peter Oillataguerre, Ron Lynch, Cathy Konrad, Marianne Maddalena Director of photography: Brett Jutkiewicz Production designer: Chad Keith Costume designer: Emily Gunshor Music: Brian Tyler Editor: Michel Aller Casting: Rich Delia

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Ghostface in the 2022 Scream, in closeup

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The 2022 Scream does for horror what Matrix Resurrections did for sci-fi

Twenty-five years later, the franchise is still ably commenting on itself and its genre

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In the 25 years since Scream revived mainstream horror, kickstarted a teen-movie boom, and inspired multiple sequels, every franchise has become Scream . Sure, they aren’t all youth-culture murder mysteries about defeating masked killers. But the self-aware commentary on the ins, outs, and tropes of its own genre, the element that really set Scream apart in 1996, has become a go-to screenwriting move for any franchise. (Though few of them execute it with such mischievous wit.)

This is especially true of legacy sequels, or remake-quels, or, as characters in the 2022 Scream call them, “re-quels.” 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. Even kid-targeted movies sometimes feel the need to do this; last year’s Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway made plenty of pointlessly cheeky references to the first film’s shortcomings.

The Scream series itself mostly sat out this pop-culture cycle, until now. Scream 4 came out nearly 11 years ago, which was 11 years after Scream 3 . That schedule suggests a Before Sunrise -style once-a-decade check-in on the horror genre, rather than the usual diminishing returns of a slasher series. To that end, the new Scream isn’t a fresh start — it’s very much Scream 5 , even though it shares its title with the original movie. Like the 2018 Halloween or 2011’s The Thing , it’s a follow-up branded like a reboot. Does a new crop of Scream teenagers complain loudly about how stupid this trend is? Of course! How could they not?

Jenna Ortega leans against a door, screaming, as Ghostface tries to burst in in 2022’s Scream

These friends, many with some manner of connection to characters from the earlier films, also speak knowledgeably about their lineage, and how modern-day fans demand that any new characters must interact meaningfully with older legacy characters. Notably, Scream ’s legacy characters don’t spend much time talking about movies; they’re more concerned with their real lives. (Plus, Jamie Kennedy’s horror-fan character Randy, the source of most of Scream ’s meta elements, died back in Scream 2 .)

Dewey (David Arquette), the deputy turned sheriff turned premature retiree, gets involved in one centerpiece discussion, but tabloid reporter turned morning-show host Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and shut-in turned family woman Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) are all business. They aren’t interested in returning to the murder-plagued small town of Woodsboro until the bodies start piling up, knocked off by yet another killer in the iconic Ghostface mask and black cloak.

Predictably, the killer (or killers — multiple characters point out that there are usually at least two) is focused on taking down the next generation. After delivering a patented corker of a Scream opener, with yet another young woman home alone, receiving a creepy phone call that turns deadly, new directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett must rush into the introduction of a new gaggle of teenagers, to populate the suspect list. The screenplay throws a wobbly curveball by making the new point-of-view heroine neither Sidney nor a high-schooler, but Sam (Melissa Barrera), a twentysomething who several years ago mysteriously abandoned Woodsboro and her younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega).

Sam’s return home with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid, quipping as if auditioning for the MCU) mixes up the formula, and Barrera and Ortega make for vulnerable-yet-scrappy successors to Sidney. But these plot machinations require shuffling a bunch of Tara’s friends on- and offscreen at the story’s convenience. In the fine tradition of re-quels, many of the younger characters often feel like perfunctory afterthoughts, not having any particular relationship with Sam.

This new-class roster includes Wes (Dylan Minnette), Liv (Sonia Ben Ammar), Amber (Mikey Madison), Chad (Mason Gooding), and his sister Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown, from Yellowjackets ). Mindy is the most memorable of the group, following in the tradition of Kennedy’s much-missed Randy — she’s the genre-savvy nerd, reborn as a cooler, more self-possessed teenager who still seems capable of disappearing down the rabbit hole of online discourse. In a scene with Mindy holding court, ranting about re-quels, fandom, and weirdos on Reddit, this Scream fully clicks into continuity with its fellow sequels, whose best moments combine antsy tension with breathless pop-culture theorizing.

Though Tara offers some praise for “elevated horror” — ”Ask me about It Follows !” she cries, as the killer menaces her with trivia centered on Scream ’s in-universe horror series Stab — the focus here is no longer especially horror-specific. Still, Scream 5 manages some decent stalking-killer setpieces. Though it’s the first entry without director Wes Craven, who died in 2015, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett maintain his propulsion and add extra flourishes of gore, while cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz (who also shot the duo’s lively comedic horror Ready or Not ) brings richer visual tones back to the series after the overlit Scream 4 . In other words, they know how to make blood look good.

A freaked-out-looking Neve Campbell points a gun offscreen in the 2022 Scream

This Scream also attempts something like The Matrix Resurrections , pushing self-referentiality to its limit in order to goof on its status as a potential decades-later cash-in, while still brokering a satisfying reunion with its beloved original characters. But the Matrix comparison doesn’t always flatter the 2022 Scream . Campbell, Cox, and Arquette all have chances to shine, and Campbell’s rueful confidence even approaches something vaguely touching. But this is a crowded movie where the body count sometimes inspires relief rather than dread: Finally, some of these extra characters are being cleared out!

The whodunnit angle (still novel for a slasher series, even after all these years) also means that the Scream sequels can’t always unveil their full thesis until the climactic unmasking, making it both difficult to discuss without spoilers (suffice to say, this one is a lot of fun) and more importantly, difficult to parse as part of the ongoing story of this lore-heavy sequel. In a clever, telling detail, characters in this Scream repeatedly chuck the notion of horror-movie rules in favor of Stab -specific rules — which at this point are really just observations about Woodsboro family histories.

That development might feel more like an ouroboros if not for a horror rule the Scream series has repeatedly, wonderfully flouted: These movies have never once ended by explicitly setting up another Scream . (Maybe that’s why it took the last few so long to get going.) Twenty-five years in, the series is still smart enough to acknowledge that there’s no need to tease a sequel. Whether in two years or another 11, the franchise will prevail. Fandom is its own unkillable mania, and Scream will keep figuring out how to survive it.

The 2022 Scream opens in America theaters on Jan. 13.

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The New Scream Is No Scream

The central challenge of any Scream sequel is how to do justice to the self-aware, tongue-in-cheek quality of Scream without either straying too far into comic pointlessness or meta-disappearing up one’s own meta-ass. Not every Scream sequel has achieved this balance; one might argue most haven’t. In part because director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s brilliant, scary, and even kind of moving 1996 original was itself something of a poison pill: It came preloaded with all the po-mo self-reflectivity one could ever want, taking place in a world where generations of slasher movies had already prepared the victims for all the genre clichés they were about to confront (and usually fall prey to). Any attempt to one-up the movie was likely doomed to fail, because it had already one-upped itself, and it had done so while also managing to be absolutely terrifying.

The new Scream at least seems to understand this on some fundamental level. It has a back-to-basics quality that might, at first, lull you into thinking it’s a more straightforward reboot. It opens with the obligatory girl-stuck-at-home-talking-on-the-phone attack, as teenager Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) is questioned by a mysterious voice that at first seems friendly, pretending to be a friend of her mom’s from “group,” but quickly devolves into the slithery, menacing cadences of Ghostface, who loves to quiz his or her victims about horror films (or, in Scream -speak, “scary movies.”) Of course, this is 2022, so Tara, it turns out, is more of an A24 gal and prefers so-called elevated horror. “Ask me about It Follows ! Ask me about Hereditary ! Ask me about The Witch !” she shrieks as things get more desperate — not long before she’s stabbed to within an inch of her life, with her leg broken for good measure. It’s a striking sequence, mainly because the talented Ortega makes Tara’s fear palpable as she goes from boredom to terror.

The attack on Tara prompts the intervention of her estranged older sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), who along with her boyfriend, Richie (Jack Quaid), returns to the town of Woodsboro to take care of her sibling and also get to the bottom of who might have done something like this. Tara has, as one might expect, a close cohort of friends, all of whom could be the culprit but most of whom will become victims. Sam also enlists the help of former sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), who is now divorced from TV personality Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and living in a trailer with bottles of liquor strewn around. Dewey in turn calls Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), prompting her to return to Woodsboro as well — no great surprise there, as every previous Scream movie has been, on some basic level, Sidney’s story.

We soon learn that most of Tara’s friends have some connection to the teens from the original Scream . A pair of twins, Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), are the nephews of Jamie Kennedy’s mouthy, long-deceased horror fiend Randy Meeks, and their living room TV has been rechristened the Randolph Meeks Memorial Theater. But as the callbacks to the original films accumulate, it becomes clear this is no typical reboot or typical sequel … Or, well, wait, maybe it’s actually quite typical for our times: One helpful living room back-and-forth among these movie-savvy kids soon explains to us that they’re all living through a “requel,” one of those projects that brings back the original characters to give it some official heft, while passing the torch to a new generation of heroes.

