Scream (2022) (4½ Stars)

It seems like every eleven years there's a new Scream film. That's a long interval. It must be a fight to persuade the actors to return from the early films. They've moved on, and maybe they're afraid of being upstaged by the new younger cast members. The Scream films are teen films. They always have been. The older cast members aren't just old enough to be their parents, in some cases they're old enough to be their grandparents.

Now there's a fifth film, which isn't called "Scream 5", it's simply "Scream". That made me groan when I first heard about it. A reboot? We don't need a reboot. Luckily, it isn't. It's a continuation of the earlier films, so it's effectively "Scream 5", in all but name. In some countries it's called "Scream 5", and I'll make it easier for my by calling it "Scream 5" in the rest of this review.

Once more, the metafilm aspect is strong. The characters repeatedly talk about the Stab films, which are the in-film versions of the Scream films. There have been more films over the years, seven Stab films in total. Now an eighth film is in production, and it won't be called "Stab 8", it'll be called "Stab". Ah ha! When the characters talk about "Stab 8" they're answering all the possible criticisms of "Scream 5". This is something I'll have to discuss in detail when I have the film on Blu-ray. I don't want to misquote them.

Has anyone else noticed that Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox are looking more similar as they get older? Or maybe it's deliberate. Their hair might have been styled the same to give the viewer the impression that Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers are growing together.

This is a very good film. It's better than "Scream 4", even though I've given it the same rating. Maybe it deserves more. Despite the abundance of new technology, "Scream 5" is a return to the franchise's roots. There's more comedy than in "Scream 4", which is welcome. The violence is also more explicit. What I miss in the new film is the lack of music. Yes, there are songs playing, but the music isn't as overpowering as in the previous films. I need to watch "Scream 4" and "Scream 5" back to back to make a better comparison.