Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Written by James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick.

David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaide, Sonia Ammar, Marley Shelton, Skeet Ulrich, Heather Matarazzo.

A little over ten years has passed since the last ghost-face killings in the town of Woodsboro, and the lives of the ‘legacy trio’ have gone in different directions. All three have been living separately. Dewey the only one remaining in his hometown, a shell of the man he once was. Gail is now a talk show host in New York, and Sidney now is a mother.

Woodsboro has been safe since the events of S4, However a new attack occurs to a young woman Tara (Ortega), but she survives! This brings her sister Samantha (Barrera) back to town, after abandoning her several years ago, after discovering a dark secret about herself. Soon more attacks occur, with the sisters, seemingly the targets.

Deciding they need guidance, they reach out to the only person who has been through this, Dewey. Arquette, is phenomenal here, in the now world worn survivor, and chalk and cheese to the rookie deputy he was quarter of a century ago.

This movie in general was a tough sell to a lot of people, the original director Wes Craven had passed away several years before this movie was even suggested, and it was quite a divisive movie. When it was first announced I too was somewhat dismissive. However I found it to be refreshing, and much better than the previous two instalments.

There is still plenty of hate out there for this film, but it did extremely well at the box office, with a budget of about $24m, it has grossed almost $150m world-wide. So successful that a sequel was green lit while this was still in cinemas! I write this review in August 2022, so we will see how the sequel to this requel fares. Especially since that it has been announced that Neve Campbell is not returning.

I genuinely enjoyed this movie. From the opening attack, which in my opinion is the best one since the first, due to the fact it starts with a warm gentle phone call, and slowly builds into the ghost-face threatening tone that will ultimately be the attacking voice.

It was also genuinely great to see our legacy characters, and the growth they have made since the series began so many years ago. The relationships may have drifted, and they have all been living apart all these years (sorry Dewey/Gail fans). One genuinely touching moment is former enemies Gail and Sidney having a genuine bonding hug moment in the second act of the film.

There is also a surprising low body count, and it is far more impactful in the thrills. There are also a couple of very (albeit obviously coming) shocking deaths of ‘safe’ characters that really does make you question who is safe, and who is not.

In my first viewing I genuinely had no clue who the killer/s were. And while I am in agreement that there is no way that person could have lifted that person, I’m also a fan of this franchise enough to agree that when a person puts on the ghost-face costume, they become almost superhuman. We have seen it in movies past where killers are able to throw their victims through windows.

I really enjoyed this movie, and I will say that this was the second best Scream movie of the series. It is only slightly better that #2 because of the editing in the body count. This was a really good effort, and it was a great follow up to the legacy that the late great Wes Craven created over 25 years ago.

Let us see what #6 has in store for us when it is released next year.

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4/5