Scream 2022 - No Spoilers

Due to the element of mystery of these movies, this review will have to be vague as fuck. When I saw the first trailer, it was so vague that my interest was very slim. When all these glowing reviews started pouring in, my curiosity grew a lot, and I had to avoid the damn internet like the plague because the stupid news articles are constantly trying to spoil things with their headlines, those dumb bastards.

So it's been 11 years since the last movie, though this entry is being set 25 years after the first film for good measure. We're back in Woodsboro and things are definitely different this time around. For one, this movie is the first entry not directed by Wes Craven, and for what it's worth, it's a nice change. If you know the last movies, the self-awareness could be a bit grating at times. It felt forced like it was trying to be hip to a bunch of viewers who none of us would ever find hip, but the meta factor is toned down to a reasonable level. I think the directors understood that line better than that quasi-hack the franchise has come to revere known as Kevin Williamson. I say he's a hack because have you seen The Following? Good. Don't. He gets too much credit as is.

Of course, there are still a few blatant nods to familiar horror films, such as a character named Wes, someone's last name being Carpenter, an Elm Street, and name-dropping a few horror movies (notably more recent ones in an effort to not suck the past's dick so much). But other than that, this movie isn't trying to trick you into thinking it's cool by use of excessive references.

With this film, you'll get plenty of callbacks to the original film. Not quite the sequels, because there's a conscious effort to point out how lame the sequels can get, notably with the in-movie Stab films, which had just premiered their 8th Stab movie, which even the characters in the movie seem to loathe. There's also a conscious effort to liken this entry to Halloween 2018's approach of trimming the fat and bringing in legacy characters. Thus far, we've had our main trio in every movie, and they're back again. Will they all be back for another Scream though? Find out for yourselves!

There were a few things I really enjoyed about this movie. I thought the characters were all good as well as their ties to previous characters, and while I'm not sure how the bodycount compares to the others, I think it's safe to say the kills are the most violent. Surprisingly, the other films never had any good shots of Ghostface since he was always so hectic and running around like a jackass all the time, but this one has him a little more collected, so kudos to the directors for finally making him look cool. What I liked most was one character's connection with the past, and I really can't even talk about it. You'll know exactly what I mean you see it though.

In the end, I'm very satisfied. Plenty of red herrings, but my random-ass guess of who the killer was happened to be correct. The finale was a lot of fun, and if this were the last movie in the series, it would end on a high note. If the box office is any indication, it wont end here. Maybe the next movie will be called Scream Kills.

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