Some things never change. This can be good and also bad. Bad like Audibly Sharp knives (i.e., blades that make a sharpening noise when being whisked through thin air), or like when former deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) says “You have to shoot 'em in the head, or they always come back.” Of course, the very existence of the new Scream is irrefutable proof that they will come back regardless. This movie is slasher history repeating itself in more ways than one; in addition to revisiting this particular franchise, it borrows a key plot point from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare – that I will not reveal but which you may have inkling about if you are, like me, a student of the genre.
All of the above notwithstanding, Scream ‘22 is overall more good than bad. True to its roots, this iteration serves as a deconstruction of the current state of mainstream horror cinema. Specifically, it is a textbook example of a “requel” – like the last couple of Halloweens, or the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre –, and by ‘textbook’ I mean that it actually includes a scene where a character literally explains what a requel is and how it works. I also like that it lampshades one of my least favorite tropes, which I call Chekhov's Inhaler.
I just compared it to Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the fact is that Scream ‘22 comes to join the much better company of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and last year’s Candyman (suitably, the movie is dedicated to Craven’s memory and gives Jordan Peele a shoutout). This Scream’s oft-repeated mantra is “always go back to the original,” and that’s sage advice because, like Nightmare on Elm Street, this franchise is a brainchild of Craven that began life as thinking man’s horror only to get progressively dumbed down with each new entry – unlike, say, Friday the 13th, which was born stupid.
Thankfully, this film has been made by people with knowledge of and respect for their source material, and who don’t underestimate the audience’s intelligence. Consequently, when characters send text messages, the words appear on their phone screens as opposed to our movie and TV screens, and when a someone is stabbed, they spill real fake blood instead of a stream of red pixels (and in an age where CGI is the norm, any horror movie that uses practical effects instantly doubles its visceral impact). I will only add that, also like New Nightmare and Candyman ‘21, Scream ‘22 is as much of a return to form as it is a fitting farewell, so here’s hoping that it will live up to its promise that “After tonight, no more books, no more movies, no more f***ing Ghostface.”