Scream: Movie Review

Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Opin and Tyler Gillet 

It's fair to say that the fifth iteration of the Scream franchise wants to have all its bloody cake and eat it.

Part requel, part homage to the original film, and all meta slasher whodunnit, Scream sees Woodsboro under attack again from Ghostface and his trusty knife. But this time, it's a new seemingly more vicious series of attacks and targets that take the killer's fancy, and as the killing spree escalates, it sees the return of the original trio of  Dewey, Gale Weathers and Sidney Prescott to the fray...

There are moments within Scream where the meta touches and long discussions about the rules of the series prove to be too much; times when the winking at the audience and overt touches of love to the first film of the series seems about to cripple proceedings.

It does want to riff on toxic films and their fans - one bemoans late in the day that they were "radicalised by movie fans" - and moments where a victim watches another victim being stalked by Ghostface while being stalked by Ghostface themselves are just too close to the edge of anything more than feeling like the film's wanting to do over the first film in its run.

But then there are enough bloody kills, and knifeplay to appall that each stabbing and skewering really does feel more shocking than before. Equally though, it can be levelled that there's enough dumb behaviour by some of the cast to level off the smarts that are usually on display. (One death feels particularly unearned and seems to be more about propelling the emotional narrative than following what the character would do.)

And yet within the legacy cast, there are some moments that truly excel. Scenes between Cox's Gail and Arquette's Dewey are poignant, melancholy and flecked with the PTSD of both time passing, and life colliding in unexpected ways. Weirdly, Campbell's Sidney Prescott, so central to earlier proceedings, feels surplus to requirements this time around - an inclusion more necessitated by the desire to celebrate legacy than anything else.

When it all throws down, this Scream is not as postmodern as it wants to be. 

It's a timely update, with mobile phones, discussions of Reddit, skewering of movies via YouTube critics and uncertainty over who the killer could be all falling into a nice mix - but at the end of the day, its rationale for the spree falls short and a final climactic third act feels a little too close to jumping the shark.

Ultimately, if you like scary movies, Scream will do the trick as it continues the legacy while leaving its own bloody mark the franchise. But you may leave feeling that it's time to draw a veil across Woodsboro and look to somewhere new for the thrills and kills - and that Ghostface's legacy needs to end now, before being tarnished in endless directionless sequels.