Horror films are some of the most influential and revered in the annals of history. There are four pillars of the horror genre and those are Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Scream franchise. Ever since that first Scream film has come out, it has become one of the most popular horror franchises. Now there is a new Scream movie… and it ties into the original film.
This new film is set in the present day and follows Sam Carpenter (Melissa Berrara, In the Heights) as she gets a call that her sister (Jenna Ortega) has been attacked by another version of the killer Ghostface. She races back from Modesto, California with her boyfriend (Jack Quaid, The Boys) to Woodsboro. When she gets there, she realizes that this new iteration of Ghostface is not only after her sister, but also her.
This new interaction of Scream — a “requel”, if you will — is a mix between a reboot and a sequel, as stated by the character of Amber (Mikey Madison) in the film. That is one of the things the film has going for it. It’s very self-aware of itself. The writers, directors, and actors are all cognizant of the film they are involved in. This franchise is very famous for its self-aware nature. Those moments within the film were entertaining. The problem is the rest of the film wasn’t that entertaining.
All the original actors who portrayed the main characters in the first Scream reprised their roles. From Sydney Prescott (Neve Cambell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette), and Deputy Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), the mother of one of the new teens in the film (Dylan Minnette). All these original characters played their parts in this new film. They all had a purpose in the overall story, but some were just there for nostalgia purposes.
One of the issues I had with Scream was gratuitous violence for the sake of violence. In classic horror films, there were killings, but we didn’t see the overabundance of blood and gore this film has. They just overdo it in this film. Also, the teens use a lot of cursing which is not very educational for teens in high school. Why can’t the writers write dialogue that doesn’t include gratuitous cursing and blood ill never no? Other horror films can get the scare factor without all the blood and gore.
This film is probably going to be liked by diehard fans of this franchise. They will overlook all the clunky dialogue and bad acting. I couldn’t, though. Nor could I forgive all the contrivances and the convoluted story either. I couldn’t keep track of everybody who had knives stabbing each other. It was ridiculous. The film as a whole was. I know the popular saying when a sequel/reboot is bad like this one: why did we need this film? That’s a good question. Maybe a clue that it was being released in January should have let us know it was going to be bad. January is considered the toilet bowl of movie season. This film is crap!
Scream is just a worthless sequel/reboot with a convoluted plot and tons of contrivances. To go along with that it has really bad acting and dialogue to go with it. Some of these horror franchises just go on too long and the studios just don’t know when to quit making sequels. They go back to the well too many times. Fans of this franchise will probably eat up this ridiculous garbage, but I have better standards. So should the movie-going public? This film wastes a good cast and isn’t worth your time. Go see another horror film that is worth your time.
1Star
Dan Skip Allen
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Sean Boelman Founder/EICdisappointment media
From the Fourth Row! 