SCREAM 5

 

Scream 5 Movie Review

Ghostface is wreaking havoc on the small town of Woodsboro...again. First, the title--this was billed as a relaunch of the franchise, so they titled it Scream, but it's a direct sequel to the fourth movie, and also falls in line with the rest of the franchise, so it will henceforth always be referred to (by me anyway) as Scream 5. At one point, the film itself actually makes light of all this by referencing the movie within a movie, Stab, which is up to its eighth installment. With that out of the way, let's take a closer look at the first film in the franchise to, sadly, not be directed by horror legend Wes Craven. 

It looks familiar already

In this one, we start off with teen Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega of Insidious: Chapter 2) being attacked by somebody wearing the familiar Halloween costume. She actually survives, and we meet her sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), and a group of friends, all more or less based on, and related in some way to, characters we have already seen in the franchise. Familiar faces Dewey (David Arquette), Gale (Courteney Cox), and Sidney (Neve Campbell) join the battle and really put in perspective just how old the original Scream movie is now. Just as in the films before it, this one is very self-aware, and is so much so it's actually somewhat detrimental. Just like in the previous films, there's some humor, but it's seldom actually funny in this one. Just as in the other films--actually, I could go on and on about this, but let me instead get to the point--part five has a real lack of original ideas. With the exception of visions of an actual ghost... 

"Seriously?"

…there's really nothing new brought to the table with the fifth film. The story is dull, the characters are largely irritating, the writing/dialogue lazy, and, probably worst of all, the identities of the killers (don't look at me like that--you knew there would be two) are disappointing--one you see coming a mile away, and the second was arguably the least important character in the movie until the reveal. 

"That's just hurtful"

Not all is bad though. The gore is plenty--some of the scenes are surprisingly graphic, and the practical effects are impressive (the CGI used in other scenes, well, less so). Ortega is fantastic as Tara. The Dewey/Gale stuff is scaled way back, which certainly helps. We get voiceover cameos from some of the stars of the original film--have those ears out for Drew Barrymore, Henry Winkler, and, yes, Matthew Lillard. The back and forth regarding the battle of the classic slasher versus so-called elevated horror is amusing. Most unfortunately, the ending is disappointing, with far too many survivors. 

"We have failed you"

I decided to skip seeing this in the theater, and I'm happy I did--instead, I used a code to get a free DVD rental from the local Redbox.

Yes, that's still a thing

I'm happy that all watching this mess cost me was the gasoline it took to get to the box (though, at these gas prices, I may have been better off going to the AMC). Scream 5 may be the worst of the franchise--yes, I know Scream 3 wasn't great either, but at least that one had the always awesome Parker Posey. A sixth movie has already been announced, and is set to be released in 2023. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

Scream 5 Movie Trailer