Scream
SCREENPLAY: B+
Twenty-five years after the original killings, Ghostface is back in Woodsboro, terrorizing a new set of teens. It will take everything Sydney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley have to save them. The Scream franchise can rightfully be called formulaic. You sit down for a Scream movie, you know what you’re going to get. That can be a bad thing for lots of movies, but Scream’s formula still works. It’s like the old saying: if it ain’t broke, don’t go slashing it to itsy-bitsy pieces. The old formula and the new tweaks crash against each other, clanging like a demented set of wind chimes. Its music is less Kenny G, more Rob Zombie. But you’ll be happy to have it stuck in your head.
ACTING: B
Fans will be happy to hear that Sydney, Gale, and Dewey all maintain their perfect attendance records. They’re all fantastic, especially David Arquette. The moment we see his face in his sad mobile home that smells like spilled bourbon, we understand the toll the years have taken on him. Ghosts (and Ghostfaces) haunt him, as does his inadequacy as a law enforcement officer. He’s not terrible at his job, but he’s far from a superstar. Arquette communicates that balance smoothly and with buckets full of charm. Some of the young actors are also quite good. Some don’t stay around long enough to make a fair call. Thanks, Ghostface. Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, and Jack Quaid are the standouts among the newcomers.
CRAFT: A-
Have you ever played with tangrams? Tangrams are seven small shapes that you can combine into a zillion different bigger shapes, animals, and/or random objects. I love Tangrams. I’m guessing the filmmakers, Matt Bettinelli-Opin and Tyler Gillett, do too. When you watch this movie, notice the narrow doorways, the hanging coats and the open refrigerator doors. They use them like Tangrams, repeatedly arranging them in different ways. They’re not trying to make a tree or a swan or a begging dog. They’re doing it in order to scare you silly. The effect of repeatedly seeing the same items rearranged over and over again is cool because it’s terrifying. It’s also cool because when you realize nothing on your screen is where it is by accident, you start to trust the filmmakers. That gets you way more into the movie.
OPENING SCENE: A
It’s dark out. A girl wearing an earth tone sweater is home alone. She’s waiting for a friend to come over. And then she gets the phone call. If you saw it in the theater, all these details of Scream (96)’s opening scene are permanently seared into your brain. If not, you’ve likely watched the clip a couple thousand times on YouTube. Scream (22)’s opening knows this and has a fun time frolicking with your fears as it riffs on the original’s details. Some parts are the same, some are different. You never know which way each terrifying beat is going to go. That balance of fun and fright keeps running throughout the whole film.
FINAL COMMENTS:
If you’re a fan of Scream, you’ll be a fan of Scream (22). Everything you either love or hate about it is back.
My favorite thing about these films has always been how the characters rely on horror movie history to explain what’s happening. Scream does this again when Mindy explains to her friends that they’re trapped in a requel. Requels are what movies like the Star Wars sequels, Creed, and Halloween have all recently done. Mindy isn’t just explaining how horror movies work - she’s commenting on the modern trends of the entire movie industry. I find this fascinating. Scream movies are now basically recording the ongoing history of movies. Tara tells the caller in the opening scene all of her favorite horror movies. None of them follow the rules that Randy lays out in the original. Horror movies have changed. And Mindy’s requel speech would not have made any sense back in 1996 because requels weren’t a thing. Twenty five years from now, the movies will be completely different than today.
Here’s hoping Scream will still be there, riffing on the evolution of movies in its horrifying, fresh, and fun style.