Scream Resurrected
What do franchises owe us as fans? Do they have the duty to cater to our whims and desires? How about going with a formula keeping the fans happy while forking over their money? This trend has been an ongoing debate online as popular franchises and films resurrected for a new audience. Specifically, within the horror community, franchises such as Candyman, Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and others have been brought back from the dead and rebooted the franchise while also serving as sequels to the originals. The newest Scream is a fun and tense movie that feels cut from the same cloth as the originals, but it creates something new. Simply put, Wes Craven would be proud of what the team accomplished in the film and keeping it relevant to the current state of horror.
Following Scream 4 in 2011, the MTV show of the same, and Wes Craven’s death in 2015, the film franchise lay dormant. Craven’s death hit the hardest due to his intrinsic connection to the franchise. Instead of trying to replicate what made the first four films so beloved, Radio Silence brings its style and flourishes that capture the franchise’s spirit. Scream evokes the original but does not feel like a cynical nostalgia cash-grab of the original movies.
A notable standout in the film is the new characters. Instead of being centered around Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette), the movie focuses on sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega). As much as I love the original trio, I am glad to get some fresh blood that proves they can be the next generation of Woodsboro teens that can carry the franchise forward. Sam and Tara are the highlights of the film. Their relationship is messy, complicated, and feels very realistic. In addition, Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin, the niece of film fanatic Randy Meeks, had some of the best comedic moments within the movie and is great canon queer representation in the franchise. With Scream and Yellowjackets, she has cemented herself as a rising star within the horror genre.
Aside from the new blood, I enjoyed seeing the original trio return. A lot has changed from Scream 4, and it was a great decision to have them be a supporting cast to the teenagers. Arquette gets some of his best work in the franchise as an older and retired Dewey who spends his day in his trailer drinking beer and bad coffee as he watches Gale, who now hosts a morning talk show. After his near-death injuries in the film and his wrestling career in real life, this is a more reluctant version with some hesitations about returning when the killings begin again. It takes a while for both Cox and even longer for Campbell to return to the story. Gale still has the hunger for a story but also regrets whether or not she has allowed the cycle to continue by publishing books about the previous murders. Despite being married and having kids, Sidney returns to Woodsboro to close off that chapter of life. Her connection to Ghostface cannot ever go away no matter where she lives. In one of my favorite moments, Sidney talks to Sam about being a final girl and advises her about what to do. If this is the send-off of the original three, then it’s done well.
In a similar fashion to the past films, there is a lot of blood. The special effects in the movie are fantastic. I do not want to spoil it, but there is an extraordinary moment with Tara and a knife in the opening. As the film goes on, the blood and gore increase dramatically. The set-pieces as well are very strong. The hospital is quite the highlight. Along those lines, the deaths in the movie pack weight. I will not go further into it, but some of them took me by surprise. The characters killed are not cannon fodder but demonstrate that no one is safe as the survivors try to figure out who the killer is.
Keeping in line with originals is the meta aspect of Scream. Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson rejuvenated the slasher sub-genre by pointing out and playing on the sub-genre’s cliches and tropes with Williamson’s hilarious and intelligent dialogue. Since the original’s release, very few films can meet Scream on that level of self-awareness without it feeling forced or repetitive. With Williamson on as an executive-producer, 2022’s Scream manages to avoid the pitfalls of similar films mostly. Not all of the meta aspects work, and sometimes it can be a bit too much in your face, but Scream has never been a subtle franchise. The movie discusses toxic fandom and the entitlement of “real fans” with franchises. There are mentions of elevated horror (The Babadook gets a shoutout a few times) and how the last Stab film made fans angry and felt like an attack on their childhoods. Scream exists as the right movie for the horror genre right now.
While watching the movie, I kept thinking about 2018’s Halloween and last year’s Halloween Kills. Both Halloween and Scream are requels to their respective franchises, but Scream did it better. I enjoyed Halloween at the time, yet Halloween Kills has slightly enlarged my opinion on it. I am not trying to say that a film made for the fans is terrible, but Halloween Kills exists for specific franchise fans and caters to them. Then comes the new characters. The Halloween reboot series squandered Karen and Allyson and felt like spinning wheels of what it wanted to be. This is not me trying to pit both franchises against each other. I would not be surprised if the new Scream causes similar arguments and discussions online due to it examining toxic fandom.
Much like the original, Scream is a breath of fresh air. Even with its missteps, it’s a great film that examines the current nature of horror. It’s great to get a sequel that is not afraid to take risks that might alienate certain fans or even hold up a mirror to those same fans. It should be interesting to compare Scream to the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre comes out since it is a direct sequel to the original. Scream proves there is still blood within the franchise and the slasher sub-genre while successfully carrying Craven’s legacy with it.
