Scream – Blood Soaked Sequel
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Writer: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick (Screenplay)
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Marley Shelton, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid
Plot: Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.
Tagline – It’s Always Someone You Know
Runtime: 1 Hour 54 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Scream starts when a new group of school students Tara (Ortega), Wes (Minnette), Mindy (Brown), Liv (Ammar), Amber (Madison) and Chad (Gooding) find themselves getting targeted by a new Ghostface killer. Tara’s sister Sam (Barrera) returns from her time away, as the killer continues to attack.
With the attacks increasing, Dewey (Arquette) reluctantly looks to help, drawing Gail Weathers (Cox) and Sidney (Campbell) back to Woodsboro to face the new killer.
Thoughts on Scream
Characters & Performances – This is going to be slightly different to how I usually break down the characters, as I will look at the originals, or legacy characters in Sidney who has moved away from the area, started her own life, at last. She does return to offer help, much like Gail Weathers, they are both drawn back, we know how strong they are and how they will always fight. Dewey does have the more interesting story of the three. Dewey has become an outsider, still suffering from the injuries he got from the last out, almost a recluse within the town he protected. Bringing the big three back was always the draw, with all three doing a great job throughout.
Onto the new characters, Sam Carpenter takes the leading role, drawn back to Woodsboro after Tara’s attack, she is holding a secret that has kept her away, while trying to get to the bottom of everything that has been happening. This is where we get the connection side of things, Wes is the son of Judy Hicks, the plucky sheriff from the last film, Mindy and Chad are twins that fill in Mindy’s side of things, the expert in horror, while Chad is the not so typical jock figure, that we have seen constantly twisted through the years. Liv is a girlfriend of Chad’s who does seem like more of the outsider of the friends, while Amber is the one wanting to keep everyone together through the incidents. When it comes to these characters, we do get a generational thing, which seems more focused on bragging about not caring and even wanting to be involved in what happens with the killings, they don’t tend to get enough development about them. It is hard to see any of the new cast standing out on the same levels as the originals, which is more to certain lack of screen time given to the ones we could see more from.
Story – Scream will bring the action back to Woodsboro once again, with a new Ghostface killer looking to pick off a group of friends, bringing the originals back to face a new killer with an unknown motivation. Scream will bring the teenage characters into the new generations of young people who think they are above being horror victims and believe their own opinions are more important than anyone else’s, forcing them to show how they are becoming tired with decisions in movies, while being reckless in life. Like seriously, why would people have wild parties if their friends had been murdered by a known serial killer. Much like any Scream sequel, we do get a theme in the story, where we have had the sequel, trilogy, reboot before, we are now getting re-quell, a new term for a reboot and sequel trying to please fans. There is a side to the story, which is going to be interesting to see if the franchise will continue to grow on, as it is one that could take things in many different directions. We will have certain things said, that will have you scratching your head, as it seems to be written into the script that we know what happens in the Stab movies, which we don’t, even ignore mentions in previous films too.
Themes – Scream is a horror slasher that will bring plenty of blood and gore to the table, not holding back and seemingly bring the directors trademark of the hand injury to life again. Returning the action to Woodsboro helps, showing us how the town has looked to move on again, but will always be under the shadow of the previous attacks. The use of one key location does bring back the memories of the brilliance of the original.
Final Thoughts – Scream is a great addition to the franchise, bringing new-life for a new generation.