Scream 4K 2022

"Scream" (2022) is the fifth film in the "Scream" franchise by the great Wes Craven. In fact, "Scream" was the second time in Wes' career that he has rebooted slashers. I guess I could call myself a fan of the Scream franchise, as I had seen all the previous films and didn't like only the third one, I also watched the TV series with the same name (though I only got through one season - the second season was too vanilla). And now, almost 10 years after the death of the great master of horror, one of his most popular offspring has decided to return to the screens (we'll omit the series-misunderstanding of 2019). The duo of Matthew Bettinelli and Tyler Gillette, who made a pretty good horror flick in 2019 called I'm Going to Look, were put in charge. All in all, there were no cosmic expectations for the film, but the filmmakers were encouraging, and the critics praised the film at length without mentioning lesbians or fashion trends in their reviews (although Scream has a bit of that in it). So I went to the movies on opening day and saw what a modern-day "Scream" should be.

You already know the storyline: a girl who arrives alone begins to be terrorized over the phone by a maniac, forcing her to play a game. Next comes the attack. But it does not end as trivial as you might think: the maniac leaves the girl alive and sends her to the hospital with severe wounds. Because of this, many years later, her sister Samantha Carper returns to her native Woodsboro, and it is because of her secret and spiral new bloody events in the not (or never) ever quiet town...

The plot in the new "Scream" is quite good. There is intrigue about the identity of the killer, but it is the framework of the plot that makes this film much like the first part. In everything else, though, it's a "pumped up" version. First of all, the characters. They are really great and there are quite a few of them. And the cool thing is that you really care about their deaths. But here the credit goes rather to whoever is hiding under the ghost's hoodie: the Scream franchise hasn't seen such a blatantly ruthless killer yet, though it would seem. It is the murders that make Gostface so cruel and vile: the masked villain does not bend to anything to lure the victim into his clutches, and certainly some murders you will not forget for a long time, as they make you wonder both at the cruelty and the uncompromisingness of the creators. Second, the banter over the horror genre was taken to a new level. There's the banter over abstruse horror flicks like Reincarnation and the especially hated or beloved Babadook by the creators. Explanations of the sequel rules also got a lot deeper and funnier because of the frequent modern reboots of whatever it is.

The actors didn't let us down either. The main character played by Melissa Barrera looks quite good. Other newcomers worth noting are Jack Quaid (yes, the same one from "The Boys") as second fiddle, the slightly demonic Mickey Madison, the funny and goofy Mason Gooding, the local rules expert Jasmin Savoy Brown and the more or less well-known of most of the other newcomers to the Scream franchise, Dylan Minnette. Franchise veterans are represented by David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox. Something new was added only to David Arquette's character, Dewey. The old characters didn't change much and didn't get any memorable scenes, unlike Dewey. But it was nice to see the old characters, per se.

In terms of visuals, music and kills, the movie is top notch. The soundtrack is typical of the genre, but quite enjoyable as there is variety. The film is shot quite well - the rotating camera effect looked gorgeous. About the murders I wrote above - really the most violent, brutal and bloody in the Scream franchise, plus some are not without drama.

Bottom line, the best horror film of 2022 (Kronerberg's new film is in a different league) has probably come out. Bloody, violent, dramatic, but also not lacking in great humor. A really cool (I hope) conclusion to the Scream franchise. I wish all sequels to old movies were like this, dreamy-dreamy...