Scream is the fifth instalment in the Scream franchise and the first not to be directed by Wes Craven. This time the reins are taken by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (who previously made Ready or Not) and the film features series regulars Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox and new faces like Melissa Barrera and Jack Quaid.
So, this is a slightly strange one for me as I’ve never actually seen a Scream film before. I’ve been meaning to watch the original for a while, but as soon as a new ones out, its of course not on any streaming service. But I am aware of the famous quotes and moments and the fact that it is not a 100% serious horror film.
In this film, my issue was just that the film was just too knowing. The characters spend a lot of time directly referencing the fact that this is just like the last time and isn’t it bad how films do reboots where they bring back the old characters and all this stuff and personally I just found it tiring and not particularly funny. Its an interesting film to see just after Matrix Resurrections, as I think they are both trying to do something very similar and, while not perfect, I think Matrix does a much better job than Scream.
The best spoof/parody films like Hot Fuzz or Airplane (and from what I understand, the original Scream) do a good job of balancing the humour and parodying the tropes of a genre, without having to grind the film to a screeching halt to say, hey isn’t this stupid! They also make time for character and story, something which if you removed all the fourth wall breaks, wouldn’t be that interesting in this film.
I’ve seen a lot worse than this film and its honestly just a bit lame rather than being an insult or anything, but there are also a lot better versions out there of what this film is trying to do, so I can’t really recommend it that highly. 2 Stars.
Movie Night 