“What’s your favorite scary movie?” We all know that phrase well, and if you don’t, chances are you’re at least familiar with the white face mask and black hood, or otherwise known as Ghostface. I recently watched the new Scream (2022) or 5CREAM or Scream 5…. whatever you want to call it. As a long time Scream fan, I was looking out for this, but not exactly looking forward to it. I was expecting something unworthy of my attention, seeing as Kevin Williamson (Scream‘s original writer) and Wes Craven (Scream‘s original director, RIP) were both not involved in this project, outside of Williamson being EP. However, I’m happy to say I actually had a really good time watching this, although it’s not anything great and I don’t have much to say about it, I’m going to try my best to write about this film for all of you.

Scream has been a franchise since 1996 when director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson joined together and made a meta satire based on the horror genre, only for it to then go on to become one of the most iconic horror films of all time. It became a franchise consisting of four films, spanning from the original in ’96 to Scream 4 in ’11. After Wes Craven sadly passed away in 2015, thoughts of another Scream film slowly drifted away. That was until the original three, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette, posted about a new Scream film wrapping up filming. I was originally excited, but once the trailer came out my excitement quickly went away. However, as I said in the beginning of the review, I still ended up having a good time. This film was a lot more violent than I expected and I loved that. Most of this film is just a fan service and mainly consists of references from the franchise, but what else would you expect from a Scream film in 2022?

Before I get in depth on why this film worked for me (on some levels), let’s get the negatives out of the way. The performances from the new cast, as well as the returning cast, didn’t necessarily feel special or memorable at all. Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, who take up most of the screen time, left me feeling nothing for their characters and somewhat uninterested, which is also a fault of the writing. The writing in this film is simply not the same as the writing that made the Scream franchise (excluding the third) so memorable. The screenplay isn’t necessarily bland, it’s just too bland for a franchise that typically uses clever writing to its advantage; it doesn’t bring the same energy as its predecessors (excluding Scream 3). There’s also many story elements and certain scenes that just don’t make sense or simply don’t feel needed. Without spoiling anything, there’s a very strange scene where two characters die and no one seems to react to it. There’s also a very unnatural story element that was added to one of the main characters, which was interesting to say the least. In complete honesty, this film is just average; however, as a lover of the franchise, I couldn’t help but have fun with this.

The kills are violent, the references and call backs were intriguing, and it overall stayed true to the original. This film is nowhere near as good as the first or second (defiantly better than the third though), but it wasn’t a disappointment or embarrassment to the franchise. Scream (2022) is a fun film with a lot of cool elements and some great kills, and for a film that’s not trying to accomplish anything more than that, it did a solid job. Although I can’t see this being someone’s “favorite scary movie”, I still recommend seeing this in theaters while it’s there- you’re in for an exciting time.

3.5/5 – There Are Certain Rules That One Must Abide By In Order To Successfully Make a Scream Sequel.