Now, I was born in 1980 which means that when the original Scream film came out I was sixteen years old. I was the target audience for it and I loved it! The second one was okay but after that I stopped keeping track of the series no matter how hot I think Neve Campbell is even to this day.
When I heard they were making another one I was semi excited but not enough to go and watch it right away. I heard the rumors that it was supposed to maybe rekindle the franchise, but, I had heard that before when they remade Nightmare on Elm Street only to be let down. Now, was this new Scream on par with the original one or even the sequel? No. However, it was still fun to watch.
I don’t know what it is with a lot of horror/thriller movies that have a camp to them, but, the modern ones for the most part just don’t have the right mix of suspense, mayhem, and black comedy. The reason that the first one was so good was because there was no background on what was going on. I am going to spend the next few paragraphs explaining how I would have done this movie to hopefully give a proper feel that is I believe on par with the original movie.
Firstly, I would not have revealed the Ghost face mask, the name of the town, or anything like that right away. It was cute the first few times that the killer called to emulate the original scene, but, in this case it gives everything away. A news cast talking about a series of murders happening in a different town, a radio broadcast talking about the anniversary that is coming up but cutting off when the victim scoffs and turns it off before being brutally murdered by a knife and a black clad figure that is just off camera. Just enough to clue the audience in without being cliche.
Giving clues about the boyfriend once the accusation from Dewey was stupid. There weren’t any clues in the original and the ones in the sequel pointed in the wrong direction which made the twist an actual surprise. By the climax of Scream (2022) I knew Amber was in on it and Ritchie wasn’t a shock. The only actual surprise at the end of the movie was the setting being at the same house. It would have been more shocking to have had it be Wes or the twins. Or how about this! Make it three killers! Tara could have also been on it as the actual ringleader. Just something that is an actual twist! Though I will say that both twins surviving was a surprise.
The pacing for the movie is very fast. It feels like they were afraid of boring the audience. It doesn’t allow the tension to build between scenes. They also played up the jump scare to the point of cliche. This is shown the most in the killing of Wes after the sheriff was killed.
Like I said at the beginning of this I did enjoy the movie but I laughed more than anything else which I don’t think was their intention. With how many scary movies I watched growing up and how full of gore the new stuff is I don’t think this scared, confused, or thrilled the younger generations either. Definitely, a movie to watch with friends and throw popcorn at the screen or tell the characters how stupid they are though!
Derek's Mindscape 