Movie Review: Scream (2022)

Scream is back. Again. But not the way you think, but kind of definitely the way you think? Written by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac), Guy Busick (Ready or Not, Castle Rock) and Scream veteran Kevin Williamson and directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (Ready or Not, Southbound, V/H/S) and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S, Ready or Not) it may actually be the most meta of them all but in a good way.

The meta can be a blessing and a curse for horror films. In this case, it was kind of both. It has a lot of classic characters from the original films that are veterans of surviving Ghostface. And this one is not really much different. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are back to deal with yet another group of kids who are mixed up with Ghostface in Woodsboro. Unlike the previous installments, this one offers a bit more of a twist.

A lot of this film is fan service. A lot. And while it is a good film, it’s almost a remake/sequel (or requel) of the first two films, still recognizing that horror films were made within the Scream universe about the original incident (the Stab films in this case), and then circling right back around. Makes sense, right? No. But it works in this case. We don’t know why, but it just did. You get to see those familiar faces from the original title, some great kill scenes, a lot of references to other horror films in general, and some pretty solid overall slasher vibes that bring that classic feel back. Unfortunately, where Scream shines the most also is its own worst enemy.

You will realize right away that this film is a love letter to Scream (1996) and Scream 2. Almost too many to the point where it loses its own identity and you just get lost in the constant meta and nostalgia bombs. For instance, there is a new crew of friends who were all great characters, and just like old times, you are trying to figure out who it could possibly be, but they are overshadowed by the context in this film. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it’s like they put quite a bit of detail into forcing the nostalgia goggles on and then when you take them off everything else is blurry.

So what did we think? Overall, Scream is a nice nod to the original film, and it’s obvious that they were all nerding out and wanting to pay homage to the classic here. We really enjoyed it as we also appreciate the effort put into this loving tribute, and while it was almost too much of a nostalgia bomb to find its own identity, it was great to see the old gang back together again up against Ghostface. Wes Craven would definitely have been proud. We would definitely recommend this to Scream franchise fans, and even someone who hasn’t seen any of them could still appreciate this one. It just felt like home in that sense.