Hello Sidney…we’re home. In this episode of The Cinematic Schematic, we’re rejoined by recurring guests Laron Chapman, Zachary Burns, and Brock Lay to follow our Scream retrospective discussion up with a review of the newest entry in the series, Scream (2022), AKA Scream 5 AKA 5cream(the correct title).



This conversation starts with the ice-breaker question, “who is your favorite horror movie villain or antagonist?” We then jump into a spoiler-free review of Scream(2022) where we provide our verdict on the film before concluding the conversation with an in-depth spoiler discussion.



It’s been eleven years since Scream 4, the most recent entry, hit theaters in 2011. Though the film was generally well-received by critics (it currently sits at 61% on Rotten Tomatoes), it did not perform well enough at the box office to justify more sequels, at least according to the now-defunct Weinstein Company. That all changed when the Spyglass Media Group purchased the rights to the old Ghostface franchise in 2019.



After another attempted murderer in the town of Woodsboro, the latest film brings back returning series regulars, Sidney Prescott(Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette), to join a new much younger cast in taking down the mysterious Ghostface killer once again. If you’re having a sense of déjà vu following the previous entry of the film similarly featuring a young cast, fear not! This young cast, which includes Sam Carpenter(Melissa Barrera), Tara Carpenter(Jenna Ortega), Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid), Mindy Meeks-Martin(Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad Meeks-Martin(Mason Gooding), Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison), and Wes Hicks (Dylan Minnette), take the front and center stage with the legacy characters playing a supporting role.



As you’d expect from a Scream film, things quickly become a very meta whodunnit against the backdrop of the horror movie and Hollywood tropes, this time using what Scream(2022) calls “a Requel” or as we like to call it at The Cinematropolis via Screencrush’s Matt Singer, a “Legacyquel .”



Though Hollywood and the way films are discussed online have evolved significantly since Scream 4 attempted to take horror remakes down a peg in 2011, the slasher genre has arguably remained stagnant. What more is there really to be said about the state of horror in 2022, and is Scream really the best franchise to critique rehashed movie ideas anymore?



Tune in to the full conversation to hear our verdict regarding the success or failure of Scream(2022), how toxic fan cultures play into the mix, and whether we think there’s enough life left in the increasingly tired Scream formula to compel audience...