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. There’s even a Force -ghost of sorts — as one of the first film’s villains, Billy Loomis, played by a digitally de-aged Skeet Ulrich, regularly appears in mirrors and such to converse with Sam.

Certainly, the cosplaying Empire-wannabe villains of The Force Awakens have more in common with the Ghostface of this Scream — as we’re told early on that this mysterious killer (or killers; there are often more than one) must be a heavy-duty fan who just wants to bring the old Ghostface magic back, in response to the liberties taken by the eighth entry in the Stab franchise. (The Stab movies, as you may remember, are the Scream movies’ stand-ins for the Scream movies, serving as both a wink-wink, see-what-we-did-there echo of what happened with the Scream movies in real life and a cautionary tale about all the terrible directions the Scream movies could have taken.) We’re told that Reddit and 4chan have lit up with irate haters who took exception both to the fictional Ghostface’s newer weapons (including a flamethrower!) and to the Stab movies’ turns toward social justice. If the previous Scream films were all about the commodification of horror, this one is about the obsessive toxicity of fandom in general, whether it comes from horror nuts, Star Wars nerds, or Ghostbusters obsessives.

Okay, but did it have to be so lifeless? One of the reasons why all the meta-textual bloviating of the original Scream worked was because Williamson had a great feel for the hyperarticulate ramblings of suburban teens; his dialogue wasn’t realistic, necessarily, but it created its own world. (That’s maybe one of the reasons why so many of the young actors from the first Scream actually became stars, something relatively rare for the slasher genre.) And Craven, at his best, cleverly mixed humor and horror: He could undercut a moment with a laugh, but he also used that to make the moment scarier. The reason Ghostface is always kind of a klutz in these movies — no matter who they may be — is because it makes it that much more terrifying and tragic when the killer inevitably succeeds in gutting the victim.

But these new characters don’t really come to life in any meaningful way, and if they can’t come to life, their deaths (or near-deaths) become rather uninteresting. Despite the diversity of the cast, they all seem like variations of one another. Ortega’s Tara is the one high point, perhaps because she spends so much of the movie wounded and particularly vulnerable, and thus set apart from the crowd. As her sister Sam, the ostensible hero of this film, Barrera is particularly wooden, but that’s probably because she’s saddled with lines like, “And that’s why I changed, and I got weird and I got distant with you, why I went and started doing every drug I could get my hands on, until I couldn’t take it anymore and I left you.” (The actress was one of the stars of last year’s In the Heights, and she was enchanting in that, so we know she can act. I blame the script, credited here to Zodiac scribe James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, but who knows how many studio hands these things go through.) The few moments of genuine emotion in the new film come primarily from the older characters, but it’s not necessarily because of anything they say or do in this movie. It’s because those of us who saw the earlier pictures have already formed some attachment to these people.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who were previously responsible for 2019’s acclaimed horror-action-comedy Ready or Not (which Busick also wrote), do a nice job handling the cat-and-mouse chases between Ghostface and the victims, a hallmark of any Scream movie, but are not as confident when it comes to mounting any actual scares. They’re more interested, it seems, in not mounting scares: One scene that has someone opening closet and fridge doors repeatedly — with its nods to the horror trope of characters suddenly showing up behind those doors, a cliché already addressed in previous Scream movies — elicits knowing chuckles but is not actually suspenseful or even mildly frightening. It does feel, however, like something you’d see in a Scream movie, so maybe that’s the point. This new Scream is so determined to be a Scream movie that it forgets the primary, unstated rule established by the original Scream : You can sell anything to us, so long as you make it scary.

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‘Scream’ Review: A Sequel — Make That Requel — That Winks Entertainingly at the Badness of Sequels

It updates the franchise to the age of Internet fandom, but the basic meta formula hasn't changed.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Scream ,” the lively new meta slasher thriller, is neither a reboot nor a sequel to “Scream,” the landmark 1996 meta slasher thriller it shares a title with. The new movie is a requel , a term the film dutifully explains — it means a franchise extension that’s poised, on a kitchen knife blade, between the past and the present, between something jumpy and new and a respect for the legacy characters that gave the original its soul. (In this case, that means Courteney Cox , David Arquette , and Neve Campbell are back, and not just in token roles.) The young characters in the original “Scream” were living out their own schlock horror movie, complete with a masked killer who was like a mascot of death (he was like Edvard Munch’s The Scream turned into a piece of costume-shop kitsch), and they drew on the rules they’d absorbed from their endless watching of slasher films: how you get fooled into thinking the killer is this person when it’s really that person, the telltale actions that lead to your being slaughtered, and so on.

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The original “Scream” came out 26 years ago, and you could say that it was pitched to the VCR generation, or maybe the Cinemax generation — that is, the first moviegoers who’d grown up ingesting schlock horror sequels like M&Ms, deconstructing their formulas and mechanisms, reveling in the rules those films created through sheer repetition. So what has changed for this generation? According to “Scream,” the Internet has given rise to a new school of fan culture, in which movies are still endlessly dissected and deconstructed only now with a kind of primal cynicism about how and why they were made in the first place. Film fans are obsessed with sequels, but they also know how bad most sequels are.

In the new “Scream,” which is once again set in the town of Woodsboro, California, there is much talk about the horror franchise that began with “Stab,” a movie based on the Woodsboro massacre (it was introduced in “Scream 2”). It seems there have now been seven “Stab” sequels, most of them abysmal. Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), the most cinematically astute of the characters, explains this all to us, acknowledging that the only really good “Stab” movie was the first one. I thought “Scream 2” was actually pretty good, but I’ll take the film’s self-satirizing point: that slasher sequels, even heavily ironic slasher sequels that build on a film as shivery and playful as “Scream,” have a baked-in we’ve-seen-it-before cheesiness.

The new “Scream” may be the first horror movie that turns the mockery of fan service into its own fan service. Is it fun? Mostly, yes. Surprising? It keeps faking you out about who the killer is, and playing that guessing game is part of the film’s suspense, but it’s a suspense based on the fact that the film can stay one step ahead of us in a totally arbitrary way. The new “Scream” is about as good as “Scream 2” was — it keeps the thrill of the original “Scream” bouncing in the air like a blood-drenched balloon — but the film is basically a set of variations on an old sleight-of-hand blueprint. Except the idea is that it’s now old enough to seem new again. (That’s part of the requel formula.) “Scream” doesn’t rewrite the rules of the “Scream” playbook. In a funny way, it ardently recycles them and condescends to them at the same time.

The film was directed by the team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who got their start making segments of the 2012 cult anthology horror film “V/H/S.” They lure us into their winking celebration of the pleasures of trash horror in the funny and effective opening sequence, where Tara (Jenna Ortega), alone at home like Drew Barrymore in “Scream,” keeps getting called by the killer, who wants to talk about scary movies and play a game, except that Tara is an indie-film snob who looks down her nose at slasher films; her idea of a scary movie is “The Babadook.” As the killer gives her a quiz she can’t pass, she cries out, in desperation, “Ask me about ‘It Follows’! Ask me about ‘Hereditary’! Ask me about ‘The Witch’!” It’s the “Scream” prelude as comment-board debate.

The killer, Ghostface, quivery as always in a way that weirdly humanizes his homicidal plastic shroud, comes out of the woodwork and attacks Tara, but she survives, and we’re soon introduced to the film’s gallery of friends and suspects. Tara’s older sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), would seem to be a safe bet for innocent, except we learn that she was a drugged-out black sheep for five years, abandoning her family after she learned who her real father was. (Hint: It’s someone from the original “Scream.” Though maybe not as scary a prospect as David Arquette.) Sam is a protective sister but riddled with psychotic flashbacks. Her boyfriend is Richie (Jack Quaid), who is so tall and genial and curly-haired in a latter-day Judge Reinhold way that…well, it could be him. (In these movies, it could be anybody.) Amber (Mikey Madison) is a hellion, and Mindy, centered in her film-fan-in-chief arcana, is the sort of person whose hyperrationality may be a mask. In an amusing moment, she’s watching “Stab” on TV, telling a hapless character who’s laying on the couch to “Turn around!” (because Ghostface is right behind him), and meanwhile she’s doing all this while seated on a couch with Ghostface right behind her.

