“What’s your favorite horror movie? The voice and the question remain the same, but the answer could be different. Indeed, 25 years separate Scream of… Scream ! It is no coincidence that the new film in the horror saga goes without number (it is the fifth), because it is presented as a sequel and a revival. Like recent
Halloween. Stars and survivors Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette are therefore definitely back, right down to the trailers and posters so it’s not a spoiler, but the film also takes the trouble to introduce a new generation of characters. First of which Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), a young woman forced to return to Woodsboro following a tragedy and when a killer wearing the mask of Ghostface is rampant.
The abyss continues
Difficult to go further without touching on a story that deserves to be discovered devoid of any information but which also deserves to see at least the first film. As well as some essentials of modern horror, even pop culture. Known for its meta and ultra-referential side, the saga continues here to stage, and in abyss, the codes and the evolution of a cinema, an industry and now a community. As could do Scream 2 around the notion of continuation, and had perhaps forgotten it a little Scream 3 and 4.
A game of massacre or a treasure hunt?
Corn Scream also remains a pure slasher. From this perspective, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (Wedding nightmare) had the difficult task of succeeding Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Apart from the opening scene, they don’t even try to ape his direction, and what the film loses in tension and division, it wins him in violence and brutality. Perhaps a sign of the times.
But the new creative team behind this Scream, whose original creator Kevin Williamson, ultimately seems less interested in the game of massacre than in the game of Cluedo. Whodunit? The playful pleasure is real, the film is aware of it and plays it, and at the end … “Hello Vincent. Do you want to play a game? You spell, you die. “