The Scream movies are my 3rd all time favorite horror series, I know them like the back of my hand. Less than halfway through Scream 5, I knew exactly who the killers were… it was pretty easy once I realized the movie was simply a repackaged version of the OG Scream. It was less than 30 minutes into Scream 6 when I realized who the killers were- I even guessed there were more than two for the first time in the series’ history (unless you count the fact that Roman was working behind the scenes with Billy and Stu… then the movies have technically already done three killers). I’m really good at pattern recognition, but I don’t think that’s a requirement to solve these two movies… especially Scream 6.
I was excited for Radio Silence (RS) to take over the series once we lost the brilliant Wes Craven. I had thoroughly enjoyed Ready or Not, and felt RS would breathe new life into the series with some inventive new plots. Scream has always been meta, an in-depth look at what the state of the horror genre looked like at the time of each entry in the series. I really thought RS would have something interesting to say about the overwhelming wave of sequels, prequels, and requels… but they didn’t, and I think that’s one of many reasons why I just find it impossible to like Scream 5 & 6.
First, I will never forgive RS for not only killing Dewey, but destroying his character before offing him. It felt like a cheap ploy to disguise their weak story with shock value. Scream 2 manages to kill Randy, a beloved character, without needing to kill him…. take out Randy’s death, and Scream 2 is still a good sequel. Meanwhile, take out Dewey’s death, and there’s absolutely nothing to talk about when it comes to Scream 5 because there are no surprises; it’s just Scream 1 with extra bells and whistles to distract from a weak plot. (Tara is the exception, she’s a boss and the best thing to come out of the newest movies.) Second… a character named Sam Carpenter? Like, yes, this series has always used names to give a little wink to horror icons and characters, but could they have been any more on the nose? The minute I heard her name, I cringed. Third… the Billy ghost that may be just a figment of Sam’s mind. Yeah, hated that. Scream does NOT need to venture into paranormal. I don’t mind the retcon of Billy cheating on Sydney and knocking someone up before he died, but the ghostly appearances were so cheesy and unnecessary. Scream is a slasher series that has always been grounded in ‘reality’ as it is in that universe. For the record, I felt the same about the Maureen ghostly dreams in Scream 3… but at least those were dreams, and not Sydney seeing ghosts. I truly believe that having us see the Billy ghost, limits the actress who would be more than capable of acting out that mental breakdown. Especially in Scream 6, it would have been far more interesting to watch Sam wrestle internally with her fear of becoming like her father… adding the actual Billy ghost is insulting to the actress and the audience, like we wouldn’t understand without the visual. Fourth, and my most controversial opinion, I hated the twins. I love Randy (not a fan of Jamie Kennedy, though), but his niece and nephew are the worst. Randy’s movie obsession comes across as nerdy know-it-all, but his niece comes across as off-putting movie snob. Randy is like “You don’t know the rules?! Well let me tell you about them!” and Mindy comes across as “Ugh, you don’t know the rules? What’s wrong with you?” And the nephew, Chad… he definitely comes across as a “Chad”. The guy is a blank, nothing more than a dumb jock. They do try to give him more personality in Scream 6, but it’s just not enough. I really thought I hated the actor who played Chad… until I saw him in Heart Eyes. Turns out I like the actor, but I do not vibe with Chad at all. It’s actually the same with the actress who plays Sam Carpenter… I really thought I didn’t like Melissa Barrera, then I saw Abigail and realized she’s a good actress. Perhaps she was just given bad direction on Scream or maybe I just truly don’t like the character of Sam as she’s written. And finally, my fifth overall complaint with the newest movies- with the exception of Wes, they only killed off main/side characters from the first four movies. The ‘Core Four’ is so stupid… like I actually cringed when they called themselves that up on screen. Scream 2 killed Randy, but all of the Core Four made it through Scream 6? Did RS get cold feet after the backlash to Dewey’s death in Scream 5? Here’s the difference… Dewey was a legacy character that we had four previous movies to fall in love with (though it really only took the first Scream, which is probably why Wes and Kevin didn’t have the balls to kill him in any of the sequels) The Core Four had no reason to survive two movies fully in tact. They can attack Chad and let him live all they want, he will never be the new Dewey.
Now, on to plot comparisons. How are Scream 5 & 6 just retellings of Scream 1 & 2? Let’s start with the biggest giveaway- the killers. Ritchie the boyfriend is the killer? Well, that’s certainly never been done, right Billy Loomis? I will say, I do like Amber because girl is crazy, but she just can’t eat up the scenery the way Stu did. I’ve literally been quoting Stu’s lines since 1996. (“But wait! There’s more!”, “I’m feelin’ a little woozy here!”, “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me.”, etc.) I cannot tell you one quote from Amber’s crash out. And Scream 6’s killers? Absolutely ridiculous. Having already realized Scream 5 was merely repackaged Scream 1, I saw our characters in college in Scream 6, looked at the new characters, and knew the Detective dad was one of the killers… I even guessed that he wanted revenge because he was probably Ritchie’s dad, and I was right. He was just a worse version of Mrs. Loomis (I like Dermot Mulroney, but I LOVE Laurie Metcalf). Adding the two siblings as killers couldn’t make up for one Mickey (though I may be biased because I also LOVE Timothy Olyphant).
