REVIEW: Scream

Stop me if you've heard this before about slasher films, in or out of the Scream franchise:

"Don't overthink it. It's just a scary movie."

What an insulting thought for anyone who's ever found themselves in the throes of a gripping horror film. Good slasher films, like the original Scream, look honestly at the thing that scares us most and gives it a face. They know that the point of the slasher isn't in the chasing or the stabbing, but the unmasking. The overcoming of the thing that scares you. Good slasher films "overthink" it.

I'm grateful to report that the directors of the newest Scream film, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, not only understand this principle, they embrace it wholly. In doing so, they may have created a sequel that not only meets but surpasses the film it tries to emulate.

Twenty-five years after Sidney Prescott's first encounter with Ghostface, we meet Sam Carpenter, a native of Woodsboro who returns home after a terrible family secret is unearthed and her connection to the original Ghostface murders comes back to haunt her. Defeating this new iteration of Ghostface will mean confronting the past, both the demons of her own history and the heroes who've bested Ghostface before.

When I say this film "overthinks it," I'm mostly referring to characterization. It's a tender mercy, and a mark of how deeply this writing team loves the franchise, that this is arguably the most character-centric film of the series. This is true of both the old guard and the new kids in town. While our legacy cast mostly serves as a consulting board, only entering the fray when absolutely necessary, there is something moving about seeing a survivor like Sidney graduate into the protector of the new generation.

There are some traps inherent in both horror as a genre and a franchise that turns life-or-death into a game. The opening scene, for example, has Ghostface terrorizing his first victim with trivia about the film Scream film, little throwbacks that generational audiences are sure to relish even as this child's life is on the line. This girl's about to be stabbed multiple times, is now really the best time to cash in on the nostalgia? But when your franchise is dependent on that ...

At the same time, this new installment is more mindful of the necessity of empathy than we've seen in some of the franchise's more stale offerings. The movie graciously tames some of the teenage snark that clotted earlier installments. Not even as much as this reviewer might have preferred, but this film makes it easier to like this batch of characters, and feel genuine distress when they inevitably meet the blade of Ghostface, than we've seen from many previous iterations.

I won't be so dismissive as to say that this is the first legacy sequel to emerge unscathed, there have been some good ones, but if any future attempts at "requelling" find any success, they inevitably have this film to thank for setting a pattern. What could have been "just a scary movie" or "just another reboot" instead becomes a tribute to fandom itself.

Thanks for playing.

--The Professor

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