Would anyone yell “Turn around!” at Mindy? I may be wrong, but the potential audience for the new “Scream” doesn’t strike me as a talk-back-to-the-screen generation; that would be uncool. Of course, one of the reasons people seek out scary movies is to undo their cool — to have it pulled out from under them — but “Scream” isn’t a wildly scary movie. It does have shocks, jolts, and one ingenious sequence in which a character is poking around a kitchen, and we expect the killer to jump into the frame, but he keeps waiting and timing the attack, stretching out the suspense like taffy. The film does its best to mix Cox, Arquette, and Campbell into the heart of the action, but they feel, inevitably, like tribal elders who we’re supposed to revere because of their “Scream” pedigree, even as that very dynamic gets skewered with a biting reference to bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back to the “Halloween” series. “Scream” is a movie crafty enough to let you see through its tricks. But I’m not sure, in doing so, if it’s wittily postmodern or just transparent.

Reviewed at AMC Lincoln Square, Jan. 11, 2022. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 114 MIN.

Production: A Paramount Pictures release of a Spyglass Media Group, Project X Entertainment, Radio Silence Productions production. Producers: James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Paul Neinstein. Executive producers: Gary Barber, Cathy Konrad, Ron Lynch, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Oillataguerre, Chad Villella, Kevin Williamson.
Crew: Directors: Matt Bettinellli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett. Screenplay: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick. Camera: Brett Jutkiewicz. Editor: Michael Aller. Music: Brian Tyler.
With: Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding, Marley Shelton, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Dylan Minnette, Kyle Gallner, Sonia Ben Ammar, Roger L. Jackson.

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Scream review: Time to give up the Ghostface

Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox return for a belated victory lap that’s thrilled with its own meta-ness while only sometimes being scary.

Senior Editor, Movies

In today's Scream , all the doors lock shut with a reassuring thunk via smartphone app. That pesky landline ringing off the hook — who even has those anymore? — is ignored. And when it finally does get answered, and a menacing voice oozes out (26-year franchise vet Roger Jackson, in fine form) with a signature question, "What's your favorite scary movie?" the answer he receives is more brutal than any blade, serrated or otherwise: " The Babadook ," snaps high-school kid Tara ( Jenna Ortega ), a fan of smarter "elevated horror" films like Hereditary and It Follows , certainly not the "cheeseball" stuff in which "everybody had weird hair."

Scream is long past over, its mid-'90s post– Pulp Fiction moment burning hot and brief. These days it gives off nostalgic warmth, not fear. Insolent Tara does get paid a visit by the iconic Ghostface (a stabby, hard-R attack that oversells the viciousness), and maybe that's this franchise's revenge on the better movies that have arrived in its wake. Yet as its exhausted non-title would suggest, 2022's intermittently fun and dull Scream has a game plan firmly, doggedly in place. It's very much your father's Scream . You're not going to be scared by it, but you may like being swaddled in something as cozily familiar as Freddy Krueger's sweater.

Going in, you expect a young, expendable group of future corpses, and co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (part of the scrappy horror collective Radio Silence behind Ready or Not and V/H/S ) have sharp casting instincts, throwing off our urge to pick the killer ahead of time. Tara survives her attack, bringing home to fictional Woodsboro her protective older sister Sam ( In the Heights ' Melissa Barrera) and her doting, good-guy boyfriend Richie ( Jack Quaid , a ringer for his dad, Dennis). Other Gen-Z types assemble on couches and at house parties, fodder for the concept.

You're not coming for them, though. Scream trots out its legacy cast with the flourish of a magician pulling off a well-practiced trick. Who's that confident mom and self-help author walking in the park and looking over her shoulder? Why, it's Neve Campbell , returning as final girl Sidney Prescott. And that big-shot journalist stepping out of a car at a crime scene? Tilt-up and it's none other than Courteney Cox's Gale Weathers. Eventually, they'll become an efficient tag team and killing machine themselves — nothing fazes them, several sequels in.

Sometimes, the age has helped: David Arquette , thicker and salt-and-pepper-bearded, still possesses a charming stiff-necked awkwardness as ex-sheriff Dewey, fallen on hard times. Now he even has a survivor's grandeur. (Less so another returning character who shall remain unspoiled for now, who doesn't seem to have changed his acting methods — or his t-shirt — since 1996.) When Jamie Lee Curtis committed to David Gordon Green's unusually smart 2018 reboot of Halloween , her bitter, haunted grandma with a penchant for weaponry made sense.

Here, the older actors don't have a rationale other than: Do it again. Scream 4 , the last installment from 2011, took a stab at internet celebrity and Kardashian-era emptiness; you admired its overreach even if things didn't quite gel. Working from a screenplay co-written by Zodiac 's James Vanderbilt, this new and presumably final chapter takes shots at everything from toxic fandom to Rian Johnson and Snyder-cut obsessives demanding their own endings. Once again, those attempts at timeliness don't feel coherent so much as thesis-ready and opportunistic.

Ultimately — and to its unimpeachable credit — the first Scream was, at root, a solid piece of craft, director Wes Craven's third horror classic after 1972's The Last House on the Left and the Reagan-era essential A Nightmare on Elm Street . (Let's throw in The Hills Have Eyes , too.) While the new movie is laced with Easter eggs and homages to the late master, it doesn't build its sequences with the same meat-and-potatoes solidity as Craven did. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett don't have those chops yet. Go ahead and poke fun at elevated horror, but until you attain that level of technical command and depth, you're just bringing a very large knife to a gunfight. B-

Pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly's Ultimate Guide to Scream , available online or wherever magazines are sold.

Scream (2022) Review

14 Jan 2022

Scream (2022)

“How well do you remember the original?” That’s a question posed by the new Ghostface killer (or is it “killers”?) in the fifth Scream movie’s obligatory opening phone-call murder-game — and it’s also the film’s central preoccupation. If the confusing title (‘5cream’ was right there — the kind of numerical title wordplay the film itself pokes fun at) hadn’t already tipped you off, the most meta of movie franchises has returned to take a stab at Hollywood’s latest trend: legacy sequels. Or, as the movie dubs them, ‘re-quels’ – a sequel-reboot hybrid mostly focused on new characters, but taking place in the continuity of the original film in order to bring back the old characters everybody loved. Think David Gordon Green ’s Halloween or Nia DaCosta ’s Candyman . Stripping back the title while also stripping the series back to basics is all part of the game. And playing games has always been Scream ’s modus operandi.

In a way, the underrated Scream 4 did this already — fittingly, for a franchise and filmmaker always so ahead of the game, Wes Craven cooked up a legacy sequel in 2011 before they were even a thing. Kudos, then, to incoming directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (previously behind the riotously fun Ready Or Not ) for not only delivering a film worthy of the late horror great, but for making their Scream more than a rehash of a re-quel of a trilogy of self-referential slashers.

As the re-quel rules dictate, there’s a fresh protagonist here: Sam Carpenter (that surname is no accident), played by In The Heights ’ Melissa Barrera, who proves that she can scream her lungs out as well as she can sing them. When her estranged younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) is slashed up by Ghostface in the opening reel – yet another homage to the original’s Drew Barrymore sequence, but with the sly wit, playful dialogue and shocking brutality required to successfully pull that off — we spend a significant amount of time with Sam, her supportive boyfriend Richie ( The Boys ’ Jack Quaid , a comedic standout) and Tara’s friends (a Gen-Z bunch raised on so-called ‘elevated horror’ like The Babadook and Hereditary ), bedding in with the newbies before the inevitable return of the legacy heroes.

Crucially, after the passing of Wes Craven, the spirit of Scream remains alive.

Even though Neve Campbell , David Arquette and Courteney Cox have returned for every Scream movie, there’s still a thrill in seeing them back in action ten years on – and, in true re-quel style, their return brings extra emotional baggage. The old chemistry between Arquette’s cop Dewey (the MVP of the oldies here) and Cox’s ambitious TV anchor Gale retains that familiar spark, now with a melancholy edge. While that depth is welcome, it comes at the expense of the knockabout fun the pair brought back in the old days — and the film lingers a little long on the serious stuff in its central act before cranking up for its bloody finale. Campbell easily slips back into the shoes of original final girl Sidney — but, as we’re frequently reminded, this is not her story. How die-hard fans will react to choices made with the legacy cast remains to be seen — but the film itself is ahead of the game, playing on the propensity for fan outrage that’s all the, well, rage these days to laugh-out-loud effect in the third act.

Crucially, after the passing of Wes Craven , the spirit of Scream remains alive. Even though the series has already been referencing and remixing itself for 25 years now, there are still fun new twists to mine — even if some clichés (Did you really just leave that lift? Don’t forget your inhaler!) are required to keep things moving. The Ghostface killings remain scalpel-sharp (a slow-mo neck-knifing is particularly gruesome), Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ once again adorns the soundtrack, and familiar faces and locations bring a welcome frisson. Much of Scream takes place at a party thrown “to Wes” — a teenage rager, packed with potential victims who’ll make ideal fodder for Ghostface’s knife. It’s just what he would have wanted.

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Scream (2022), common sense media reviewers.

