With the Halloween franchise showing what can be achieved with respect and creative thinking (and cleaning up at the box office), Scream becomes the latest horror property to go the belated sequel/reboot route in the fifth instalment of the Woodsboro saga. After a deft restaging of the original film's classic opening and an efficient introduction to the new generation of young characters, the story sees another Ghostface killer on the rampage, this time targeting the descendants and survivors of those involved in the earlier murders, leading to some very satisfying deep dives into the cinematic history of Woodsboro, the Stab meta-movies and the Scream franchise itself. As is the way with the current trend for requels (addressed within this movie, of course), it is all about the female characters - it really does not pay to be male in this film - and rather than fleetingly introducing innocent victims blundering into murderous set-ups, the latest generation has real connection to the story and are presented as damaged but savvy and up for the fight, giving the events that unfold real weight. This latest Scream film does a great job of integrating the legacy and new characters well, and directors and writers clearly know their genre and this franchise in order to deliver by far the strongest and most entertaining entry since the first sequel.
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