Synopsis
Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new Ghostface emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett.
Written by James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick, and based on characters created by Kevin Williamson.
Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Marley Shelton and Jack Quaid.
Released currently in UK cinemas
Note: I've put the SPOILERS after the standard review portion, so if you want to skip them just don't scroll down past the warning.
Review
The much anticipated new release, I was amazed that I managed to avoid seeing the trailer or spoilers (I even only vaguely saw the poster), and after seeing the film... I'm not sure that was entirely sensible, I should probably have knocked down my anticipation a bit by looking at all of it.
The Scream franchise has long been one of my favourites, the lighter kind of horror that isn't actually that horrific. (Maybe I'm just a little jaded.) Controversially, my favourite is Scream 4, I enjoyed the slightly updated concepts, and that's what gave me some hopes for this fifth instalment.
Woodsboro once again feels the weight of its history when Ghostface comes back to torment the locals, bringing home its most famous residents.
A young girl, Tara, has the typical Scream opener, setting off the latest spree. With all this happening it draws her estranged sister back to town, and she feels the need to investigate the recent incidents. But she needs help, so she enlists one of Woodsboro's experts who has seen his fair share of Ghostface. As the killer gets closer to their end game, Sydney and Gale are drawn back to try and end his legacy.
That's a tried and tested formula, so it's a reasonable decision to go with it, but the execution didn't hit right for me. There were too many points that just weren't believable, even with the suspension of belief for this type of film, and this was yet another film that really overegged the fact that it was trying to be clever. (I'm going to put a list of my particular peeves below so you can avoid spoilers if you want.)
While all four of the previous films we have some different aspect to them to set them apart from each other, here, while they do have a new twist, the rest is just a rehash. Which I get, that's the point, but that only works if it's executed well.
Our returning cast were as you would expect, great repeat performances for their characters. The new additions... well, I felt like they would have been better suited to a spoof than a "serious" horror movie. While I wasn't keen on their performances, the script also didn't help them much. The prospect of seeing any of them again in the next one (yes, Scream 6 has been greenlit) doesn't appeal.
Sam is our lead character, and she's no Sidney Prescott. While her backstory has potential, it's definitely not realised in this film. There's little chemistry on screen and a distinct lack of terror befitting someone in this role.
I did go and see it twice, I genuinely thought I must have missed something. This was a similar feeling to when I saw Endgame, initially I was not a happy bunny, but the second watch was a definite improvement. Here that sadly wasn't the case. There was that same feeling as the first time, no excitement to come back and see it again, and absolutely no love for the way the storyline unfolded.
The score for this is a little upsetting, it puts it at my least favourite of the franchise. The few bits I found enjoyable had no chance of outweighing the bad, this definitely won't make it out of fifth place in the series ranking. Will I watch it again? Sure. When it's streaming, and in a rewatch before 6... but apart from that, I will have to relegate it to the pit I threw Die Hard 5 into.
What you should do
If you're going to watch it, you're going to watch it. But I'd say just rewatch 1 or 4 instead.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
Neve Campbell's again ability.
So here you get your warning, countdown to spoilers! Don't scroll if you don't want to read them! (I have tried to still keep them as unspoilery as possible.)
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SPOILERS incoming...
Where to start? I'm just going to list everything and waffle with no coherent form I think.
- Timeline - No matter how you cut it, you can't make Hicks have a child her son's age given the film timelines.
- I just don't buy those two as the killers. Particularly as in one instance there was clearly no physical way that the person could have been Ghostface... in my opinion.
- Like Scream 2, I could see a mastermind behind the idiot movie motive murderer, and I don't think either of the two killers could have come up with that themselves... more on that below.
- I have two ways I would have rather seen this film end. One has logistical issues, but I'm sure there would be ways around it:
- In the run up to release there was chat about whether Stu was back. I could have gone along with this. Dewey could have known, as there's a moment in the film where he can admit it to Sidney. There would need to be an explanation as to why he wasn't locked up and there was no follow up afterwards, but if we skip that for now. I could see him returning to his old house, finding that nut job there, and then grooming them and finding the second online. It would have made a great third act reveal.
- Using a similar scenario to above, Dewey snaps after having split from Gale and hitting rock bottom. He wants to be the top story for once (and he would say exactly that to Gale). He stumbles across the online forum and discovered that he's got the perfect accomplice nearby. Blah blah blah, same as above. Although I would be devastated to see this happen, it would be much easier to deal with than what actually happened.
- My favourite bit of the movie was the reaction to the body bag, that really got me in the feels.
- I was entirely fed up with watching the fake outs. Is Ghostface behind any of these million doors Wes is opening? The answer is no, no he's not.
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