The first review of 2022 is Scream, or Scream 5, or Scream (2022), or 5cream. Scream is another soft reboot to a popular franchise. This has proven to be pretty popular this last month thanks to the likes of The Matrix Resurrections and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. You could also call it a “requel”, a new word I learned to describe a soft reboot thanks to this self aware horror franchise. I confess, I hadn’t seen any of the Scream movies until earlier this week where I finally got around to seeing the first Scream movie, so I can at least understand the basic premise of this franchise. I’ll get around to watching the other three at some point, but for this soft reboot that loves reminding you of how awesome and beloved that first movie is, I feel like I have seen enough to get by for now.
As a newcomer, so far I am impressed with what I have seen of the Scream franchise. If the other three don’t blow it, then this might be the first horror franchise I enjoy unironically. The first movie was great for being unique within the slasher genre with it’s focus on trying to root out the identity of the masked killer and comedy that pokes fun at the tropes in classic slasher films. This new Scream movie retells all of that, but with the added self-awareness that it’s in the golden age of soft reboots galore. I would prefer this type of reboot be more of it’s own thing rather than just redoing the original film again while also praising it as a god-tier masterpiece to no ends, however, I must admit this soft reboot approach does suit Scream quite well. So Scream gets a pass, because it’s almost in spirit to what the original film was about, while other soft reboots like The Matrix, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, or the Terminator, should’ve just avoided ever trying to do this.
Scream: Zoomer Edition, was a fun time. It was never boring, as the scary scenes were tense when needed, it was pretty funny when needed, while also being very cringey when probably not needed. It’s got everything I want from slashers, it’s got some good characters mainly because of the compelling mystery of the killer being among the group of close friends. It also wouldn’t be a soft reboot if the original Scream stars didn’t show up, while I would have preferred if they just left them out of the movie, but it was comforting to see them regardless. David Arquette was probably the standout as he looks like a Han Solo from the Force Awakens, a grumpy old rogue, who looks like he’s been dragged through 5 Scream movies.
There is also the well built-up tension of waiting for the killer to pop up and give someone their gruesome demise. One of the standouts would be the opening, which is obviously in homage to the first movie, with the only distracting flaw being the lack of attempting to Google the answers to the scary horror phone trivia. Pretty much every one of these sequences had at least one major nitpick of note, but none of which killed the momentum. There is some really good self-referential comedy and some jokes that are just plain terrible. As much as I enjoy the scene where the horror enthusiast explains what a “requel” is and how everything ties back to the original, some parts of this were so ridiculous and laughably bad.
Overall the new Scream is a solid horror romp, and it’s pretty close to being as good as the first movie. If you’re a Scream fan you’ll probably get more out of this than I did and to anyone who hasn’t seen Scream, then perhaps check this one out at some later point. That’s all from me, as I have no intention of dragging this out any longer so this has been The Blog Complainer, signing out.
