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Join UsStar Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Sonia Ammar, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mikey Madison
Director(s): Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
What’s Good: It’s not as bad as the ones following the original, but that’s about it!
What’s Bad: The only scene the film contains a ‘scream’ anywhere, is when the title appears!
Loo Break:Â Only if you’ve to miss a couple of random killings by a random killer behind a mask!
Watch or Not?:Â If you’ve been a die-hard fan of the franchise – go for it but if you’re going for it because you’re a die-hard fan of this genre – don’t.
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 115 Minutes
User Rating:
Retaining the ‘scream-ness’ of the story, we are welcomed with a girl alone in the house doing random sh*t when she gets a call asking what her favourite scary movie is. Now, even those who haven’t followed this franchise know what happens after a random stranger talks to you on the call late at night & you’re alone at home. Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) is hanging around chatting with her best friend Amber (Mikey Madison) when the franchise’s bad guy Ghostface shows up attacking her.
Tara survives & reunites with her long-long sister Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), who is back in her home town with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quai). Sam, to tackle Ghostface, takes help from Dewy (Dewey Riley), a member of the OG Scream trio. Dewy with the help of OGs Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) & Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) agrees to help to find out the identity of Ghostface. We all know how this ends, so let’s stop BSing around.
Scream Movie Review: Script Analysis
Writers James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick try to do exactly what Ehren Kruger did with Scream 3 but under the guidance of the franchise’s master Wes Craven. Is this better than Scream 3? A 100% yes. But, was that even a bar to match? Nope. Unfortunately, the gold standard of this franchise remains to be the one that started this all. This one does get the closest as compared to whatever tomfoolery the makers did after the original, but even that doesn’t make this one anything memorable. In the name of elevated horror, this doesn’t elevate a single thing. If you can see jumpscares coming at you from miles, those aren’t jumpscares those are just scares that aren’t even scary.
A character suitably defines the story of every Scream in a single line: “Every decade, an idiot thinks it’s a great idea to put on the Ghostface mask, kill his friends and get famous.” This also describes my feelings for this franchise as a whole. Every few years, few creative people think it’s a great idea to put someone behind a Ghostface who’ll kill his friends, in a village that has seen more deaths by an unknown stranger behind a cheap mask than COVID-19. In this franchise, the only thing more important than COVID-19 vaccines its town Woodsboro needs is better security cameras.
Brett Jutkiewicz’s camerawork is the only thing that retains the feel of a horror film bettering the lazy writing at many places. Michel Aller’s editing is crisp & doesn’t stretch the sequences but that doesn’t help in adding many unwanted ones.
Scream Movie Review: Star Performance
Melissa Barrera as Sam will convince you about how much messy the situation is, but that won’t necessarily mean you’d want to be in it. Her performance is just as it should be in such films but is led down by multiple other weaknesses. Similar thoughts for Jenna Ortega, who plays Tara. Her efforts are pretty visible but in the end, they absolutely aren’t following the right direction.
Dylan Minnette should at least have 13 reasons why he chose this role & one of them should be a fat paycheck. The OG stars Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell are just to lend a helping hand & they’re just about okay at it. Nothing wow.
Scream Movie Review: Direction, Music
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett are exactly in the right direction to where this franchise is headed to. Keeping a proper mix of modern & vintage in the same storyline, they’ve retained a similar flavour with a fresh twist. The only party-pooper here is the monotonous, predictable AF story which should get better by Scream 7.
Brian Tyler’s background score blends in beautifully well with the situations providing a better scare than the scene itself. Though the usage of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ classic Red Right Hand would always remain questionable. Why touch a standard you can’t match by reusing a song which is already mastered, done & dusted by Peaky Blinders?
Scream Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, if you’ve been a die-hard fan of the franchise – go for it but if you’re going for it because you’re a die-hard fan of this genre – don’t (Yeah, I loved this line so much, I used it twice because mah review, mah rhulz!).
Two stars!
Scream Trailer
Want to watch something other than the scary genre, read our Spencer Movie Review here!
Scream releases on 14 January 2022.
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