Scream 5 The Requel
If you were to ask me what movie would be coming out for January of 2022: I could have given you my wishlist or hypothesis of movies. Maybe another reboot of the Chucky series with the plot not going off the hinges like the latest Chucky movies did. Maybe we could see another reimagining of the Silent Hill movies seeing as though the old movies felt way too campy with not enough good acting to boot. Or maybe we could finally have a successful Friday the 13th movie? Who am I kidding-the Friday movies are cult classics and have become successful all within their own rights-except the 8th Friday film which is still so bad. The point I’m trying to make is that I never expected another Scream movie in the series to come out let alone be an actual sequel to the fourth movie. I’m your friendly neighborhood horror guru and I’m here to give you my thoughts about the movie Scream (5).
Let’s first talk about the movie name: Scream. Scream (5) does the same thing all these newer movies have been doing and that is being a requel. What’s a requel you may ask? Well, that’s kind of hard to explain and the movie makes good use of how hard it is to define a requel as well by poking fun of the concept/word as a whole whilst also defining it in a way. My take on what a requel is when a new movie in a franchise/series is a sequel to the original movie but is also a remake at the same time. Usually, requels ignore all the other movies in a franchise and just become a sequel to the original movie. Also, the title of requels are usually just the original name (first name of the first movie in that series) and they bring new and legacy characters into the story. A good example of this is the Halloween series. The first Halloween movie came out in and 1978 spanning over 8 sequels then it got a reboot/remake when Rob Zombie came in and in the franchise reimagining the terror of the man known as Michael Myers and his hunt to murder his sister Laurie Strode. Then, Halloween (2018) came onto the scene and said screw all those other movies and became a direct sequel to the original 1978 Halloween film. Why did I just go on a long-winded explanation of requels? Well to tie back to what I said earlier about Scream’s title being just named Scream and not Scream 5 is showing how meta the movie is without having even watched it yet.
The Scream franchise is known for its meta commentary on horror movies in each entry. This time around, the topic was requels and what they mean. I am not going to bore you with more requel stuff but just know that I loved the commentary the movie does on requels.
The plot this time around is like many of the Scream plots with some masked killer going around and murdering young high school kids with some mysterious motive. The movie does a good job on playing with tropes that we know in horror movies such as a “cold open” at the start of the movie, a killer stalking and killing teenagers, and having the big reveal of who Ghostface is at the end of the movie. The thing I like about Scream (5) however is the subversion it does throughout the film. It plays on your expectations as the audience for the characters to do one thing but then completely have a character do another.
The last thing I want to talk about of this movie is the directors/producers and legacy of the Scream series. Scream (5) was made by Radio Silence who were the same people who made the darkly comedic film Ready or Not. They know horror and will be on my radar from now on when it comes to works they’re involved in along with other directors who I’m waiting to make another horror film…Jordan Peele. With Radio Silence, I think the Scream legacy can now live on for longer because the big theme throughout this movie was passing the torch on to a new group of kids. Letting the legacy characters in a sense “die” to make way for new blood to enter in and that to me is something that Wes Craven would be proud of knowing that his meta slasher film continues to live on in many more Screams to come. .