Usually, when you get to the fifth installment of a franchise some weak areas start appearing, that winning formula begins fading and the budget is usually much lower too. Unless of course, you’re the Fast and Furious franchise. Anyway, the filmmakers behind the latest installment in the Scream series, simply titled Scream just to confuse everyone, decided to shake up the formula a little bit. I say a little bit, it feels like a Scream film but the characters and plot feel updated in a very modernised way.
A lot of films that are made after years of being missing-in-action, examples include The Matrix Resurrections and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, have a trope that is being replicated a lot at the moment. That trope in question is bringing back old characters and introducing new characters and having a story that honours the roots of the series but also pushes the series in a new direction. That is basically what Scream attempts to do and to give the film some credit it works really well! The younger generation of new characters are well cast and they have their roles to play within the narrative but there shouldn’t be much of a narrative anyway because this is a horror film after all!
Horror sequels rely a lot on repeating conventions, honouring their traditions and creating inventive ways of making the audience jump or sit in their seats in pure fear. Scream does all of the above except the sitting in your seats in pure fear part, and that’s not a bad thing. As a horror film the film is a success. When characters start being killed off by the masked murderer, the kills in question make you wince and squirm as any good horror should make you feel. If you’re a fan of the previous films then you will definitely enjoy the blood and the gore in this one.
Without spoiling the film the story unravels and unfolds in a very tongue-in-cheek way. The filmmakers understand that you cannot top the original film and the characters that David Arquette, Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell made popularly are not being replaced in this film. Instead the old characters, legacy characters if you will, are naturally woven into the fabric of the film. The filmmakers honour the legacy of the franchise, but the way they chose to honour the legacy is also the downside of the film.
There are a lot of moments that take you out of the film experience and it does feel a little disorientating at times as you attempt to wonder whether this is a spoof of the original or a sequel to the original film. Looking ahead, they could easily make more sequels after this film and again I won’t spoil anything, but the ending does leave all the possibilities open even if some surprising characters end up dead. It is the mystery aspect of the film that works more than the horror aspect, in my opinion anyway.
★★★☆☆
3/5
Scream borrows a lot from its past and does an excellent job in setting up the new generation of heroes as well as honoring the legacy characters. Sadly the tongue-in-cheek style of storytelling does take you out of the film to the point where you feel like you’re not watching Scream but something else that looks like a Scream film, and you will definitely not guess who the killer really is!
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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