Does the New Scream Measure Up to the Original?

*Warning spoilers ahead if you have not seen the newest Scream, stop reading to watch it and then come back*

Scream (2022) earned over $30 million dollars during its opening week grossing a whopping $56.8 million in their box office not only in the United States but also in Canada not counting the additional $10 million they made internationally. “Racking up the worldwide box office to $84.9 million in just two weeks of its release,” in accordance with Collider. 

The fifth installment of the series takes place 25 years after the latest brutal murders happened yet again to the unfortunate town of Woodsboro. Where killers, Billy Loomis and Stu Macher, started a vicious cycle where one hides behind a Ghostface mask targeting local teens. This time around a new killer terrorizes the town targeting an unexpecting character and her sister. We get to see familiar faces (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, and even Skeet Ulrich)  that fans have fallen in love with time and time again to make yet another debut against Ghostface. All except Stu Macher played by Matthew Lillard who fans speculate is still alive. Fans of Scream know and live by rules you should follow in a horror movie set by none other than the character Randy Meeks, and if you want to know more about the rules check out this article “Do You Like Scary Movies?”.  One of those rules is if you do not see a body then they are not dead. The audience sees Stu get hit by a TV, assuming that he is dead, but they never see a body making fans wonder if he is truly dead. Even Matthew Lillard himself believes that his character is not dead. In accordance with PopBuzz, Matthew was hired and paid for Stu coming back as Ghostface in Scream 3, but never made it to air because it was too close to the tragic events at Columbine High School. “From jail, I was kind of masterminding this attack against Sidney and so three weeks before we were supposed to start shooting, Columbine High School broke out, and they changed everything. They kind of took the script and threw it to the side. They bought me out and I never did the third one,” he explains. In the Scream universe Stu may be alive, just never brought back as Ghostface. If Stu is still alive will he return to enact his revenge and finish what he started with Billy Loomis in another film or will this be the last installment of the series? 

The plot focuses on two sisters, Tara (Jenna Ortega) and Sam (Melissa Barrera), who are estranged but when Tara is attacked in her own home after getting a suspicious phone call, it brings her back to the hometown she originally fled from. It is revealed that the reason Sam fled from her home was that she found out her biological father is Billy Loomis and since then has been having hallucinations of him. Afraid that she too might become like him she ran away trying to protect her sister, but ended up hurting her in the process. Tara’s friend group gets picked off one by one until the killer is forced to reveal themselves, which is the one closest to her, her best friend Amber Freeman played by Mikey Madison and boyfriend Richie played by Jack Quaid. Two of them wanted to create another Stab film just as good as the original and what better way to do that than lure the daughter of Billy Loomis and try to blame all the killings on her.  Ending with a showdown with the three final girls, Sydney, Gale,  and Sam defeating Ghostface once again but with ex-officer Dewey dying for his town and those he loves. Sam proves that yes Billy may be her father, but she is nothing like him and is no longer afraid of her mind. 

It is a tricky thing in today’s time when the movie industry puts out sequels and remakes of movies believed by fans, especially horror movies, but Scream 5 made sure to keep intact the same nostalgia that the fans remember. Having not only the right amount of cliches when it comes to slasher films but remembering to keep it modern and relate to this generation satisfies fans everywhere. Especially with the scene, that is in honor of Randy Meeks, where his niece is explaining the ‘rules’ when it comes to a movie that is a remake and a sequel at the same time. Perfectly alluding to how slasher films are evolving but still have the basic set of rules to follow.