Never stand next to your more talented cousin (a Scream 2022 post)
Having a mega-successful movie franchise is a whole thing. You want to keep the existing fanbase happy, but you also want to keep bringing in new viewers. As not just a horror series, but an iconic horror series, Scream had it tougher than most. There’s only so many times you can bust out the same killer rampaging through the populace and have it make sense. (This is why Friday the 13th just stopped trying. Jason is in space now, don’t worry about it.)
When Scream came out in 1996, it turned a self-aware eye on the slasher formula. It spoke to a savvy audience in their own language, telling a smart, focused story that provided the killer with more motivation than just “they’re evil” or “they’re crazy”. It also not only revealed the killer at the end, but ensured that they couldn’t possibly carry on their work in any future films. because that was the right way for that story to end.
That created a bit of a problem when Scream became a massive hit, though. The sequels did their level best to produce Ghostface replacements that were interesting and believable, but eventually it all just kind of fizzled out because how many times can you take a swing at Sidney Prescott and miss? Eventually, the girl’s just going to move to Italy or live on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean or something.
But there’s just no way a studio is going to let a profitable household name languish, and so here we have Scream (2022), which has the Herculean task of nodding to its predecessor while also being accessible for an audience that has possibly never seen the original because they weren’t born yet.
Yeah, I know.
Scream (2022) follows the expected path of briefly introducing a bunch of high-school students and their young-adult relations before it starts killing them off one by one. There’s a connection to the events of the original movie that I won’t reveal (partly because it’s a semi-spoiler and partly because it’s dumb), but for the most part Scream (2022) is a straight-up retreading of the ground laid flat by the original. If you didn’t see Jamie Kennedy explain the rules for surviving a horror movie way back when, fear not, because you’re going to get it all over again, this time from his character’s niece.
And, you know, fine. While it’s a waste of my time, I’m also not the target audience. I don’t need an entirely new cast of young people to explain how Scream works because I’ve been there since day one. I also realize that most viewers don’t really care about the quality of their horror moves so long as the kills are good. I’m also aware that most viewers don’t care all that much about the thought and creativity that goes into said kills. My standards for horror might be sky high, but give most folks a relatively coherent reason for someone in the movie to be running around with a hunting knife and they’re happy. Whatever.
Scream (2022) ticks enough horror movie boxes to be considered a success, but it makes one massive mistake. The biggest failing of Scream (2022) isn’t a lack of imagination, it’s putting the new cast in the same film as franchise veterans Deputy Dewey, Gale Weathers, and final girl Sidney Prescott (David Arquette, Courtney Cox, and Neve Campbell). First, the older performers are acting circles around these new kids. They dominate every scene they’re in, and they don’t have to be chewing scenery to do it. Their mere presence is enough to demand your attention; all three give killer (har har) performances. To be fair, they have loads more experience not just honing their craft in general but in this specific cinematic world. Of course they look like they know their way around better — they’ve lived here longer.
But it’s not just comparative resumes that made it such an unwise choice. Dewey, Gale, and Sidney are simply in a far more interesting position than anyone else in the film. They are fucking over it. They’re done. Oh, there’s a killer in Woodsboro again? Fine, whatever, just give me a gun, I’ll deal with it. Not only is that attitude more fun to watch than the typical “Maybe I should go look for my girlfriend in the woods by myself” death setup going on in the rest of the movie, but it’s far more in keeping with the original Scream. Scream respected its audience and played with expectations to create genuine surprise and fear. Talk about “the rules” all you want, new Scream character, you’re not going to top Dewey warning Sid not to come back to Woodsboro and her saying “No shit, Sherlock.”
I’m paraphrasing.
Scream (2022) was never going to be as dazzling as the original, but it could’ve been serviceable had it chosen to start completely fresh. I understand the choice to include the old cast, but they’re so much stronger than the new characters that they can’t help but overshadow them. Neve Campbell achieves more with one annoyed sigh than the new final girl does in the entire runtime. “Great acting” is not a phrase one normally associates with David Arquette, but his turn as a broken, melancholy Dewey has a subtlety that belies that character’s goofy origins. And Courtney Cox as a woman examining her ambition through the lens of middle age? Please and thank you.
Sorry, new kids. There’s just no way you can compete with that.