‘Scream’ Review: A Meta Legacy Horror Requel That’s Witty & Rewarding For Fans

“You’re the most derivative yet,” Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) says as she faces down yet another Ghostface killer. It serves as both a dressing down of the most recent iteration of the iconic villain and also a meta assessment of the fifth film in the “Scream” franchise. Set twenty-five years after the events of the first film, not only do the two films share a name, many beats are repeated like echoes in a canyon. This isn’t a bad thing though. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (“Ready Or Not”) and screenwriters James Vanderbilt (“Zodiac”) and Guy Busick mine the first film – and its sequels – in the same loving and creative meta fashion that the first film did with the slashers that inspired it. 

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In probably the strongest opening sequence since the original 1996 film, “Scream” starts in a stark white kitchen with pink sweater-clad Gen Z teen and Woodsboro resident Tara (a star-making turn from Jenna Ortega, “You”) texting away with her friend Amber (a wiley Mikey Madison, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) when the unthinkable happens: the landline rings. In its first twist on the original recipe, instead of a prankster, the caller appears to be a friend of Tara’s mother who is away on business – that is until their conversation turns into a deadly game of “Stab” franchise trivia. 

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Where “Scream 4” critiqued both torture porn horror like “Saw” and reboot mania, this “Scream” takes aim at so-called “elevated horror.” Tara answers Ghostface’s “What’s your favorite scary movie?” with a treatise on why “The Babadook” is a meditation on motherhood and grief, then begs to answer trivia about A24 horror films like “Hereditary.” The balance of laughs brought by this moment, followed by Ghostface’s gruesome attack on Tara firmly places this film back in the tonal space that made the first one so memorable and establishes Ortega as a true scream queen

Again breaking with tradition, Tara miraculously survives, which brings her estranged sister Sam (Melissa Barrera, “In The Heights”) back to town, with her clueless boyfriend Richie (a playful Jack Quaid, “The Boys”) in tow. Sam is running from a secret in her past that had me thinking about “Riverdale” for more than one reason. Plot-wise, Sam is ostensibly the lead here, though Barrera doesn’t really have the same beguiling presence Campell had in the first film. That said, she’s given plenty of emotions to work with and particularly excels in the sisterly scenes she shares with Ortega. 

After Sam herself is attacked by Ghostface in the hospital she decides to seek help from an expert: Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Throughout the franchise, Dewey has been a driving emotional force, both in terms of his relationship with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, unfortunately, the weakest of the returning trio), but also his deep love for the community of Woodsboro. Described by one teen as a “discount” Sam Elliott, Arquette plays retired Dewey like a sheriff in a western, brought out of retirement to settle a score. His grizzled gravitas is peppered with melancholy as he drinks spiked coffee and watches Gale, now the host of a network morning show. There’s a moment later on with strong “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” vibes. You may need some tissues. 

Dewey warns Sam and Richie that there are rules to survive a Stab movie: never trust the love interest, the motive is always connected to the first one, and the killer is probably someone in the friend group. Again, the filmmakers are no longer using their meta wit just to dissect the horror genre, but this very franchise itself. 

While interrogating Tara’s friend group, yet another set of rules are laid out by horror expert Mindy (a wonderfully droll Jasmin Savoy Brown, “Yellowjackets”): the rules of a requel, aka the reboot sequel (think “Halloween Kills”, every new “Star Wars” movie). The main takeaway of these rules is that, unlike a reboot, the characters in a requel are all somehow connected to characters from the original. For instance, Sam’s aforementioned secret connects her. The uncle of Mindy and her twin brother Chad (Mason Gooding, “Booksmart”) was Randy Meeks (played by Jamie Kennedy in the first three films). Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette, “13 Reasons Why”) is the son of Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton, introduced in the fourth film), and so on.    

But just because it’s a requel doesn’t mean you can rule out Amber and Liv (model Sonia Ben Ammar), who seem to have no connection to the original killings, since the Stab rules are also still in play. Like each film before it, there’s a moment where it’s plausible that any one of these kids could be the killer – or killers. Remember there are always two! Savvy viewers might piece all the clues together before the big reveal, but if you didn’t guess it, much like in the original, the reveal here begs for a rewatch so you can feel stupid for not catching them the first time. 

But what about Sidney? It’s not a “Scream” film until the queen herself returns. Now a wife and mother after the success of her book in the fourth film, Sidney is no longer a victim. She’s a fighter and Campbell plays her as a woman full of inner peace and strength. Although she has less screen time than the new characters, make no mistake Sidney is the star of this franchise. She is its center. Campbell dominates every scene she’s in, as she should. Like Tara said in the opening scene, “elevated horror” means horror that isn’t just gore but is also invested in its characters and has emotional stakes. Campbell’s embodiment of Sidney goes beyond nostalgia. She’s always been the emotional heart, the elevated stakes in the middle of the bloody body count. With the final confrontation returning to where it all began, we feel that beating heart more than ever. 

On top of being a return to form in terms of gnarly kills – so many neck stabs! – “Scream” uses its meta wit to craft both a rewarding experience for fans of the franchise, while also critiquing the very nature of fandom. And while it doesn’t quite live up to the impact of the first, it’s a strong film in its own right. One that understands what was so special about the original, while successfully building something newly terrifying on its foundation. Could this be Sidney’s last trip to Woodsboro? Whatever the rules are on that, one of them better be they must keep “Red Right Hand” on the soundtrack. [B]

“Scream” hits theaters on January 14.