So much has changed the past 25-plus years, but somehow the “Scream”Franchise can still get a good jump out of a ringing phone line.
With new blood and familiar faces, “Scream” (★★½ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) dusts off the old formula and makes a few tweaks as the fifth installment in the long-running meta-slasher horror franchise. Original stars Neve Campbell, Courteney CoxAnd David Arquette return – as well as the mysterious killer Ghostface – for a film that’s gorier and less playful than previous films. Even a fresh batch of newcomers can’t keep the staleness from creeping in, although the new “Scream”It cleverly mines the modern cinematic discourse to justify its existence.
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The fictional small California town of Woodsboro has a plenty bloody history so it’s no surprise when Ghostface shows up for the first time in a decade hunting a new crop of teenagers all related to the locale’s murderous past. After Tara (Jenna Ortega) is attacked in the film’s signature violent opening, her older sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) – who got the heck out of Dodge years ago, for non-Ghostface reasons – drives back to Woodsboro with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) in tow.
Tara’s friends worry that they’re next, for good reason. They’re either connected to someone from the earlier movies – for example, Wes (Dylan Minnette) is the son of Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton, reprising her “Scream 4” role) – or an archetype of past characters, a la horror-fiend Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) who walks her peers through the “rules”They need to learn how to survive. Sam is the character that must most deal with her past and haunted location on the journey to Ghostface.
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The true experts are the ones who survived earlier melees. Lawman Dewey (Arquette) stayed in town and has seen better days, though when Ghostface reappears, he texts Sidney Prescott (Campbell), the franchise’s iconic “final girl” and now a concerned mom, and old flame Gale Weathers (Cox), who’s hit the big time as a New York morning-show host. Although the trio are reunited, it is a pleasant sight for long-time fans. They often focus on fleshing out their newer characters.
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the duo behind the devilishly entertaining horror comedy “Ready or Not,” take on a “Scream”Film that addresses the problem of ignorance “requel,” Hollywood’s favorite new way to freshen up franchises with an installment that’s both rebootAnd sequel akin to the new “Halloween” and “Star Wars” movies. (The latter especially seems to be an inspiration – “Scream: Ghostface Awakens”(This would have been a fitting title.
The younger characters have a meta discussion about how no one likes how the eighth “Stab” movie – the films within the films of the “Scream” movies – was an “elevated horror” project a la “The Witch”And “Hereditary.” And like 2011’s surprisingly good “Scream 4,”The film cleverly tackles real-world culture. It’s also a showcase for a lot of budding movie-star talent, most notably Ortega, Barrera, Quaid and Brown, though Arquette also gets a chance to turn in a great multilayered performance.
This franchise is clearly far better than the worst (sorry,). “Scream 3”) and not quite to the level of the late Wes Craven’s innovative 1996 original, Ghostface’s latest slice-and-dice through Woodsboro checks all the appropriate boxes though lacks some of the quirky fun that marked previous entries. Sure, there are plenty of one-liners, callbacks and gruesome kills barreling toward a revelatory ending that makes up for the missteps, but “Scream”Misses the chance to have a joyful attempt at something completely new
