I did not expect to like Scream 5 (Scream). I was not a fan of Scream 3 and 4 though I did enjoy Scream 4 more on 2nd viewing. I was a huge fan of Scream’s 1 and 2 as a teenager when they came out as I was in high school, and I felt someone was writing horror films for a generation of horror fans, and then all of a sudden it became an immediate joke, and people started boiling horror films down to “rules” that could be made fun of, and it got annoying real quick.
Going back though the Scream films are a lot of fun, and do offer a decent atmosphere of suspense, but as the films go on, it felt like director Wes Craven who began his career with harsh horror fest like Last House on the Left and the Hills Have Eyes, became attached to the cast, who put his career back on track after a few uneven years, and was unable to really put the horror back into it. The Radio Silence team, who directed the critically acclaimed modern slasher “Ready or Not” harbor no such attachment, and put the over the top horror back into the Scream franchise, and as such make the most impactful entry into the franchise since Scream 2, took aim and killed one of the most beloved characters.
Scream 5 (I can’t do this SCREAM/HALLOWEEN thing, call it what it is), opens with a take on the Drew Barrymore cold open from the original with a young woman we’ll come to know as Tara (Jenna Ortega) getting the “Ghostface phone call”. She ends up butchered badly, but not dead. This brings her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) back to Woodsboro to oversee her sister in the hospital, while Mom’s in London on business. Almost immediately ghostface killings start again , and they seem to be circling Tara’s friend circle, and a secret in Sam’s past. They drag the now retired and alcoholic Dewey Riley (David Arquette) into the mix, and eventually get Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weather (Courtney Cox) involved as well.
This is seriously the best Scream film possibly since the original, and the best since 2. It is a vicious affair, that quickly ramps up the stakes. It’s mission, of course, is to launch a new franchise out of the old, and to pass the proverbial torch, so while we get to check on the old characters we love, make references and connections to them, we also get a new generation of characters to follow up with. However, this doesn’t feel cosmetic. Without spoilers, I will say that it feels that the surviving characters from the original films get to come full circle, and it feels even with their limited screen time get to come to a sense of closure with the morbid and tragic events with their lives, while also helping out those that are experiencing them now.
Scream is presented on 4k UHD by Paramount in a splendid 2:39:1 transfer that looks outstanding. Detail is excellent as our colors and pops from the screen in outstanding ways. Audio is covered by a DTS-HD 7.1 track and sounds solid and well balanced. Extras included a commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes and more. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.