When Scream premiered in 1996, it revitalized the slasher genre. The film, directed by horror pioneer Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and written by newcomer Kevin Williamson (I Know What you Did Last Summer), felt fresh because of its self-referential humor and self-aware characters who’ve seen real-world horror films and, therefore, understand its rules and cliches. The film became a hit and worldwide phenomenon, earning $173 million to become the highest-grossing slasher film of all time until 2018’s Halloween surpassed it. Two sequels were released soon after, with both becoming major hits. A fourth film was released over a decade later, though its underwhelming box office performance prevented any additional sequels from being made. That is, until now.

The fifth installment, also titled Scream (and which I will refer to as “Scream 5” from this point on, to differentiate itself from the original), is not a reboot. All of the previous films are still canon. It’s set 25 years after the original, and the franchise’s Big Three are all back: scream queen Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who’s finally moved away from Woodsborro and has a family with her husband Mark; Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), who’s now moved onto hosting her own morning show; and Dewey Riley (David Arquette), now a retired sheriff and divorced from Gale. Unlike the previous films, these three are not the protagonists of Scream 5. Instead, the leads are Sam (Melissa Barrera, from In the Heights) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), estranged sisters whose lives are disrupted with the reemergence of new Ghostface killings.

The draw of the original Scream films, including the underrated Scream 4 (one of my personal favs), is its star-studded cast (many of whom end up being murdered by the Ghostface killer), which subverted the slasher genre, which usually casted unknown actors. Curiously, Scream 5 ends up subverting this subversion by casting mostly unknown, up-and-coming actors. They include Tara’s friends, the twins Chad (Mason Gooding, Love, Victor) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown, The Leftovers), Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette, 13 Reasons Why), and Liv McKenzie (Sonia Ben Ammar, Jappeloup), and Sam’s boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid, The Boys). As is the case with any Scream picture, everyone in the group becomes a suspect. Like the film’s tagline says, “It’s always someone you know.”

The strength of the Scream films are predicated on three main factors: the characters, the kills, and the commentary. Aside from the main trio and whoever turns out to be Ghostface, the franchise has never really had that many strong characters. They’re often killed off too soon to really have depth or become memorable, but that may just be by design of the genre. Scream 5 has a bunch of new characters but they don’t really make a mark. What’s nice, though, (and I don’t think this is a spoiler) is that most of them stay alive long enough to make it to the third act. And though most of the characters are not memorable, there are a couple standouts, mainly Jenny Ortega (Jane the Virgin) as Tara, still reeling from Ghostface’s attempted murder at the start of the film and from her strained relationship with sister Sam, and Jasmin Savoy Brown (she’s also excellent in Showtime’s new series Yellowjackets, keep an eye on her career!) as Mindy, the film’s avid horror fan (as is required of any Scream film), who gives a fun monologue about the state of cinema and its reliance on legacyquels, or, as she dubbs them, “requels” (I wasn’t a fan of the film using the same title as the original, like Halloween (2018), but the film’s metacommentary on “requels” makes the title make sense).

There’s a surprising lack of kills in the first two-thirds of the film, with most happening in the third act, but the few that do occur in the first two-thirds are pretty good. And Scream 5 deserves credit for becoming the first film since the first Scream where Sidney, Gale, and Dewey felt like they could actually be killed off at any moment.

Every Scream film has featured a plot that was a direct response to the state of the world at the time of its release. With the original Scream, the slasher genre was dying, with countless direct-to-video sequels to established franchises becoming the norm. Scream’s fun and meta take reinvented the genre. Scream 2, released in 1997, was a response to the accusations that the original film was a negative influence on teens, which was blamed for inspiring several copycat murders. Released in 2000, Scream 3’s less violent and more campy plot was a result of Columbine. Scream 4, released in 2011, brought the franchise into the 21st century and digital age, with the introduction of smartphones, social media, live streams, and commentary on social media fame. For most of its runtime it was hard to pinpoint what exactly Scream 5 had to say, but the final act makes it crystal clear.

It becomes apparent that Scream 5 is about toxic fandom. Like last month’s The Matrix Resurrections, Scream 5 offers a big “fuck you” to the loud and obnoxious online fandom that have plagued many legacy franchises over the last decade or so (just look at the reactions to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the all-women Ghostbusters, or, again, The Matrix Resurrections). While it’s certainly an interesting theme, I personally felt it came too little too late (and it’s revealed with too heavy-handed exposition).

What prevents Scream 5 from becoming great is the same issue that has plagued every Scream film since the first. Ironically, ever since subverting the slasher genre in the original Scream, the franchise has fallen into their own formulaic ways: the return of legacy characters, a new group of friends who are act as both suspects and victims, the prerequisite scary movie fan that gives a big speech about the genre, Ghostface is usually two killers working together, and the fact that audiences can never predict who the killer(s) will be because the films never give you enough information for you to even make an educated guess. The Scream films are always fun to watch, but they never offer anything more than a winking good time.

That being said, I do think Scream 5 is a worthy sequel that’s worth watching. I strongly believe the Scream franchise is the best horror franchise, not because they’re necessarily the best horror films, but because they’re consistently good—there’s not a bad one in the bunch, including this one! Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Ready or Not) and screenwriters James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and Guy Busick (Ready or Not) have created a respectful sequel that honors the legacy of the original films while forging its own path (and it also includes a sweet in-movie tribute to the late Wes Craven, who died in 2015). The film offers a clear path for immediate sequels, but I’m unsure what additional commentary the franchise has left to say unless it waits at least another decade for a new generation.

Three out of four Kents.

‘Scream’ is currently playing in theatres.

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