by Joseph Oscilowski ‘22

The original 1996 Scream is a classic horror movie that anyone who’s at least mildly interested in horror movies has seen. Scream quickly became a horror-fan favorite as it was one of the first meta (meaning self-aware, in that the movie references that it’s a movie) slasher films. Since the original, there are now a total of 5 Scream movies, the most recent being Scream, also referred to as Scream 5. Released January 14, Scream 5 follows Sam, played by Melissa Berrera, as she has to return to her hometown after hearing news that her sister had been attacked by a masked killer. With murders suddenly splattering across Woodsboro, Sam finds that her and those around her are walking targets to the ghostface killer. Scream 5 stars some original Scream actors such as Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette playing their original characters, as well as some new generation actors such as Dylan Minnette from 13 Reasons Why as Wes, and Jenna Ortega from You as Tara.

This film does an amazing job at keeping its audience engaged. Like all Scream movies, Scream 5 showcases a lot of jumpscares and surprises. The combination of cinematography and music create a lot of tension and anxiety for viewers. The CGI is stunning, not being overly gory and gruesome like the recent Halloween movie; however, not disappointing horror fans who expect to see some brutal deaths.

What’s especially cool about this movie is the level of meta it evolves into. Past Scream movies introduced “Stab,” a movie series within the Scream universe. Scream 5 uses the “Stab” movies to add a lot of humor to the film and create three levels of self-awareness in the film, where, for example, the audience is watching a movie where the characters are also watching a movie about the universe that they’re living in. It’s mind boggling to think about and difficult to explain, but this film does an excellent job at showing this level of meta and making it fascinating to experience. 

After the original Scream movie, the films that followed in the series were unable to match up in quality. Scream was very before its time, introducing a lot of horror movie elements used today that had never been seen before. After the first, the other films had strange and oddly unique plots. While still mostly entertaining, these films didn’t entirely make sense or just weren’t that interesting. However, Scream 5 connects more so back to the original, which made the movie overall much more entertaining than the previous ones. While not an equal to the original, Scream 5 is definitely a strong and well made movie.

That being said, however, any good plotlines for the Scream movies have been used up. While the film did make a lot of money in the box office, there’s no more to be done in the series. Movies get boring and overdone when directors drag out the same story over and over again, so hopefully Scream 5 will be the final one as a fitting finale to the Scream brand that had a 25-year run.

Grade: B