Just the Ticket #121: Scream 5 (and More)

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster

The theme of me doing things in 2023 that I should have done in 2022 continues, as my 2011/2012 review of Scream 4 ended with my final thoughts being negative to mixed, saying "Perhaps I will feel differently in another ten years when Scream 5 comes out." It was actually eleven years, but I still feel like my tendency to making jokes that sort of come true can be scary-good. I predicted The Expendables (including most of the main cast of the trilogy) six years in advance of the actual film's release, so I'm no stranger to making off-hand prognostications.

But enough about me; let's talk Scream (2022)!

The original trilogy (and to a minor extent, Scream 4) focused on the family drama of Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, specifically the murder of her mother at the hands of original Scream villains Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), the vengeance of Billy's mother (Laurie Metcalf) for his death in the first film, and Sidney's long-lost, illegitimate brother, Roman (Scott Foley), who orchestrated their mother's murder by recruiting Billy prior to the events of the series. Scream 4 (though the killer turns out to be Sidney's niece, Jill, played by Emma Roberts) is less about revenge and family drama than the modern societal ill of personal fame, which I did not appreciate at the time. How Jill was denied her fame in the end is still a stroke of brilliant irony, but Scream 4 probably could have been just as good of a Black Swan, Perfect Blue-type horror if it were not also tasked with following the whodunnit paces of a Scream film, with all the expectations that the three films before burdened it with (Jill had to be related to Sidney because Sidney had to be in the movie because it was a Scream movie, for example).

Following the trend of drawing attention to horror and film tropes of its time, as the first four Screams did, Scream 2022 does the "decade later sequel" better than its predecessor, going back to the family drama of the original (taking Roman's "love child" origin from the third movie and flipping it on its head by making protagonist Sam Carpenter--by the way, I love the Halloween  references in this franchise--the psychologically fragile daughter of original killer Billy Loomis), using the franchise favorite, "legacy characters" in a competent way, adhering to and subverting its own tropes ("it's always the love interest," Dewey survives every film, "Turn around, Jamie!," Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' "Red Right Hand," etc.), and not mystery-ing the mystery to death like Scream 4 did. There's even a prolonged suspense sequence in the middle that has almost no dialogue or jumpscare strings, and just lets the solitary nature of the character and his surroundings do all the work, and it's my favorite part of the movie, aside from Sam (Melissa Barrera) as a character.

I also enjoyed Jack Quaid's (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) and Mikey Madison's (Better Things) performances as Scream (2022)'s antagonists. Like a combination of Stu in Scream and Jill in Scream 4, Amber and Richie are horror movie fans--Stab fans, in their case--who are motivated by modern societal ills and their own passions to commit acts of violence. Instead of seeking fame, they embody the dark side of toxic fandom, like if the #releasethesnydercut movement had resulted in the murder of Joss Whedon and the Misery-style kidnapping of Zack Snyder by people wearing Justice League costumes.

Other Halloween inspirations and industry meta-gags include nods to the reboot sequel (the aforementioned legacy characters trope), titling your sequel the same as the original movie, but with a year or article of speech added or subtracted (Halloween, Predators, The Predator, Fast & Furious, Chucky, etc.), and commentary on long-running franchises getting stale or jumping the shark (going to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism is a popular franchise gimmick).

"Spaieze!"

The 2022 Scream has its flaws, like being overstuffed with Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy)-alikes, letting the third act drag, Richie not being very fleshed out beyond "toxic fanboy" and love interest, Sidney, Gale, and Dewey not contributing much beyond cameos and some support in the finale, and one or two continuity errors regarding the camera work. But as Scream sequels and reboot sequels go, Scream (2022) is well worth the wait and the watch, and a touching tribute to the late franchise-creator.

Thanks for being awesome, Wes!

A-

New Coming Distractions #1: ScreaM Trailer

So, after being spared the "replace a letter with a number" trope that has afflicted such films as Fant4stic, Scr3am, and Scre4m, in last year's fifth installment, we have gotten to the Roman numeral sequel trope that becomes the "replace part of a letter with letters that mean numbers" trope seen in Phantasm: OblIVion, turning Scream 6 into Scream VI into ScreaVI.

Fuu...

sion...

Ha!

Hahahahahaha!!!!

Sorry.

Title stylism shenanigans aside, Scream 6's trailer shows quite a bit of promise, being what seems like a logical continuation of Scream (2022)'s storyline with Sam and the surviving legacy characters returning to lead the cast. But much like how family and revenge were the cohesive themes of the original trilogy, the villains' motives here look to be a natural escalation from toxic fandom to cultish behavior, drawing from recent real-world conspiracy movements like January 6, radical pop culture pundits who get angry about things that suck for the wrong reasons (remakes with representative casting, versus the remake just being terrible or unnecessary, for example), and the "multiplying killer" trope from such franchises as the aforementioned Chucky (the most recent cinematic effort from which was literally called Cult Of Chucky). I also appreciate the subway shots in the trailer for all of the horror villain Easter eggs that are peppered in there because the movie takes place on Halloween.

But for all the promise the trailer presents, there are also many evident problems, such as using the "it's a big city and this is a horror movie, so no one will notice" excuse for why a group of physically strong people (one of whom has a fucking shotgun) in a well-lit, confined space stand no chance against one mere human with a knife who is dressed as an infamous serial killer. The indication that there is now a cult of Ghostfaces in Scream 6, while a solid, logical threat escalation from the previous film, is also bundled with several problems we already experienced in other Scream titles, those being the potential for an unsatisfactory mastermind in need of over-explanation (like Roman in Scream 3) and there being so many killers or possible killers that the whodunnit aspect of the film becomes uninteresting as a process (as with the voice-changing technology in Scream 3, the omnipresent Roger Jackson app from Scream 4, and the bloated cast of Scream 5). There is also the lingering stigma of the recent Halloween reboot sequel trilogy that I must admit is tarnishing my preconceptions of what ScreaM could mean for the franchise. The fifth movie was welcome, but will ScreaM see diminishing returns? Will we also get a Sc7eam (ScreaVII?) in 2024? Will it suffer the same fate as Halloween Ends, or will it be the exception to the perceived rule? Well, just as I'm not going to let the perception of any kind of pressure keep me from my resolutions this year, I'm not going to allow the perceived stigma of a franchise I don't care about keep me from watching a franchise I love. So am I hyped for Scream 6? You bet your Red Right Hand I am!

Speaking of franchises I gave up on following, next week's TBT 2023 feature (on Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook) will be Fast Five, and I have no intention of re-watching Fast Five and Furious 6, or watching Furious 7, F8 of the Furious, Fast 9, or Hobbs & Shaw for any Friday companion material like I did with the Scream movies. If anything, I'll probably do a reprint compilation of the two Fast & Furious films I did review. I do have something in mind for Dragon Blog Super, though, and my usual Zenescope review content will be ready for New Comic Book Day's GFT Retrospective (details in Saturday's Time Drops post). So until then, like, comment, subscribe, follow, click me up some ad revenue, and otherwise answer the call to action...unless the call to action comes from Roger L. Jackson. Then destroy your phone and grab the most intimidating weapon you own because I just realized that I'm rhyming and you should run your fastest and be as loud as you can when you shout.

Well, would you look at the time, it's good night, and

Ticketmaster,

out.