Harefooted Halloween: Scream (2022)

What I liked: Ghostface is the most threatening he’s ever been.  His victims don’t get in as many blows when they tangle and he doesn’t clumsily knock into shit as much.

Towards the end when the remaining characters are running and hiding from the killer one guy gets spooked when Ghostface pops out from behind a door and he exclaims “holy shit, it’s Ghostface!”  Well, yea ha, I mean who else would it be?  Maybe the funniest joke in the whole series.

Awww yea they bring back the Broken Arrow guitar cue from part 2 when Dewey decides to get off his ass and help out in the investigation.

What I Didn’t Like: Almost everything else.

Overall Impressions: Look guys, this part 5 wore me down a touch.  I’m struggling to find stuff to talk about because this series in general doesn’t give you a ton to analyze and this installment might be the worst offender.  Nothing new is added here.  Ghostface picks off Woodsboro residents one at a time using his trusty knife, he makes menacing phone calls, a group of high school friends along with a cop (or ex-cop in this case) and a reporter work together to solve who’s behind it all, the opening mirrors the original with a high school girl getting harassed on the phone alone at home, one major character dies off, the finale takes place during/after a party, everyone’s a suspect, Ghostface gets knocked out for a moment but nobody disarms him or pulls the mask back, they trot out long time vets Sidney (Neve Campbell (House of Cards)), Gale (Courteney Cox (Cougar Town)) and Dewey (David Arquette (Bone Tomahawk)) to come save the day, Ghostface’s victim selection and motive don’t make any sense, etc.

I plan on diving into this a little more in the wrap up but yet more relatives of characters from the first film are introduced.  This is all the Screams ever do.  None of the sequels are daring enough to find a way to do their own thing while staying true to the spirit of the original.  This has to be possible, no?

And similar to part 3 they go too damn meta.  This one almost borders on satire with the characters repeatedly commenting on the type of movie they’re in.  On one hand they openly suspect one another of being the killer but then on the other they continue to hang out, flirt and party with each other.  You can’t have it both ways.  “I don’t know that you’re not Ghostface…you wanna make out?”

Ugh, this one’s the worst.