'Scream' Review: Radio Silence Builds Upon the House that Wes Built
R: Sequences of strong violence, brief strong language, and suggestive material
Runtime: 1 Hr and 54 Minutes
Production Companies: Spyglass Media Group, Project X Entertainment
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Writers: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mikey Madison, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Marley Shelton, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Sonia Ben Ammar, Dylan Minnette
Release Date: January 14, 2022
In Theaters Only
Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.
It’s a new decade, so you know what that means! Ghostface is back with a brand new bag. If there’s anything Ghostface is gonna do, it’s stab your ass and talk shit about the current state of horror cinema while doing so. Though much has changed since Scream 4, including the passing of series director Wes Craven in 2015 and the evolution of horror films since the arrival of A24, it’s up to Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence) to take up the mantle and build upon the house that Wes and Kevin built.
Since ‘96, nobody has been able to crack the code to strike the perfect balance of hilarious meta-commentary and gory violence with exceptional kills. Not even Craven and Williamson themselves were able to capture that energy again. The Radio Silence boys saw that Scream series on MTV and said, “Gen-Z, y’all are in a crisis. We’re on the way.” While Scream 4 sort of fumbled the ball for the millennial culture, Scream 2022 is the perfect update for the TikTok crowd. From the intense cold open that recreates the classic intro of the original (with a Gen-Z coat of paint involving smartphones), instant Google searches, and new scream queen actress Jenna Ortega, it tells you right off the bat that it’s Gen-Z af. Ghostface asks his new victim Terra (Ortega) what her favorite scary movie is and when she responds with an elevated horror movie — because, come on, what else did we have in the 2010s? — that familiar comedic flair we all know and love starts to hit hard.
It wasn’t until this week of release that I binged all four Scream films for the first time. Though this is the first non-Craven entry since his passing, there’s a lot of love put into his baby in tone, style, and visual presentation that would make him proud. While I felt Scre4m didn’t particularly flesh out its thematic message to the best of its abilities and aped the grim lighting of horror movies of the era that it tried to poke fun at, Radio Silence perfectly captures the ‘90s look of the trilogy by bringing color back to Woodsboro. It emulates the same feel and looks that are fitting to the franchise respectfully without being cheesy. Due to the lighting being clear as day, you get to relish the nasty and brutal kills throughout. While capturing the energy of the original, the directors make subtle cues that poke fun at the state of horror while using shot types of classic horror masters like Hitchock. Though you never get to the same level of creativity as Rose McGowan and the garage doggie door, it never shies away from showing you how nasty Ghostface can fuck you up before stabbing you in any given area.
The focus is shifted onto Terra’s estranged sister, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), a woman who must return to Woodsboro after her sister’s attack by a new Ghostface killer. With the assistance of her boyfriend (Jack Quaid), her sister’s group of friends (Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ben Ammar, Dylan Minnette, Mikey Madison), and the o.g. crew, including Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) whom she shares a connection with, it’s up to Sam to solve this new age mystery. As expected, the entire ensemble of old and new bring their A-game with hard-hitting performances — especially from Quaid, Arquette, Barrera, Brown, and Ortega — that leave you with thrills, chills, laughter, and even tears.
In typical Scream movie fashion, this entry is entirely self-aware that it’s a sequel and tries to be as critic-proof as possible. Nearly everything you write down as criticism is directly addressed and you have no choice but to cross out whatever you jotted down in your notes. It even addresses the most predictable part of this Scooby-Doo mystery that you can see coming from a mile away. This doesn’t negate the fact that it’s predictable as hell, but through hysterical jokes and meta-commentary, the top-notch dialogue penned by Vanderbilt and Busick is solid.
Recently, we had Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up try to talk shit about the current state of politics while being surface-level as fuck. This film, on the other hand, delivers an in-depth, grade-A takedown of the current state of cinema with sequels, franchise IPs, and how toxic fandoms keep fucking everything up. In the vein of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, which subtly deconstructed how to break free from derivative fan expectations, and Lana Wachowski's Matrix Resurrections, which talked trash about the studio’s demands for a reboot and allowed her to update her legacy despite whatever fans say, Radio Silence openly point the finger to the entitled neckbeard fanboys who bitch and moan over how a modern update or sequel ruined their childhood. If a lame surface-level satire about the state of politics today like Don’t Look Up can get touted as an awards contender, then Scream 5 — an in-depth satire about the current state franchise IPs — better get the Best Picture nom in the coming year. It might as well say, “Fuck the JJAbramsification of Hollywood and all the franchises that sucked on his teat of nostalgia. We’re pro-Last Jedi.”
After watching all the Scream movies in the past two days and getting to know the “legacy” characters, this entry brings them back in a charming manner with a new (if not meta) direction. There are so many intricate cinematic parallels that close the series circle while making your heart flutter. There are so many great subtle cues that work as a means of furthering Sidney, Dewey, and Gale’s motivation to return to the place that gave them a shared trauma. I didn’t expect to care about these characters so much throughout five movies, but after binging them all, seeing these characters evolve as people despite the quality of the mysteries they had to solve, some moments made me choke up, if not outright cry. I don’t know about you, but I instantly fell in love with all these minor supporting characters who made lives for themselves and had kids of their own. I get that these reboots always force a cheap way to connect new-age characters with the original ones, but the Scream franchise has always done a good job depicting Woodsboro as a community that feels organic.
Scream 5 finds that balanced tone of being bloody violent as a horror flick and outright hilarious as a meta-commentary on film today. It oozes love for Wes’ franchise as the directors and writers did what he and Kevin Williamson would’ve done: talk shit and show you a bloody good time while doing so. With a killer cast, killer humor and dialogue, and killer… kills, this new installment is undoubtedly the best entry in the franchise since the first. For a January movie, Ghostface stabbed me in the chest and said, “You’re gonna give this a high-ass star rating like you did Paddington 2.”