Gory "re-quel" in meta-horror series is still wicked fun.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Somewhat unexpectedly, primary takeaway is that gl

Sydney Prescott is a pretty decent role model for

The two new main characters are played by actors w

Extreme, over-the-top horror violence and gore. Gu

Two scenes with kissing. A couple discuss "going u

Frequent use of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a

Netflix mentioned several times. Pizza Hut box vis

Brief sequence of teens drinking at a party (shots

Positive Messages

Somewhat unexpectedly, primary takeaway is that glorifying violence only brings about more violence. In earlier movies, Gale gained fame by publishing books about the murders; here she decides to keep the story to herself and "let it die" on its own, without inspiring any more copycats.

Positive Role Models

Sydney Prescott is a pretty decent role model for a horror hero: She's more than the traditional "final girl"; she's a true survivor, tough with sharp instincts. But she hasn't closed herself off, either; she still has room in her heart for her kids and friends. She does rely a little too heavily on firearms. Gale has overcome her earlier backstabbing ways to become an admirable, powerful person.

Diverse Representations

The two new main characters are played by actors with Latino backgrounds (Mexican and Puerto Rican), and main group of friends includes Black siblings. Secondary characters include a Chinese American police officer. Two of the three "legacy" characters are women with agency and power.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Extreme, over-the-top horror violence and gore. Guns and shooting. Many, many stabbings. Spurting blood, blood sprays, bleeding wounds. Characters die, dead bodies shown. Character catches on fire. Characters fight, kick, and punch the killer. Broken leg. Fall from high place. Teen girl in pain, peril. Ghost appearances. Character threatens with switchblade.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two scenes with kissing. A couple discuss "going upstairs" for sex. Sex-related dialogue. Shirtless male in shower.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "goddamn," "dumbass," "douche nozzle."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Netflix mentioned several times. Pizza Hut box visible.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Brief sequence of teens drinking at a party (shots, beer). A character is said to be taking anti-psychotics. A character mentions "doing every drug I could get my hands on" when she was a teen. A variety of liquor bottles can be seen in an adult character's house; later, someone refers to him as having "crawled into a bottle." Teen girl on painkillers in hospital says "I'm so high right now!" Dialogue about teens smoking weed at a party.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the 2022 film Scream is the fifth movie in the Scream horror franchise and is a self-described "re-quel" (i.e., mix of "remake" and "sequel") intended to send the story in a new direction while still involving "legacy" characters like Gale Weathers ( Courteney Cox ) and Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ). In the hands of new filmmakers, the meta-horror idea still has enough juice to produce a lightly flawed but wickedly entertaining shocker for mature fans. Violence is extremely strong and over the top, with lots of blood: spurts, sprays, and gurgles. Expect to see guns and shooting, characters dying, repeated stabbings, fighting, kicking, and punching, etc. Language is also quite strong, with many uses of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," and more. There are several instances of sex-related dialogue, and two scenes with kissing, plus a discussion about "going upstairs." Teen drinking is briefly seen at a party, and there's dialogue about teen drug use and alcohol dependency (many liquor bottles are shown). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (25)
Kids say (90)

Based on 25 parent reviews

5th Scream movie holds up strongly, with some uneven pacing!

What's the story.

In SCREAM, 25 years after the Ghostface Killer first struck, teen Tara Carpenter ( Jenna Ortega ) gets a call from a stranger asking her about her favorite scary movie. Not long after, she's attacked and stabbed. Her estranged older sister, Samantha ( Melissa Barrera ), and Sam's boyfriend, Richie ( Jack Quaid ), return to Woodsboro to be with her. When the killer attacks again, Sam and Richie seek out the retired Dewey Riley ( David Arquette ), who reluctantly agrees to help, describing the rules of survival to a group of Tara's friends -- and adding that the killer is likely one of them. Horror movie buff Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) explains her theory that this is all a "re-quel." Meanwhile, Sam makes the decision to reveal her dark secret, the likely reason for the new rash of killings. Before long, Gale Weathers ( Courteney Cox ) and Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) arrive in town to hopefully put an end to the killings for good.

Is It Any Good?

In passing the torch to fresh blood, this fifth entry in the meta-horror series shows that there are still layers of meta-ness to uncover, fresh scares to experience, and wicked fun to be had. Co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (of the collective "Radio Silence") and co-writer Guy Busick previously gave us the similarly whip-smart, gory Ready or Not , and they tackle this Scream in that same fashion. They also seem to have been inspired by the late Wes Craven 's singular style of filmmaking, with his masterful use of interior spaces as the source of nightmares. One sequence, in which a character putters around in a kitchen, is filled with squeal-inducing traps and false alarms, and when the punch finally comes, it's well-earned.

The movie has lots of fun with the theory of the "re-quel," a movie that relaunches a franchise with fresh characters as well as "legacy" characters in smaller roles (see: Halloween , Star Wars: The Force Awakens , and Jurassic World ). This new Scream is also steeped in the fictional movie-within-a-movie Stab franchise, with one superb scene featuring film buff Mindy enjoying watching it (actually the original Scream ) on television. But this movie also understands and references "high-minded" horrors like The Babadook and Hereditary . Campbell, Cox, and Arquette provide a measure of emotional connection, and new character Samantha is interesting enough to go out on her own. In the final act, the filmmakers fumble their juggling act in a few small ways, but for the most part, this Scream is worth shouting about.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Scream 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary ? Does it concentrate more on fright, suspense/mystery, or clever references? What would make the movie scarier -- or less scary?

How does the movie depict teen drinking and drug use ? Are there realistic consequences? Why does that matter?

What is a "meta movie"? Do the Scream movies benefit from being self-aware? What might be missing?

How has technology advanced since the fourth Scream movie (2011) or even the first (1996)? How is newer technology incorporated into the story?

Movie Details

In theaters : January 14, 2022
On DVD or streaming : March 1, 2022
Cast : Neve Campbell , Courteney Cox , David Arquette , Melissa Barrera
Directors : Matt Bettinelli-Olpin , Tyler Gillett
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Paramount Pictures
Genre : Horror
Topics : High School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 114 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references
Last updated : April 15, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘Scream’ Review: Kill Me Again, Again

Neither a remake nor a sequel, this tired retread can’t move forward for looking back.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

Throttled by a corrosive self-awareness, the latest “Scream” is a slasher movie with resting smug face, so enamored of its own mythology that its characters speak of little else.

This self-referential chatter, disguised as commentary on the franchise-within-the-franchise, “Stab,” means that there’s scarcely a line of dialogue that doesn’t land with a wink and a nudge.

“There are certain rules to surviving a ‘Stab’ movie,” Dewey (David Arquette), now a disgraced former police officer and over-imbiber, tells the latest batch of potential victims. But the knowingness that was cute in Wes Craven’s original picture has, over the course of 25 years and three sequels, curdled into complacency, leaving James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick’s screenplay so marooned in the meta it feels weirdly plotless. Thus Dewey, having suffered a total of nine stabbings during the series, is now viewed as an expert to the teenagers seeking his advice when the Ghostface killer once again stalks the streets of Woodsboro.

This will require Dewey to sober up, rejoin the force and reunite with his longtime crush, Gale (Courteney Cox), now a TV anchor in New York. The eventual reappearance of Sidney (Neve Campbell), possibly the slasher canon’s most repeatedly traumatized heroine, completes the original threesome. Their return to Woodsboro also fulfills one of the rules of this so-called requel — not quite a remake, and not exactly a sequel — as recited by Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown, currently knocking it out of the park on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” ), a high schooler and the script’s main receptacle of horror-movie trivia. What’s a requel without legacy characters?

“Scream” may not define itself as a remake, but much of it wallows in reminders of the foundational film. From the ringing landline that introduces the opening attack, to the painstaking recreation of one infamous character’s home, the movie revels in visual and aural callbacks. Yet by designing a movie that seems solely intended to placate an avid fan base, the directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (two-thirds of the collective known as Radio Silence), paint themselves into a creative corner. They’re so busy looking backward, they’re unable to see a coherent way forward.

Franchises, of course, have always pandered — it’s in their D.N.A. — but rarely has one groveled quite so thirstily for fan approval. The result is a picture so carelessly plotted, and so coarsely photographed, that it traps its cast in a deadening cycle of blasé snark and humdrum slaughter. This makes the touching warmth of Campbell and Arquette’s too-brief appearances feel imported from a more innocent, earnest time.

Also operating on a different plane is the terrific Melissa Barrera as Sam, a fragile Woodsboro returnee hiding a terrible secret. Sam’s back story is little more than a sketch, but Barrera, who mesmerized me for weeks in the recent Starz drama “Vida,” begs us to care about her anyway. She’s a marvel.

Wearyingly repetitive and entirely fright-free, “Scream” teaches us mainly that planting Easter eggs is no substitute for seeding ideas.

“I’ve seen this movie before,” Sidney remarks at a critical moment. Oh girl, I hear you.

