‘Scream’ franchise goes out with a bang?
THE “Scream” franchise has been dying a slow and agonising death for the better part of the decade.
Everything that came out after the sequel in 1997 has mostly been a rehash or simple imitation of the first movie.
My heart bleeds for this genre I once held in high regard.
We hope the latest rebooted sequel is the last instalment.
This is the perfect time to move on to whatever gem Jordan Peele has in store for us with the release of “Nope” in July.
While we still have one more stop to make on the nostalgia train with the release of the 13th and final Halloween movie appropriately named “Halloween Ends”
it goes without saying that Jordan Peele is the heir apparent to the genre.
Gone are the days of slasher movies and gore-fest.
It is high time we welcome the advent of elevated horror.
Unfortunately, this is neither a piece about the arrival of elevated horror movies nor is it some paper on Peele and what he represents for the dying genre.
Instead, it is a celebration of a relic of a bygone era and a send-off to one of the most underrated horror movie franchises of our time.
Scream, or “Scream 5” as it is known in some circles, goes full meta in attempts to give this dying franchise a big farewell.
The film opens with a girl who is at home alone.
The phone rings and it is a wrong number, but she foolishly indulges this stranger, who later on asks her if she would like to play a game.
Before I stray into spoiler territory, the game is a little close to home, after which the stranger sneaks into her house and attacks her.
The girl in question is identified as Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) and the attack was just a ruse to get her estranged sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), home.
Sam happens to be the illegitimate daughter of Billy Loomis, and soon most of the relatives and children of the first movie start dying.
Ghostface, or the fifth copycat, is back. Now, it is up to the Carpenter sisters and their friends to solve the mystery of who amongst them is doing the killing.
It is a script and story we have seen a dozen times, but the only difference here is that this merry band of teenagers have some help in the form of Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Dewey Riley.
The three are the original survivors of the first movie.
I promised myself some many moons ago that I would never use the word meta, but here it is appropriate.
The film goes full meta in its depiction of violence, the exploration of horror movie clichés and the vulgar language.
I really wish writers would come with better banters and language in horror movies, desisting from this tired trope of dropping F-bombs every time someone is about to get murdered.
Everything about this movie is something we have all seen before.
We have the killer hiding in plain sight, a couple of douchebag characters solely meant to sway the audience and act like the killer (Chad Meeks-Martin and his sister Mindy).
It is only the return of the“Scream”originals (Prescott, Weathers and Riley) that save the movie.
While their screen time is limited, with Prescott arriving right at the end, their presence allows the movie and story to come full circle.
As the girl always stuck in the middle, and the star of the franchise, limiting Campbell’s screen time was a good call.
After four movies about her, Campbell’s Prescott could have steered the attention from the real star of the film Barrera.
Should the studio decide to revive the franchise yet again or continue with it, Barrera certainly has the talent to lead a whole new set of storylines around her.
Sam Carpenter being the illegitimate child of a serial killer certainly does have potential.
She could survive a couple of movies before eventually snapping and starting her own killing spree.
I can see it!
She will be a heroine who slowly caves under the pressure of people hating and trying to kill her.
The writers could even stretch it to a movie or two before it is revealed that it was her all along.
Now, that is a twist no one sees coming, except me, the source of the idea.
All I will want is a piece of the box office revenue and shared credit.