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Scream (2022)

A review by Forrest Humphrey 

After a decade of absence, the Scream series has graced us once again to hang lampshades on recent horror trends and provide yet another psycho in the Ghostface costume to chase Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette around. The original trilogy existed to deconstruct the beloved slasher movies of the 70's and 80's. The fourth film was made to comment on the many reboots and remakes coming out at the time and this new film, if the title wasn't the giveaway, is here to tell us what it thinks about the new series of horror films that are reboots/sequels holding the same name as the original. AKA, 2018's Halloween, 2021's Candyman and more have come along, so its time for Scream to wink and nod while doing the same thing.

Sidney, Dewey and Gale are all present as you'd expect, but they aren't the central protagonists. Instead, as with the aforementioned films, they are the experienced veterans here to be the rock for a new generation of would-be Ghostface victims to hang on to. Its a fun, likable and sympathetic cast of characters. The new cast are all pretty good here, not a bad performance to be found. The soundtrack hits the right notes, and the film is wonderfully shot. There are also several amazing kills for slasher fans to enjoy, this might actually be the most brutal Ghostface to date. There are also several Easter Eggs to be found for long time continuity fiends to fish out as well.


Sadly, this marks the first Scream film without beloved horror director Wes Craven at the helm. Instead we have Radio Silence taking over, the duo of filmmakers responsible for the fantastic Ready or Not. These guys know how to make a comedy-horror, and while I do feel the aforementioned film is a little stronger, I feel they knew what they were doing with the reigns of the Scream franchise in their hands. After a week to stew on it, I actually think this is the best entry since the original, although its not without some issues of course. A couple elements are overly silly for how grounded the franchise usually is, and if you don't like how meta Scream is, then this one is NOT going to get you on board. 


Overall however, I feel the series is in good hands if they do decide to keep going. The film looks and sounds good, the cast is solid all around and its paced well. Consider this a recommendation. 

Rating: 3.5/5





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