Scream Rated R for stabbing, jabbing, slicing and shooting. Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes. In theaters.

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Review: New ‘Scream’ delivers the same classic self-aware chills as its forerunners

A masked figure with a knife tries to force their way into a house as a teenaged girl fights back in the movie "Scream".

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It’s only appropriate for a fan to be anxious about a new “Scream” movie, especially one that arrives 11 years after the last installment, and 25 years after the first film reanimated the slasher genre.

Plus, it’s the first film in the “Scream” franchise not helmed by iconic horror auteur Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Filmmaking team Radio Silence, which includes co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and producer Chad Villella, who made a splash with their breakout horror film “Ready or Not,” are behind the camera this time. And “Ready or Not” co-writer Guy Busick teamed with “Zodiac” screenwriter James Vanderbilt on the script.

They deliver a fifth “Scream” installment that’s even bloodier and just as winking and self-aware as its predecessors.

What made “Scream” so revolutionary in 1996 was its ironic self-reflection; it was a slasher movie that plucked the genre from the straight-to-VHS discount bin and held it up as art by dissecting the rules and conventions of its formula while turning a mirror on the media landscape. Teen TV god Kevin Williamson wrote witty, wordy reams of dialogue, rat-a-tat analyses of horror tropes that made “Scream” something of a screwball slasher. If these characters knew the rules, they could survive the night, or so the wisdom goes.

The “Scream” sequels never lost sight of that self-awareness, revolving around the ultra-meta “Stab” horror franchise about the Woodsboro murders. The sequels are often over-the-top and silly. But they always serve up incisive commentary about movies and the media, capturing the cultural zeitgeist from the ruthlessness of news media to Hollywood’s constant churn of nostalgia and reinvention.

This new “Scream” is plenty sentient too. There’s much to say about the state of the industry, from juicy debates about the notion of “elevated horror” vs. retro schlock, as well as the tendency to constantly reboot and remake. Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) serves as the new “Randy,” a movie maven who explains that the new rash of killings serves as a “requel,” a legacy reboot/sequel that ties the new and old together, and the only acceptable way to revisit a beloved franchise (see also: “Star Wars,” “Halloween”).

Once again, “Scream” is telling it like it is, and it’s even blunter this time. That’s not the only cultural commentary. The killer behind the Ghostface mask will inevitably deliver a delicious monologue explaining their motivations: Did the movies make them do it? Or did they want to make it into the movies? Is there a difference? “Scream” has always had a finger on the pulse of the cultural anxieties around media effects, and this time, they’ve scraped the arguments that rage constantly through the internet mob for their villainous motives.

The overall concept, and its execution in the writing, is classic “Scream.” If there are quibbles to be had, it’s that the new film’s attention feels divided between the old and the new, with not enough time or space to fully develop everyone’s personal motivations. Iconic final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) finally passes the torch to Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), who isn’t like other (final) girls. She’s molded more like action hero Ripley than she is the vulnerable and steely Sidney, bringing an aggressive physicality previously unseen from our slasher heroines and channeling the darkness behind her eyes. The kills are exceptionally brutal and bloody, shot with a greater sense of realism as to the strength and heft that goes into the actual slashing.

While Barrera and the rest of the cast ably take on their roles, Jack Quaid, as Sam’s bumbling boyfriend Richie, steals the show. He’s a neophyte in the world of the slasher, but he’s a quick study, picking up just why the “Stab” franchise went south, and why Ghostface might be itching for a rematch. In a world filled with requels, you’ll be glad Ghostface picked up the knife one more time.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Scream'

Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes Rated: R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references. Playing: Starts Jan. 14 in general release

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[Review] ‘Scream’ Carves Up Killer and Heartfelt Commentary on Horror and Wes Craven’s Legacy

Our Scream review contains no spoilers. You’re safe!

History tends to repeat itself. We’re meant to look to the past and learn from its mistakes. That holds true in life and in horror. Wes Craven ‘s seminal 1996 slasher dissected the patterns of the genre with a self-referential wink while going for the jugular, but horror has evolved tremendously since. Some rules hold firm, and some no longer apply. Discerning which is which isn’t as obvious or straightforward. The new Scream takes a hard, thoughtful look at Craven’s legacy and the genre, carving up brutal commentary while holding up a bloodied mirror.

James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick ‘s screenplay evolves the franchise in clever and deeply poignant ways. It’s been twenty-five years since the original series of murders in Woodsboro and a decade since the events of the last string of slayings. That means scar tissue has long developed over old wounds for both Woodsboro and its legacy players, as well as a semblance of peace. That is until Ghostface reappears and targets a new generation of Woodsboro teens. How Vanderbilt and Busick graft a wholly new story onto the familiar is just one of the many impressive surprises in store for fans.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett dedicate Scream to Wes Craven, and the horror master’s imprint looms large over their film. It’s not just in the reverence that appears in the subtle, minute details but in the measure taken to imbue this entry with its history and the characters’ organic maturity and evolution. As intrinsic to the film as Craven’s memory is, the filmmakers make it their own. There’s a parallel conversation happening on screen and behind the camera that overlaps in many ways. Scream very much belongs in this universe as an affecting continuation, but it looks and feels different, too. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet never lose their voice or vision in their tribute, and the baton from one generation of horror filmmakers gets effectively and seamlessly passed to another.

The filmmakers couldn’t have assembled a more perfect cast, either. The newcomers get plenty of room to breathe and develop, each ensuring Woodsboro feels just as lived in and textural as it did twenty-five years ago. It ensures that the deaths continue to hurt. Oh, do they hurt; this franchise hasn’t lost its edge at all in its visceral violence. Not everything works to perfection. A specific effect gets a little distracting, and some fake-outs don’t land as intended. But they’re very, very minor flaws in the grand scheme. None of it detracts from how exhilarating revisiting this slasher world feels or how it still manages to keep you guessing all these years later.

Nestled deep at the center of a fascinating story lies the familiar self-awareness and respect for the genre. Only this time, that’s broadened to a surprising degree. It looks outward as well as inward. It dovetails so nicely with the narrative that the third act’s impact hits hard.

Scream defies simple expectations. It’s a clever examination of the genre and how it’s shifted since the ’90s without ever losing focus on building a deeply engaging story that makes you care. The stakes are higher than ever in many ways.

The filmmakers kick the year off with a knockout horror movie that gives all the thrills, chills, triumphant cheers, feels, and a body count you could want in a slasher and then some. To deliver something that feels like a warm horror hug yet unpredictable and new is no small feat. Scream is as much “For Wes” as for the franchise’s stalwart fans, made by savvy fans. It sidesteps the recent trend of legacy sequels in ingenious ways and fearlessly forges forward with a keen eye for which rules to make or break. It makes for a breathless, razor-sharp slasher worthy of the legacy.

Welcome back, Woodsboro. We missed you.

Scream releases in theaters on January 14, 2022.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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THR notes, “The new Monstervese feature is described as a continuation of the franchise centering Godzilla, Kong and an assortment of other Titans.” Stay tuned for more.

Adam Wingard, meanwhile, is returning to his roots with Onslaught , an action-thriller for A24 that’s said to be more in the vein of his earlier movies You’re Next and The Guest .

Wingard had directed both Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong .

We had recently learned that Dave Callaham ( Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ) is writing the upcoming (and untitled) sixth movie in the Monsterverse franchise.

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Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Scream (2022)

January 14, 2022 by Robert Kojder

Scream , 2022.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mikey Madison, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Sonia Ammar, Marley Shelton, Kyle Gallner, Roger L. Jackson, Reggie Conquest, and Chester Tam.

Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new Ghostface emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.

Suspension of disbelief is often critical for a captivating cinematic experience. Under flimsy direction, unbelievable bits can begin to stack up and entirely remove one from the story. Case in point, Scream (technically the fifth entry in the series and the first not to be directed by all-time great Wes Craven, with Ready or Not filmmaking duo – collectively known as Radio Silence – Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, similar to its predecessors, opens with a character answering a landline phone only to be terrorized by the iconic Ghostface killer (returning menacing voice of Roger L. Jackson). Granted, the filmmakers probably realize such communication devices are a thing of the past and are only utilized in this opening sequence for some good old nostalgia; it still takes one out of the film ever so slightly.

Scream also instantly pulls the viewer right back in with a demented fresh spin on these infamous calls, transitioning them into a twisted game of Stab trivia (the movies inside the cinematic universe based on Scream ) that are laced with a combination of toxic fandom and amusing conversations regarding “elevated horror” suggesting a finger on the pulse of these respective dialogues. It’s a wickedly funny, dread-bursting, nail-biter of an opener that generates a ton of suspense and sympathy for the inevitable victim. There’s also the temptation to say this introduction is the best part, but that would also be a disservice to simply how damn entertaining Scream is throughout.

