Michael Foster-Sanders
senior producer
michael.foster-sanders@my.tccd.edu

In 2022 the horror franchise “Scream” celebrates its 25th anniversary with the fifth installment in the series simply labeled “Scream.” 

It’s a requel — remake and sequel — which is quite prominent in this day and age. But, considering the stigma behind horror movies just being cash grabs and not quality cinema, it’s a blessing that the franchise still exists.

By 1996 the slasher subgenre in horror movies was dead in the water compared to its heyday in the 1980s. Slasher icons that once rivaled the Universal monster lineup were looking flabby and sick with their new movies that longed to capture their glory years. Wes Craven’s “A New Nightmare” was too ahead of its time with Freddy Krueger becoming meta. “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers’’ was an abysmal mess muddled with studio interference by The Weinstein Company. Last, but not least, “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” had Jason in the movie for around 6 minutes.

Director Wes Craven licked his wounds from the failure that his return to the Freddy Krueger franchise was, ready to leave the “horror genre ghetto” until he read a script from Kevin Williamson, and the rest is history.

The iconic Ghostface was born from the popularity of “Scream” (1996), and the film was meta before meta became cool with its pop culture and horror movie references of the real world. “Scream 2” created a movie within a movie with the “Stab” franchise, which retells the previous films for the people in the “Scream” universe.

“Scream” (2022) tells the tale of toxic fandom with its charm of being meta. Horror fans around the world hate that “Stab 8” is disregarding things that made the movie franchise great. Horror fans are pissed that it’s going the way of the new wave of elevated horror that A24 movies tend to be.

Someone decides to get the franchise back on track to its slasher horror roots and realizes real-world material is needed, so Ghostface recreates the first movie murders by bringing the gang back to Woodsboro to manifest the reboot of the franchise. 

No one is safe in this film, from the legacy characters to the new generation. Unlike other recent horror movies, “Scream” (2022) will make the viewer feel real dread and hopelessness against Ghostface’s hopeful future “Stab” film manifestation.

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett show their love for the franchise by sticking to late director Wes Craven’s style for the film, and with Williamson being the executive producer of the fifth entry, it stays true to its roots of being a slasher movie with comedy elements.

The visceral kills are to die for in this entry with Ghostface being as ruthless as ever. Multiple stab wounds, disembowelment and fire are some of his modes of disposal to the victims.

The only issue that some viewers might have is the gimmick of the visions that one of the characters has with a legacy character, but this could work for future installments adding that “elevated horror” feel to the “Scream” universe.

“Scream” shows just because a film is dumped in the movie hell of January, that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be successful.