Movie Review: Scream

With the “Scream” films, director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson examined and tore apart and subsequently rebuilt the conventions of modern horror films, ushering in a new form of horror that is still utilized today. Although the films in the series – which began in 1996 with the original Scream, and continued with Scream 2 (1997) delivering diminishing returns, Scream 3 (2000), and mercifully ending the spent series with Scream 4 (2011) – did re-energize a genre that had become stagnate with never-ending versions of the serial killer terrorizing kids just trying to “have a good time,” it eventually fell victim to the same fate becoming a parody of itself by the fourth film. 

Now, eleven years later, the story is taken up yet again in the originally titled Scream, a disappointing and often painful film to sit through as it lacks any of the wit or creativity that made the initial film – and sporadic parts of the subsequent sequels – even remotely entertaining. 

Taking place twenty-five after the killings in Woodsboro (that is, the events of the first film), the 2022 installment of Scream tells the story of a copycat killer who has taken up the Ghostface mantle and is dispatching teenagers to bring the town’s past to light. Initially targeting Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), the killer eventually sets his sights on her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) and her friends. This leads the new group of teenagers to seek out the help of Dewey Riley (David Arquette) to survive the latest Ghostface attacks. It is at this point that Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) return to Woodsboro to offer their expertise in surviving the attacks they will all inevitably be facing. 

Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in “Scream.”

While directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett may be ostensibly trying to create an ode to Wes Craven’s tetralogy, what they and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick have instead concocted is the very type of film that the original film was deconstructing. In that sense, the series has folded in upon itself. The story is a tedious slog that never finds any traction and instead moves predictably from one scene to another. Even the presence of series stalwarts Campbell, Cox, and Arquette cannot keep the film from descending into an almost painful display of self-parody. 

Many fans of the series may look upon the new edition of Scream with nostalgia and adoration that should instead be channeled into renewing their relationship with the original film in some way. The film is dedicated to Craven. Unfortunately, he deserved far better than this. 

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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