The script from Zodiac writer James Vanderbilt and regular Radio Silence collaborator Guy Busick (based on characters created by Kevin Williamson) also has the ambitious sense to take the familiar deconstructive and meta storytelling elements outside of the limited confines of the horror genre, applying it to the trend of legacy sequels ranging from slasher fare like Halloween to the divisive resurrection of Star Wars . It’s also a confident script that’s not afraid to openly call out what’s going to happen and stick to the rules in some regards while carving out its own path in other areas. There’s also plenty of misdirection, including a rather large red herring that could be a gateway into continuing this year is more further down the road (the fact that it doesn’t factor into the climax at all is somewhat shocking).

As a result, the whodunnit aspect of identifying the killer is exponentially more engaging, offering a more comprehensive range of motives even if it’s clear that toxic fans have something to do with it. As previously mentioned, up until now, there have been four other Scream installments, but in the film’s universe, Stab is in dire straits, artistically bankrupt with excessive sequels lacking an understanding of the series (a glimpse of one of them shows Ghostface rocking some ridiculous attire while sporting a flamethrower). Someone is looking to inspire artificial real-world inspiration for a reboot, and their reasoning seems to be connected to the past.

That’s all I want to say about the plot, as the less you know about the characters, the better, whether they are returning beloved faces or fresh slaughter bait. However, it’s fair to say that giving Melissa Barrera (who gave one of quite a few revelatory performances in the criminally underseen In the Heights adaptation) the spotlight works wonders and that she is backed by a terrific ensemble that all lean into slasher and mystery tropes with pleasant self-awareness. They accuse one another of being the killer while in the process casting doubt on our own preconceptions of who it could be. Again, it’s also smartly written enough to know what to be subversive about.

None of this is to say Scream is outstanding, as there are also several moments where characters are guilty of committing some of the dumbest horror movies sins (David Arquette is fantastic once again portraying the now-retired Dewey as a broken-down man with severe nerve damage, even if the character makes at least one facepalm were worthy decision). Some of the emotional beats also feel forced, although they potentially might land for those in love with this franchise or did a rewatch of the first four before this. There are also one or two strong conveniences to make the reveal work, but again, with strong execution, those thoughts quickly fade away or hardly register as majorly frustrating. Whether it’s Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, or one of the new additions, it’s safe to say everyone here has a moment to leap off the screen showing some personality or reason to either deduce them or place them on the suspect list.

It’s also a straight-up, well-crafted bloodbath, not afraid to toy with viewers teasing jump scares while also unleashing Ghostface at unexpected moments. In particular, a hospital sequence sticks out as pumping the heart with urgency and fear, unafraid to place some of those legacy characters in real danger. We also want the newer protagonists to survive. Naturally, the third act is just as unhinged as every other entry in the Scream series; here, making some intelligent moves with its ties to the original for a damning and worthwhile point regarding the worst of the worst kind of fan. One could almost say it stabs and twists the knife inside toxic fandom. When the ending credits honor Wes Craven, it feels earned.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Millie Bobby Brown's Fantasy Movie Is Now One Of The Most Popular Netflix Films Ever

Godzilla x kong's mothra theory confirmed by director, 10 disturbing sci-fi movie endings that will bother me forever.

The Scream franchise might be one of the horror genre’s most recognizable and influential horror franchises, unabashedly referencing other genre films and going full meta in its plot analysis. After four movies, all directed by the late Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson (save for Scream 3 ), 2022’s Scream gives another filmmaking team the opportunity to infuse the long-running franchise with new energy. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, Scream feels familiar, but it's unafraid of criticizing its existence (similar to how The Matrix Resurrections did it) while providing commentary on the new wave of horror and toxicity in fandom.

Twenty-five years after the first string of killings in Woodsboro, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) returns to her hometown after her teenage sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega), is attacked by a new murderer donning the mask of Ghostface. There doesn’t seem to be a reason why Tara would be targeted by the killer, but Sam soon discovers that Ghostface is back because of a dark secret she’s been harboring from her past. Sam goes to Dewey Riley (David Arquette) for help, which also brings Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) back into the action as they fight to stop Ghostface from claiming any more victims.

Related: Scream 2022 Video Teases Melissa Barrera's Distrustful Sam Carpenter

Even after four movies, Scream — dropping the numeral 5 from its title for reasons that are referenced in the film — continues to be inventive. A big part of what made the first film and its sequels, though perhaps to a lesser extent, so memorable is the whodunit mystery at its center. It was never just about the killings or the reasons behind why the murderers went after so many, but the guessing game that carried the story through to the end. Scream certainly delivers in that respect, with the characters themselves not knowing who to trust as some begin to turn on each other in doubt. In terms of horror, the franchise was never all that scary, and Scream 5 follows in that vein. The killings are serviceable, occasionally gruesome and creative, but not as thrilling as the mystery and suspense that comes with trying to escape being found and stabbed by Ghostface. To that end, the scares are rather underwhelming, but they’re luckily overshadowed by the film’s better qualities.

Every sequel has tried to step up its game and 2022’s Scream is no different, throwing in plenty of meta commentary about old-school slasher films vs. elevated horror and what differentiates them. The new Scream doesn’t leave its fans behind, but it makes sure to speak to a newer audience, one that has grown up with horror films like The Babadook and Hereditary (both of which are referenced in Scream ). The film is sharp, especially in its analysis of horror, slicing through the layers of the genre, the Scream franchise itself, and the rules of surviving. But it’s perhaps most scathing in its commentary about obsessing over the first movie in a franchise and how it can lead to fandom toxicity.

This commentary, among other things, is what makes Scream so good. It recognizes its legacy and history without reveling in it, taking shots at its past without being too self-deprecating, delivering a sequel that has stakes and likable new characters. It’s a balancing act the film pulls off incredibly well for the most part, even getting in a few humorous moments about these things. In one particular scene, the musical score by Brian Tyler grows in intensity after every door is opened, only for something to happen when least anticipated. It’s a great play on the audience’s own expectations of when the killer might strike. When Scream starts to lean too heavily into familiar territory, it manages to turn things around. However, it does occasionally feel a bit too repetitive. Specifically, the need to revisit a certain legacy character in a larger capacity, especially in scenes where the moment is somewhat flattened by his presence rather than elevated by it, is unnecessary.

However. the way the original characters are pulled back into the main plot is organic, giving them their due while taking the time to establish the new additions, their connection to each other, and to past Scream movies. The fifth installment provides an update on what Sidney, Dewey, and Gale have been up to in their lives since Scream 4 without having to give the audience an information dump, sticking to the story at hand. And for the record, Campbell, Cox, and Arquette are still great in their roles. Of the new cast, Jenna Ortega ( You ) and Melissa Barrera ( In the Heights ) are particularly excellent, believably portraying sisters who care deeply for each other, but who have grown distant over the years. Jack Quaid ( The Boys ) as Richie is an outsider to Woodsboro and the actor capitalizes on that fact quite a bit.

Sequels are difficult to do well in a way that expands upon the established story while keeping things fresh, but Scream manages to do that for the most part and in a smart way. It brings in new characters who stand apart and maintains the connection to the other films, all while critiquing these very aspects in the same breath. The horror commentary remains top tier, with the fifth installment proving the Scream franchise has still got it.

Next: Scream Final Trailer: Ghostface's New Weapons Revealed

Scream releases in theaters on the evening of Thursday, January 13. The film is 114 minutes long and is rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.

Key Release Dates

Scream (2022), our rating:.

Movie Reviews
3.5 star movies

Scream (I) (2022)

User Reviews
One of the killers barely has any screen time. We know barely anything about them. It feels like they added them as one of the killers last minute; and I feel like they could've easily fixed this.
The new cast are decent, I'm a huge fan of Tara and hope she becomes the final girl if the characters continue. I love how I expected her to be the first kill thanks to clever marketing. My one gripe with the new characters is they're so flippant! Even after Tara almost dies, the next day they're all bantering about it. And it carries on - the girl twin even regularly jokes about people probably being dead. It's not the suspense I want from Scream ha. Again I think this could've been easily fixed but maybe it was intentional? Commentary on Gen Z?
The legacy characters felt very much like an afterthought. I get it wasn't *their* movie though so maybe this isn't a big deal, but we obviously all love them. Maybe the marketing should have not really had much of them to manage expectations as if they're just cameos. Then everything on top turns out to be a bonus.
I feel like something could have been done to feel different. At one point I thought one of the killers was going to die halfway through (with Dewey in the hospital), and was like wow this is new/finding out one killer then maybe trying to piece together who the other is. Just something fresh. But nah. I know they're sort of remaking the original, but still.
Lastly, it felt like not many people were killed....? Like... 3??? Only 2 being proper characters.
The twins. I'm chuffed they survived, but maybe more gravitas for the girl twin next time ha.
Wes Hicks, I enjoyed him. I wish he didn't die. I enjoyed his Mom too - that was prob my fav scene.
Them coming back to Stu's house from the first movie.
It's probably a good thing one of the legacies died but I'm still gutted by it ha.
I was glad Randy's sister was back.

