PARAMOUNT FINALLY RELEASES THE FIFTH MOVIE IN THE SCREAM SERIES

 By: Hayley Connolly

Photo Credit: Screen Rant

Scream returns January 14, 2022 with a new Ghostface killer and returning fan favorite characters. When the new movie was confirmed, fans went into a frenzy about returning characters such as David Arquette’s Dewey Riley and Courtney Cox’s Gale Withers. Although these two are divorced, the horrors will commence. 

This movie has all of the actors in their feels, reminiscing about how much this series truly means to them. Actress Neve Campbell who plays main character Sidney Prescott said according to Rotten Tomatoes, “I’m so grateful for these films… I love Sidney Prescott. It’s always fun for me to step back in her shoes, and it’s always fun for me to see the cast come back and make one of these films again and try to make another good one.” David Arquette, actor of Dewey Riley is also pondering about his love life and child that immersed from this series. Stating in an interview with ET Canada, “I met Courtney on this film, which was so wonderful. Now we have our daughter Coco.”  

While the cast continues their journey to the past, little is known about the actual plot of the newest film. Though, three kids connected to the original killers were shown. Sidney was also seen talking to one of these girls and giving her advice on how to survive the Ghostface attacks. These kids are most likely connected to Billy Loomis and Stu Macher, the original killers in some way and fans have already theorized how. These theories range from relatives to one of the main killers still being alive. Stu Macher, the accomplice of Billy Loomis in the original movie, was never actually confirmed dead. He was even planned to make a reappearance in the upcoming films, but never did. So this begs the question, is he the Ghostface killer? Are these his kids? Is he attempting to finish Billy’s original goal? Joshua Spiridigliozzi, a fan of the Scream series, states, “I would love it if Stu were the new killer. It would really add to the scream lore.” 

Scream is one of the most iconic horror franchises and has maintained its originality while parodying previous horror tropes. All of the killers are normal people and continue to follow in the path of revenge towards Sidney for a particular motive. The weaknesses of this franchise is repetitiveness. These movies tend to use jump scare clichés and violence to drive home their point without actually being scary or providing any tension. Of course they need a new Ghostface killer for every movie but there needs to be some closure at some point. Arquette stated in an interview with ET Canada that, “It’s really like a love letter” referencing the original director Wes Craven and this newest film is to honor him. Fans of the series can only hope the new directors bring in a fresh light to his franchise while providing the closure it needs.