Scream (2022)

 Year of Release:  2022

Director:    Matt Bettinelli-Oplin and Tyler Gillett

Screenplay:  James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, based on characters created by Kevin Williamson

Starring:    David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown,  Mikey Madison, Sonia Ben Ammar, Marley Shelton

Running Time:  114 minutes

Genre:  Horror

In the small town of Woodsboro teenager Tara (Ortega) is brutally attacked in her home, by a knife-wielding assailant dressed in a Ghostface mask.  The mask and manner of the attack harkens back to a series of murders committed in Woodsboro twenty five years earlier, which were quickly immortalised in the popular Stab horror films.  Tara's sister Sam (Barrera) and her boyfriend Richie (Quaid) return to Woodsboro to help her, but it soon becomes apparent that the attacker hasn't finished yet , and as the body count rises, Sam begins to believe that she is the one the killer is most interested in targeting.

The original Wes Craven directed Scream was released in 1996 to massive critical and popular acclaim.  At a pretty bleak time for horror films Scream managed to work as a horror film while also commenting on and poking fun at them,  the characters were aware of horror films and the "rules" that they work by.  Just as Scream commented on horror films, Scream 2 (1997) dealt with the rules of sequels, Scream 3 (2000) dealt with the rules of trilogies, Scream 4 (2011) examined the rules of franchises and now Scream (2022), or Scream 5 if you prefer, examines what the film terms  "re-quels", which are those films that work partly as sequels and partly as reboots, they acknowledge the existence of previous instalments, and bring back fan favourite characters, while focusing on new characters (think Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) for a textbook example),  Another element that set the Scream franchise apart from other slasher films was that the survivors, rather than the killers, were who would return for each film.  While the killer, or killers, would wear the same Ghostface costume in each film, their identities were different each time around.  However the tormented Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), ambitious tabled TV reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and small-town cop Dewey Riley (David Arquette) would return for every film.  While the new Scream follows many of the same key plot beats as the original, it is different enough to feel fresh.   It is fun and nostalgic to see the familiar faces reprise the same roles again, even if the reminder of the passage of time is a little less welcome, but the new characters are engaging.  While you may be able to guess some of the revelations before the end, there is still enough surprises to keep it intriguing.  The films does target such contemporary issues as reboots and toxic fandom, as well as the so-called "elevated horror", but even if it isn't as funny as the original, it is fun, and there are enough gruesome slayings to satisfy fans.

Ghostface return in Scream

Scream

Year of Release:  1996
Director:  Wes Craven
Screenplay:  Kevin Williamson
Starring:  Neve Campbell, Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, Rose McGowan, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy
Running Time:  111 minutes
Genre:  Horror, thriller, comedy

In the small American town of Woodsboro, teenager Casey Becker (Barrymore) is tormented by taunting phone calls from a mysterious masked killer, who brutally murders her when she fails his twisted movie trivia game.  As Woodsboro becomes a media circus, it becomes apparent that the killer is particularly focussing on Sidney Prescott (Campbell), whose mother was killed almost exactly a year before.

Some films seem to perfectly capture a particular time period, and Scream, to me, is one of the definitive films of the late 1990s.  The look, style and music really capture that period.  Horror was pretty much in the doldrums at the time, and slasher films in particular were as dead as if the genre had gone out at night to investigate a strange noise, until Scream brought it back.  The film's great idea is that, unlike most of the slashers that had gone before, the characters here are aware of slasher films, and are fully aware of the conventions of the genre.  Audiences sometimes watch horror films and scream in laughter at the stupidity of the characters, this film second guesses that audience by having the characters on screen do it for them (literally in one scene where a character is watching Halloween (1978) oblivious to the killer looming up behind him, and equally unaware that he is being recorded and watched in a TV news van, where the people watching are shouting the same things that he is saying to Jamie Lee Curtis).  The characters are frequently discussing horror films and enumerate in detail the rules of a slasher film.  However Scream is not just a spoof of horror, it works as a slasher film in it's own right, screenwriter Kevin Williamson  obviously loves and knows horror, and director Wes Craven was one of the great horror directors, cutting his teeth on the controversial The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) before unleashing Freddy Krueger onto the world in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).  In fact Craven had explored similar post-modern territory before with Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), which I still think is the best of the Elm Street series.
The film's most recognisable star, Drew Barrymore, is killed within the first quarter of an hour, in a scene that quickly became iconic.  Star Neve Campbell was known for the TV show Party of Five (1994-2000) and Courteney Cox, who starred as tabloid TV news journalist Gale Weathers, made her name in the hugely popular Friends (1994-2004).  The characters are well-drawn and, crucially, Williamson and Craven seem to genuinely like them, so it is affecting when they are in danger, they are not just there to be sliced 'n' diced.  The fact that the film is not just a gory slasher, but it has humour, teen drama and mystery, meant that it's appeal moved beyond the horror fans.
To date, the film has spawned three sequels, and a TV series.    

Courntey Cox, Jamie Kennedy and Neve Campbell in Scream