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Friday March 29th

‘Scream’ (2022) review: Newest installment feels like a walking cliché

(Photo courtesy of https://www.screammovie.com/synopsis/)
(Photo courtesy of https://www.screammovie.com/synopsis/)

By Maia Venuti
Film Critic

“Scream” (2022) is the fifth installment of the “Scream” franchise and was released on Friday, Jan. 14. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olphin and Tyler Gillett, the story follows some familiar classic characters from the 1994 film of the same name, as well as introducing a new cast of characters, who together have to work to defeat the evil serial killer Ghostface. When discussing this film, it is important to first talk about the original “Scream” (1996) and its message.

Directed by revered director and “master of horror” Wes Craven, “Scream” (1996) was an immediate success, raking in nearly $200 million in the box office. It is a critique and mockery of horror tropes that Craven himself created. The main characters in the original are all big movie nerds, and they were all self aware of classic slasher tropes that were created by Craven himself. The film makes a mockery of cheap sequels that were made only to make a quick buck. “Scream” (1996) is a beautiful piece of satire, meant to criticize the very films that Wes Craven became famous for. However, “Scream” (2022) does none of that. Rather, it transforms this iconic franchise into the thing it once criticized. 

The film relied heavily on the return of three of the original characters from the first film, marketing it as a return to the world of Ghostface for beloved characters Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Officer Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Despite this marketing, the return of said characters were cheaply inserted into the story, as if the script was first written without them.

Something special and unique about the original “Scream” was the extremely tactful use of fourth wall breaks. The film consistently broke the fourth wall by talking about horror movie tropes as the trope was being seen on screen, reviewing the rules of a horror movie multiple times, and of course, nearly every character compared their current situation to a horror film. Meanwhile, the writing of this latest installment overall felt ham-fisted and like a walking cliche, rather than a critique of such iconic horror cliches. The amount of self awareness that the script had was absolutely ridiculous, and it felt patronizing, as if the writers did not think viewers would get a joke unless it is repeated and explained multiple times.

In all honesty, do not waste your money seeing “Scream” (2022). The nostalgia was not worth it and did not at all save the film. It is a disservice to Wes Craven’s work and its terrible writing devalues all of the valid criticism made by the original. There was one line that is said by one of the main characters that perfectly encapsulates how I felt when the credits rolled: “I still prefer the Babadook.”



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