It's A Scream, Baby!

"Scream", the latest in a line of reboots to share the exact same name with its original predecessor, is a mostly satisfying fifth entry to the slasher franchise in spite of its flaws

As far as horror properties go, "Scream" exists as a bit of a unique outlier. Unlike other heavy hitters such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween", it's maintained a level of cohesion over the last 25 years that's a rarity for the genre. The past four films were all directed by the late Wes Craven, they all starred the trio of Courtney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell, they all featured scores by Marco Beltrami, every movie was distributed by Dimension Films and three of the four were written by Kevin Williamson. Those commonalities helped maintain a level of consistency and quality to the point even the worst entry ("Scream 3") didn't feel ridiculously out of place. So, it's only natural fans may have had their reservations with 2022's "Scream", which is directed by Matt Bettineli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the duo behind 2019's "Ready or Not"), has a new studio behind it in Paramount Pictures and wasn't penned by Williamson. It's safe to say most of those fears were put to rest.

After her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) is brutally attacked, Sam (Melissa Barrera) travels back to Woodsboro to face her personal demons and a new killer who's donned the Ghostface mask. With the help of her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid), Tara's friends (Dylan Minnette, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison and Sonia Ben Ammar) and the familiar faces of Dewey (Arquette), Gale (Cox) and Sidney (Campbell), Sam reckons with her past and looks to stop the killer once and for all. The film also features Kyle Gallner, Marley Shelton and Roger Jackson and is the first in the franchise to be scored by someone other than Beltrami, with music being provided by Brian Tyler.

The uniqueness of "Scream" extends beyond having the same stars and creative team for most of its run. From the very beginning, the franchise has been fueled by its satirical take on slashers and its meta commentary on horror as a whole. Watching the films subvert, fulfill and verbally identify certain tropes has been part of the draw, which can be difficult to balance while crafting a genuinely gripping murder mystery. That symmetry is something they've been chasing since the first film and they still don't quite nail it here. The usual genre lampshading is ever present, to the point it even pokes fun at horror reboots bearing the same name as the original. However, its fear factor takes a huge backseat to its tongue-in-cheek moments. The script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick does most of the heavy lifting, but the new fresh-faced batch of teens aren't terribly interesting to watch, sans Jenna Ortega and Jasmin Savoy Brown. Returning legacy stars Courtney Cox and Neve Campbell both step back into their roles with ease, but it's David Arquette who gives the strongest performance of the bunch. The direction and cinematography are solid, even though there are noticeable departures from what Wes Craven did previously. Overall, the film is clever enough and the kills are brutal enough to satiate most "Scream" and slasher fans alike. B