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Everything we know about scream (2022): first trailer released, paramount officially titles the film scream , announces a january 14, 2022 release date, and unveils new photos and a title treatment..

TAGGED AS: Horror , movies

Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s genre-bending horror franchise is getting new life with new directors, and we’ve finally got a trailer for it.

Sidney Prescott herself, Neve Campbell , will be returning to the series – and is looking forward to it. David Arquette, aka Dewey Riley, is also returning, along with co-star and ex-wife Courteney Cox, who will reprise her role as Gale Weathers. On the film’s official Instagram account ( @screammovies ), Paramount revealed the film’s official title ( Scream ), release date (January 14, 2022), and a couple of new photos, including a title treatment, and on October 12, 2021, the studio finally released the first trailer for the film, which appears to double down on the terror. Read on for all the full details.

[Updated on 10/12/21]

The Old Faves: Neve Campbell is Officially Back, along with Courteney Cox and David Arquette

We can now officially look forward to the return of Sidney Prescott in Scream 5 .

In a Five Favorite Films interview with Rotten Tomatoes tied to her newest project, Canadian drama Castle in the Ground , Neve Campbell revealed she was in discussions about the new film.

“We’re having conversations – I have been approached about it,” she told Rotten Tomatoes. “The timing’s a bit challenging because of COVID. You know, we only started the conversation maybe a month and a half ago, so it’s going to take some time to figure out how it’s all going to work out…. We’re negotiating, so we’ll see.”

It seems she had faith in filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett , whose most recent film was the Certified Fresh Ready or Not .

“The two directors wrote me a very touching letter about Wes Craven and how he was such an inspiration to them and how they really want to honor him, and that meant a great, great deal to me. So we’ll see. Hopefully we can all see eye to eye on the project and find a way to make it.”

Campbell added: “I’m so grateful for these films… I love Sidney Prescott. It’s always fun for me to step back in her shoes, and it’s always fun for me to see the cast come back and make one of these films again and try to make another good one.”

Then, on September 10, Spyglass and Paramount Pictures officially announced that Campbell would be returning as Sidney , removing all doubt and ending the speculation.

All of this came after Deadline recently reported that Courteney Cox would reprise her role as news reporter Gale Weathers in Scream 5 , which will mark her fifth time playing the fan-favorite character. Cox shared an Instagram post which confirmed the news.

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet, otherwise known as the directing duo “Radio Silence” – more on them in a bit – said in a statement: “We can’t imagine Scream without the iconic Gale Weathers and are so incredibly thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to work with Courteney. We’re absolute mega fans of her work and we’re so excited to join her in the next chapter of the Scream saga!”

The Hollywood Reporter also reported that David Arquette – who met, fell in love with, married, and ultimately separated from Cox during their time working on the series – is returning to play Dewey Riley, the Woodsboro Sheriff who has taken a beating – and more than a few stabbings – throughout the franchise. “I am thrilled to be playing Dewey again and to reunite with my Scream family, old and new,” Arquette told THR . “ Scream has been such a big part of my life, and for both the fans and myself, I look forward to honoring Wes Craven’s legacy.”

The New Kids: Related to the Original Killers

While we were all busy wondering which old favorites would be returning, the project announced its first batch of new faces, which will include Jack Quaid from Amazon’s superhero smash, The Boys . The announcement came a week or so after it was announced that Jenna Ortega, who starred in the second season of Netflix’s stalker series, You , and Melissa Barrera, who stars in Vida and the film adaptation of In the Heights , had also joined the cast. According to the new trailer, it seems all the new characters are somehow “related to the original killers,” indicating they are connected to Skeet Ulrich’ s Billy Loomis and Matthew Lillard’ s Stu Macher from 1996’s Scream . Exactly how — and why they’re being targeted –remains to be seen.

It Has a Release Date

It was announced the movie will hit theaters on January 14, 2022.

AND THE REST OF WHAT WE KNOW…

The feverish anticipation for the new Scream movie is a whole different story than the level of buzz – or lack thereof – that surrounded the original film almost 20 years ago.

When Dimension Films announced its intention to release the original Scream in December 1996, critics declared the movie D.O.A. After all, who releases a horror movie during Christmas? But Dimension knew there were a lot of angsty teens looking for something – anything – to serve as an antidote to mistletoe and carols, and the simple question “Do you like scary movies?” ended up receiving a resounding “Yes!” Ever since it stalled out with 2011’s Scream 4 , there have been rumors of the cult franchise’s return.

It is finally coming to fruition, so here’s what we know about the potential return of Ghostface.

Wes Craven’s Baby Is in Good – and Intriguing – Hands

Co-directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin on the set of Ready or Not

Horror icon Craven directed all four of the original Scream films, but sadly the legendary creator of A Nightmare on Elm Street and The People Under the Stairs passed away in 2015. It’s been announced, however, that the Scream baton is being handed to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett , the co-directors of 2019’s Ready or Not . That movie was inventive, brutal, and satirically razor-sharp – in other words, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett seem like a pretty solid pick to breathe new life into this franchise.

The duo, known as Radio Silence, released a statement saying: “It’s impossible to fully express how much Wes Craven’s work and the Scream movies in particular mean to us as fans and have influenced us as storytellers. Kevin Williamson’s incredible stories have entertained and inspired us for decades and we’re insanely honored to have the opportunity to be a part of the cinematic world Wes and Kevin so brilliantly created together. Jamie and Guy’s amazing script does that legacy justice and we’re so excited to bring the next chapter of Scream to life.”

The “Jamie and Guy” they’re referring to are writers James Vanderbilt ( Murder Mystery , Zodiac ) and Guy Busick, who co-wrote Ready Or Not. If you’re wondering whether original Scream scribe Kevin Williamson is involved in the project… scroll down.

Yes, Scream 5 and Scream 6 Were Already Planned

David Arquette and Courteney Cox in Scream 4

(Photo by Gemma La Mana/Dimension Films courtesy Everett Collection)

While promoting Scream 4 in 2011, both Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson confirmed that they had 5 and 6 waiting in the wings, should the latest one be another hit. No plot details for either of them were ever revealed, but it was hinted that they would be the start of a new trilogy based around the survivors of part 4 . After 4 did middling business at the box office (it only grossed $38.2 million in the U.S.), the enthusiasm for another film died out.

Kevin Williamson Is Back

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Kevin Williamson

(Photo by @screammovies/Instagram)

Although he is not listed as writer on the new project as of now, Kevin Williamson has been confirmed to be back onboard at least in an executive producer role. That may turn out to be an honorary credit based on his having written all of the other Scream films and having been – alongside Craven – the driving creative force behind them, but it could also mean he’ll have a more hands-on role. It’s still unclear, but we’re pretty sure Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s Ready or Not writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy would love a stab (sorry) at writing it.

Spyglass Loves a Good Revival

The rights to the Scream franchise rest with the newly reminted Spyglass Media Group, which is itself a comeback story . Originally founded as Spyglass Entertainment in 1998, the production firm came out swinging with its first film – the pop culture phenomenon The Sixth Sense . It bounced between distribution deals with several studios before fizzling out in 2010, when founders Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum became co-chairmen and CEOs of MGM Holdings. The company reformed in 2019 and announced that its first project would be a remake of the horror classic Hellraiser. They clearly have a “type” and aren’t afraid to retool fan favorites, which gives credence to the idea that the new Scream may be a fresh start.

Scream Never Really Went Away

(Photo by MTV courtesy Everett Collection)

Although the last film was released in 2011, the Scream legacy actually continued on in the form of an anthology TV series produced by Dimension Television and MTV. Taking place in the fictional town of Lakewood (not the films’ primary setting, which was the fictional town of Woodsboro), the series featured all new characters and aired on MTV and VH1 from 2015 until 2019. There was also a web series called Scream: If I Die that was released in 2016 and featured video confessionals from some of the characters from the series. If the new movie does continue the franchise directly, it’s unclear (and doubtful) that elements from the TV series would come into play.

It Can’t Take on Slasher Tropes Again, Can It?

(Photo by Dimension Films courtesy Everett Collection)

By the time the original Scream came out, horror films of the late ’80s and early ’90s were mired in a loop of increasingly ridiculous cheeseball sequels featuring predictably unstoppable killers and blood-soaked Z-list actors. Scream breathed new life into horror by being self-referential and self-aware. It cleverly mocked horror movie clichés while also indulging in them. Whether it’s a remake or a reboot, the new Scream enters a world in which horror occupies a much different place than it did in 1996. With big time talents like Jordan Peele ( Get Out, Us ), Robert Eggers ( The Lighthouse, The Witch ), Jennifer Kent ( The Babadook , The Nightingale ), Ari Aster ( Midsommar, Hereditary ), and Julia Docournau ( Raw ) bringing horror into art houses and the Oscars, it’s a much more difficult target for satire than Jason Takes Manhattan . The rules have changed, and it’ll be interesting to see if Scream can adapt or if it will once again try and revisit the slasher.

