Scream 5 has the same elements that make the first four entertaining while adding its unique spin on the franchise. While it is not as good as the original, it is better than some of the sequels. Anyone who is a fan of the Ghostface killer should consider watching it.
“Scream 5 is on par with the original and perhaps just a half-step back from the second in that it challenges how one approaches horror movies not as mythology but as metatext,” wrote Walter Chaw on Film Freak Central.
The movie has all the same elements that the other ones do. Someone is murdered in the beginning, bringing Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell, Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) back to Woodsboro. It has one character that is obsessed with movies and explains who will die.
However, the main cast is not featured as much in this movie. The movie mainly follows the newer cast instead. It was interesting to see and kept it new since the old movies followed Prescott, Riley, and Weathers.
A small detail that did not add up was that the main character, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), is Billy Loomis’s (Skeet Ulrich) daughter. It was a small mess up in the movie since it does not fit the timeline. Sam moved away from Woodsboro at age 18 and returned at 23, but Loomis died 25 years ago. Billy died two years before Sam was born, so she could not be his daughter. The small error, however, was unnoticeable until it was further scrutinized. It is also unclear if this is an error or a retroactive change to the Scream timeline.
A more noticeable mistake was during the hospital scene. It was dead silent, and there was no one else in the whole building. Scream 4 also had this mistake; the hospital was empty and no doctors or nurses were present. It seemed like a sizable hospital, so there should have been more than just one patient and a police officer.
The movie still has its ridiculous moments, such as the one when one of the killers was lit on fire yet still was alive. But, it worked because the characters realize that the killers never die unless shot in the head. The movie realizes its cliches and makes fun of them, an appropriate ode to the original Scream.
Since most of the Scream sequels happen because of the Stab series, it is a nice touch that they acknowledged toxic fandoms in Scream 5. The Stab series is the movie series within the Scream movies that was based on the killings. Scream 4 did something similar, where the killers wanted to have one of the Stab movies to be based on them, but Scream 5 brought it to another level.
Scream 5 showed the intense attachment fans can create to characters and movies and how extreme it can get. The killers were hardcore fans of the Stab series and wanted to redeem the series so the killers gave the writers new material.
Also, the way the movie built up the two killers were similar to the original Scream. The killers seemed so obvious that it just could not be them. It was surprising because it seemed apparent.
Scream 5 is arguably one of the better Scream movies. It felt new despite there being four previous movies. The term in the movie ‘requel’ definitely fits this movie, as it remade the series while still being somewhat unique. Fans of the Scream franchise should watch this movie.