Let’s move on the plot comparisons. Scream 5 ending in a house party… at Stu’s house no less… was not the inventive meta moment RS thought it was. They thought they were making commentary on the whole ‘requel’ thing, but all they ended up doing was making their own subpar requel. Their messaging on obsessive fan bases also missed the mark (I do realize that by writing this whole post, I am positioning myself as one of the fans they were commenting on), Listen, even bad sequels can have their charm. Halloween is my all time favorite horror series, and I can freely admit that Halloween 5 is hot garbage. I will critique H5 to the moon and back… but I still love it and never skip it on a series rewatch. Why? Because it never thought it was above what came before it. Scream 5 feels like it’s scolding Scream fans for loving the series. Scream 6 was just literally almost completely Scream 2… from the college setting to the new film nerd characters (one of whom turns out to be a Ghostface a la Mickey), it’s like RS barely tried to make it different. “Wait, this one is in New York, though!” Okay, and? They didn’t use the location properly, because it could’ve been any big city in the U.S. I didn’t need them running up the Empire State building, but yeah, there was no reason to make the fact that they were in NYC such a big selling point in the promotion of the movie. It’s not like the Scream movies take place exclusively in Woodsboro, CA… Scream 2 takes place at Windsor College in Ohio, and Scream 3 is in mostly in L.A.
The problems behind the scenes were also troubling, from not wanting to pay Neve Campbell what she’s worth to firing Melissa Barrera for her thoughts on the genocide happening in Palestine. I wanted to mention them, as these issues also soured the new movies for many fans, especially Scream 6… but those issues are not the topic of this particular post, so we’ll move on and save the discussion for a future post.
Now, you may be wondering… how can Scream be my third favorite series when I hate 2 of the current 6 entries? Well, after trashing them for the past few paragraphs, let me tell you what I like about them. I loved having Kirby back. I absolutely love Tara Carpenter, even though I think her last name is too much. I like the idea of Ritchie and Amber being obsessed fans who want to become part of the story… I just don’t think it was pulled off in a completely successful way. Again, I did like Amber because I do enjoy a good crazy lady, but I think that was just more due to Mikey Madison being a good actress…. just like I credit most of Tara’s likability to the fact that she’s played by Jenna Ortega. I liked the cameo by James and Chelsea from Dead Meat… I love their YouTube channel and am re-watching their “Hot Saw Summer” podcast series as I’m writing this. (By the way, Saw is my 2nd favorite horror series of all time and there will definitely be future content about them). And finally I want to clear up that I do like the idea of using Stu’s house as the finally setting, it just missed the mark on being meta and went right into fan service.
And I think that’s the real fatal flaw of Scream 5 and 6… too much fan service with not enough substance. The winks and nods to the horror genre made Scream a game changer in 1996, introducing us to a world where the characters watch and love the same movies as the audience. But RS takes those winks and nods, and practically slams them over our head, like “Here! Remember this?! This was cool, right?!” Audiences are even more savvy now, and it’s insulting when a movie talks down to us. Randy told us the rules with the assumption that we already knew them… Scream 5 told us we were stupid for not knowing the rules, even though we are actually fully aware of them. Scream let the audience in on the joke, Scream 5 told us we were stupid for loving and knowing our favorite movies.
Will I watch Scream 7 when it comes out next year. Abso-freakin’-lutely. I will watch any and all Scream content that is made… because that’s what fans do. If Halloween 5 didn’t stop my love of Michael Myers, then Scream 6 will not stop my love of the Scream soap opera. I will take them as crazy as they want to make them, but that doesn’t mean they are above critique. Is the original Scream trilogy perfect? Hell no, and I’m sure I’ll write about them in the future along with Scream 4 (which is actually a pretty banging sequel). I think the main difference in Scream 1-4 and Scream 5-6 is this… the first four are fun and campy, 5 and 6 are not.
So, how would I fix all this in Scream 7? My idea would be to retcon Scream 5 and 6 as actually being Stab movies. Scream 7 would bring back the legacy characters that survived Scream 4 and the Core Four would be revealed to be actors in the Stab series, kind of like Scream 3. Scream 5 and 6 were actually an attempt to reboot the Stab series. Sydney, Dewey, Gale, Judy, and Kirby being in the Stab movies is explained as AI using their likenesses over the faces of nameless actors (which would provide commentary on the current state of the movie industry, with fully AI actresses now trying to be promoted). Scream 7 would be about a whole cult of Stab fans who stan the previous “real” Ghostfaces that Stab is based on, and the cult hunts down the survivors to finish the work of Roman, Billy, Stu, Mrs. Loomis, Mickey, Jill, and Charlie. I think this idea would properly combine the over-the-top campiness of Scream 3 with the winky meta-ness of Scream 1. I doubt this is the direction Kevin Williamson will take, but I will say, I am optimistic for Scream 7 now that one of the OG creators is involved. But regardless of whether it’s a good movie or a bad movie, I know one thing for sure… I can’t wait to watch!
I will end this post with my ranking of the Scream movies… what’s your ranking?
- Scream 1996
- Scream 4
- Scream 2
- Scream 3
- Scream 5
- Scream 6
The Raven and the Writing Desk 
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