Scream releases in theaters on January 14, 2022.

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Scream 7 Rumored to Include Time Jump and Start a New Trilogy

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The upcoming Scream 7 might reinvent itself, according to a new report. The new installment is rumored to include a time jump and mark the beginning of another trilogy.

The successful slasher franchise reinvented itself with 2022's Scream , the fifth installment of the series, and a sequel to 2011's Scream 4 . The film starred the legacy characters Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, but it also introduced new, younger characters. In the 2022 movie and 2023's Scream 6 , Jenna Ortega's Tara and Melissa Barrera's Sam Carpenter led the series, and they were expected to return for the seventh installment. However, Spyglass fired Barrera for her views on her support for Palestine, and Ortega exited the film shortly after.

Scream's Melissa Barrera Addresses Relationship With 'Super Sweet' Co-Star Jenna Ortega

Former Scream franchise star Melissa Barrera recalls Jenna Ortega's support and the relationship the on-screen sisters have in real life.

After losing the main actresses and director, the Scream franchise went back to basics and brought back Neve Campbell , whose return had been rumored since Barrera's exit. However, it looks like the franchise is planning a different focus than the one fans have been expecting.

According to insider Daniel Richtman, Scream 7 will have a "big time jump" and will focus on Sidney's kids . It's also intended to start a new trilogy , similar to what the 2022 film did (via X user CriticalOverlo3 ). Sidney's children were small, and a time jump might have to go beyond the present day to reach the intended timeline.

Neve Campbell Reveals 'Lovely' Pay Negotiations for Scream 7 Return

Scream franchise star Neve Campbell addresses her return for Scream 7 and how negotiations for the upcoming sequel progressed.

Fans Don't Seem Happy With the Suggested Scream 7 Plot

The Scream franchise has always included a time jump, but it was usually a very short time and it was meant to be a reflection of the current times. Moving the seventh installment far beyond the present day could prove to be quite tricky, especially since it would also have to age its main stars, too, Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers. Courteney Cox isn't officially confirmed to return , but the most recent news indicated she was in talks to reprise her role. On top of that, Grey's Anatomy Patrick Dempsey, who appeared in Scream 3 as Detective Mark Kincaid, was also rumored to be in talks to appear in Scream 7 .

Fans online disapprove of the rumored plot, and shared their thoughts online. "I don’t like that. Scream was always supposed to be a reflection the CURRENT times. Jumping into the 2030s feels weird," wrote one user , with another noting , "A time jump? Another Trilogy? With her kids? I kind of like that Scream is all one big timeline that is in order. It's one of the few franchises doing that."

Introducing a new series of teenagers in recent installments worked wonders for the franchise at the box office. It's unclear how old Sydney's kids were in Scream 5 , but it's difficult to think they could be teenagers by the time of Scream 7 's release, so that the timeline would flow naturally. Bringing back Sydney and Gale for one more slasher would've banked on nostalgia, but it's unclear which direction the new film would take.

So far, Scream 7 doesn't have a production start date or a release date.

The seventh installment of the famous slasher franchise.

Original Scream Star Shares Gratitude for 'Respectful' Return

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Neve Campbell says, "I was really grateful that they came back to me in a respectful way," where negotiations for her return as Sidney Prescott in Scream 7 are concerned.
Campbell is also ready "to step into Sidney's shoes again and tell her story."
Jenna Ortega recently showed her support for the Palestinian cause regarding Israel's attacks on Gaza, which is what led to the controversial firing of her former Scream co-star, Melissa Barrera.

Neve Campbell and her fictional Scream family will soon have to deal with the black-robed, serial-killing Ghostface, because the Final Girl's return to the famed horror franchise after sitting out Scream VI due to salary issues is creeping ever closer. There's definitely plenty of excitement in the air since Campbell is teaming up with creator Kevin Williamson for Scream 7, and the actress admits feeling "sad” when she didn’t return after last appearing in Scream (2022). Campbell also appreciates the “respectful way” she was approached during negotiations to return as Sidney Prescott (per PEOPLE ):

"Those movies have been such a big part of my life, and it means so much to me. And I was sad to miss the last one, to not be a part of it. I was really grateful that they came back to me in a respectful way. I think that means a lot to women and to society. I'm grateful to be able to step into Sidney's shoes again and tell her story."

Scream (2022)

In an earlier interview with PEOPLE, Campbell seemed pleased at how the powers-that-be behind the upcoming Scream 7 approached negotiations to bring the "Scream" Queen actress and her character back into the fold. Campbell said:

“I'm really grateful that the studio heard me when I talked about pay discrepancy and when I talked about [negotiations] not feeling respectful. When they first approached me, I thought, ‘I don't know what respectful looks like to them. We might be in very different places.’ But they started out in a strong place, so that was lovely."

What Will Scream 7's Cast and Creative Team Look Like?

A familiar but altered cast of characters will join forces against Ghostface in Scream 7. Kevin Williamson’s return to the franchise that he created will this time be in the director’s chair, as revealed by a photo of the film’s script on Neve Campbell’s Instagram account back on March 12. Sidney Prescott (Campbell) is definitely back. And if insider Daniel Richtman’s Scream information is accurate, Sidney will be joined by her husband and two children.

Richtman has also reported that Patrick Dempsey could possibly be returning as his Scream 3 character, Detective Mark Kincaid, who is revealed during the events of Scream (2022) to have married Sidney. Another of Scream’s OG performers, Courteney Cox, is reportedly “in talks” to play Gale Weathers again, too. But Scream V and Scream VI’s Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) will be absent from the mix.

Scream’s Melissa Barrera Says She Is ‘Very Grateful’ for Support from Fans Following Firing

Melissa Barrera is "very grateful" for all the support she received from fans online after being dismissed from the Scream series.

Barrera was controversially fired from the franchise for supporting the Palestinian cause regarding Israel's attack on Gaza. Ortega announced she wouldn’t be returning for Scream 7 shortly thereafter. In recent news, Ortega has also shown her support for the atrocities being perpetrated against “thousands of children.” Ortega said in a post via her Instagram account on May 28:

Masses debating over a ceasefire while thousands upon thousands of children continue being slaughtered. Where is the humanity[?]

At the time of this writing, an official release date for Scream 7 hasn’t been announced.

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COMMENTS

Scream movie review & film summary (2022)
The 2022 version of "Scream" is a film for viewers raised on the 1996 version of "Scream" and its three sequels. Whereas the first script by Kevin Williamson turned the kind of conversations that fans had about John Carpenter and Wes Craven in school cafeterias and coffee houses into something daring and riveting, the new script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick exists in a world ...
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Scream 2022 definitely isn't shy about calling back to the franchise's past, but it's still fun and scary in its own unique way. Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the ...
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Scream: Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett. With Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera. 25 years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.
Scream (2022 film)
Scream was released in the United States on January 14, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the direction, performances (particularly Campbell's and Madison's) and tribute to Craven, with some calling it the best Scream sequel.
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Scream is long past over, its mid-'90s post- Pulp Fiction moment burning hot and brief. These days it gives off nostalgic warmth, not fear. Insolent Tara does get paid a visit by the iconic ...
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Scream (2022) Review. When her estranged sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) becomes the first victim of a new Ghostface killer, Sam (Melissa Barrera) and her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) head to ...
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Parents need to know that the 2022 film Scream is the fifth movie in the Scream horror franchise and is a self-described "re-quel" (i.e., mix of "remake" and "sequel") intended to send the story in a new direction while still involving "legacy" characters like Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). In the hands of ...
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The Scream franchise might be one of the horror genre's most recognizable and influential horror franchises, unabashedly referencing other genre films and going full meta in its plot analysis. After four movies, all directed by the late Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson (save for Scream 3), 2022's Scream gives another filmmaking team the opportunity to infuse the long-running ...
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Paramount officially titles the film Scream, announces a January 14, 2022 release date, and unveils new photos and a title treatment. TAGGED AS: Horror, movies. Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's genre-bending horror franchise is getting new life with new directors, and we've finally got a trailer for it. Sidney Prescott herself, Neve ...
Scream 7 Rumored to Include Time Jump and Start a New Trilogy
The upcoming Scream 7 might reinvent itself, according to a new report. The new installment is rumored to include a time jump and mark the beginning of another trilogy. The successful slasher franchise reinvented itself with 2022's Scream, the fifth installment of the series, and a sequel to 2011's Scream 4.The film starred the legacy characters Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, but it also introduced ...
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