Have no fear, new "Scream" reveres past but feels as fresh and daring as original

Scream (2022)

Over 25 years ago, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson’s “Scream” changed how we watched pop-horror movies. Scary movies have always followed a very simple formula, but Craven and Williamson broke the rules, making one that was scary, fun, intentionally funny, and smart about genre tropes. The prospect of making a fifth “Scream” that was just called “Scream” and still included “legacy characters” without the late, great Wes Craven would make any diehard fan equally trepidatious and excited. It’s not like there was any doubt in directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (collectively known as Radio Silence), whose 2019’s surprising, thrilling, dementedly funny “Ready or Not” was one of the best genre offerings of an already-strong year, but it would likely pressure any filmmaker to have a lot to prove. Well, “Scream” fans can breathe and rejoice. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have cracked the code, bringing “Scream” into 2022 with expert, loving hands and delivering a love letter to Wes Craven and fans by honoring the past with a fresh coat of blood.

Mirroring the original film’s unforgettable cold open with Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker but catching up to the times, the pre-title sequence goes back to the basics. As the “Stab” movies (based on the Woodsboro murders in the “Scream” movies) have kept going with diminishing returns, there is a fan (or fans?) out there about to take their love of “Stab” one step too far. Sure enough, a new Ghostface killer (indelibly voiced by Roger L. Jackson) calls a landline and terrorizes a teen with some high-stakes movie trivia. The plot proper begins when a family emergency has college-aged Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) rushing back home to Woodsboro. She brings along her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid), and together they must get to the bottom of who’s targeting her estranged younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) and her friends. They seek help from an expert, washed-up sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), who's at his lowest point. Once Dewey runs down the rules on how to survive this situation, they look at the suspect list, including twin siblings, queer movie geek Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and jock Chad (Mason Gooding); Chad’s girlfriend Liv (Sonia Ammar); Tara’s girlfriend Amber (Mikey Madison); and Wes (Dylan Minnette), the safety-first son of lemon square-making Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton). When Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) catch wind of the new string of killings in the town they left behind, they realize the Ghostface killer is somehow connecting everything to the past, and Sam could probably use a hand or two.

The “Scream” movies have always commented on current genre trends (sequels, trilogies, reboots) in very pointed, self-reflexive, even funny ways, while still being suspenseful, thrilling, bloody, and completely involving whodunit slashers. This “Scream” is no different, being reverent but remaining fresh and daring. The screenplay by James Vanderbilt & Guy Busick is packed but taut, economically colliding characters’ pasts with the present in a few audacious decisions that probably sounded even more bonkers during the writing process. The stakes are plenty high when it comes to who lives and who dies and how the 1990s still informs the 2020s. Also, have no fear, Vanderbilt and Busick infuse the film with this series' brand of meta-humor, still applying an encyclopedia knowledge of the genre and now sharply and affectionately calling out “requels” (not even “Halloween” and “Star Wars” are spared), “elevated horror,” and even toxic franchise fans.

Like comic-book fanboys being treated to the euphoric sight of their favorite superheroes in one movie, horror enthusiasts will share that same thrill when “legacy characters” Sidney, Gale, and Dewey come back. They are not just giving cameo-sized “special appearances,” and the reasons for their return are justified. Each of their characters has been through a lot, together and individually, and we can feel the weight of their long histories just in small, tender glances. While this isn’t directly Sidney’s story anymore, her presence, along with Gale and Dewey's, is absolutely vital. It’s a testament to Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette’s tireless and unexpectedly poignant work that, while their characters may be fed-up with yet another murder spree and have moved on, these actors look happy to be back. And you bet Campbell gives Sidney the backbone she’s always had, as well as the delivery of a couple of choice words to the killer.

As sparing but well-utilized as the former main players are, Melissa Barrera (an instant star after 2021’s “In the Heights”) leads the way as our possible final girl Sam, and she is just as tough, complex, vulnerable, and root-worthy as Neve Campbell was when she first played Sidney. While she gets a lot of heavy lifting to do with expository dialogue that feels awkward and written early on, Barrera is, in her own right, always earnest and emotionally available, while proving to have a lot of resiliency and badass fight in her. Jack Quaid (TV's "The Boys"), son of you know who and Meg Ryan, also endears and makes every joke land as Sam's supportive beau Richie. Like “Scream 4,” there’s a new generation of Woodsboro High School characters-cum-suspects to introduce (some of which are just red herrings or bodies for Ghostface’s hunting knife), and the actors are all up to the task of taking what's on the page and making it even better. At the top of the standout list is Jenna Ortega (2021's "Yes Day"), with her direct, instantly likable, and accessible screen presence, making an immediate impression and selling the hell out of every overwhelmed emotion as younger sister Tara. Jasmin Savoy Brown (a rising talent in horror indie “Sound of Violence” and Showtime’s “Yellowjackets”) steals her scenes as Mindy Meeks-Martin, who could have merely been a savvy horror-movie aficionado’s mouthpiece or a female Randy in a key “elaborate monologue” but brings an infectious charisma to all of her killer line deliveries; we want Mindy to make it.

As self-deprecating about fandom as it is, this “Scream” does not “fuck with the original." In fact, it has all the love for the original and this entire series by servicing us long-timers and feeling like a genre revitalization as much as the 1996 classic. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett clearly have affection for these movies and want to do this material justice. Even in obligatory fake-outs where characters open and close doors, the directors confidently subvert audience expectations at every turn. There’s an appreciable uptick in brutal viciousness and the level of danger in the kill set-pieces, and it feels completely crucial here as much as the clever technology updates with smart locks and iPhone location finders. The climax at an old location is an ingenious place to end on for a funhouse-mirror third act, coming to a fever pitch with playfully tense (and shocking) moments between characters pointing fingers and then committing the dos and don'ts in horror movies. One wouldn’t dream of revealing the misdirects the filmmakers have up their sleeves, and up until that unmasking, we are effectively thrown off more than a few times. The whodunit part of the story could go any number of ways, but the route it ultimately takes is a supremely satisfying and twisted ride staged and performed with go-getter enthusiasm, proving all bets are still off. Cinephiles should also keep their eyes peeled for a very knowing, sublimely nutty nod to a recent Quentin Tarantino joint.

For someone who was shaped by "Scream" and holds the entire series dear to their heart, 2022’s “Scream” is an event that feels like it’s speaking directly to fellow fans. It meets expectations and then surpasses them, while acknowledging that no sequel or requel can outdo the original. The part-threatening, part-mournful Marco Beltrami score is obviously missed, but that’s less of a criticism, speaking as a “Scream” lover, especially when one can make out several familiar, comforting compositions. Other aspects of the production are quite solid, from the ruthless editing that doesn’t waste any time, to the cool, threatening lighting scheme in a hospital. The directors have also planted plenty of little Easter eggs the correct way; if you’re a casual moviegoer and you miss it, that won’t detract from the experience. It’s pretty much in the bag that longtime “Scream” fans will be buzzing throughout and thereafter, but more recent fans will be welcomed, not alienated. Now that this celebratory relaunch of "Scream" has become an exhilarating and rewarding reality, it can be confirmed that Radio Silence has done Wes Craven proud. 

Grade: A -

Paramount Pictures is releasing “Scream” (114 min.) in theaters on January 14, 2022.