So of course, we have been anticipating another installment for the Scream franchise, but I'm not sure we were necessarily expecting this. Two directors that have a love for the franchise as much as we do, brought their wildest dreams to life on the silver screen. They knew how hard it would be, to try to step into enormous, gigantic shoes that were worn by the late great, legendary, horror mastermind Wes Craven. They knew it, but still chose to put themselves out there, making some of the ballsiest moves that directors could make. I think they made their presence known, with some little flaws here and there, but with some more experience.....I think more than one torch was passed.
So the opening scene we have Tara Carpenter, texting Amber, trying to coax her to come over with some alcohol of course. The atmosphere is light at first, but without a single thought, it changes when the phone rings. A voice on the other line, almost casual and light hearted, converses with Tara until it transitions to a more sinister tone. Roger Jackson outdid himself in this one because he uses many ranges of his voice to convey the atmosphere. Tara is very emotional, as elevated as the phrase she coined for horror movies that don't just slash and gash, with more meaning to them. She gets attacked by our slow motion, grand entrance having ghostface, continuously attacked until the police come to save her, which no Scream has done for an opening.
Question is......Do we like that there was no death in the opening scene? I feel like because of the attack being so heightened and cruel like it was, makes up for the fact that no one was killed before opening title. Plus I liked Tara from the very start, so I am glad that she was not killed, I feel like Jenna Ortega slayed her performance in this, pun is intended.
So we have Sam and Richie, on the steps of their workplace, being flirty and cheesy but it works because we want to like Sam, for she is the potential new final girl or at least new main focus. Some have said that her character is quite wooden? I mean, I wouldn't go as far as wooden, I would just say that we are not used to a potential final girl already having issues as major as hers so we don't want to see her as final girl, I think that's what it is to be honest. We like to see our final girls be a little naive, soft spoken, really smart and on the straight edge path. Sam does not seem to portray the typical final girl character in its cliche form, but more so with an arch from the very beginning, that makes you question whether or not she actually will be good rather than bad.
Richie, I know he seems to be a favorite of most, but I didn't get much from him. I feel like he was played as Sam's side kick and then when he was revealed, he was then Amber's side kick. He wasn't really his own person, he was for everyone else. I wanted to see more from him, more depth, but I feel like Richie actually brought out the better part of Sam's character when she killed him. Richie coming in for the assist....just not for himself.
Wes Hicks was the one who calls Sam, to tell her about her sister Tara, whom she hasn't spoken to for years. I wanted so much more of this character because I love Dylan Minnette as an actor. I would have loved to see him be the killer, to see him take on a role that I haven't seen him take before, would have been amazing but instead, we get some fake out jump scares, playing with the audience before getting attacked by ghostface as he reaches for the taser, but unsuccessful as he drives the knife into his throat, watching as Wes dies.
Judy Hicks meets her maker before Wes does, racing against time, trying to come back to the house as ghostface toys with his prey, threatening that Wes is already going to be dead by the time she gets back to him. Ghostface comes in with the jaw dropping stab to Judy in broad daylight in her front yard, killing her with multiple stabs as she bleeds out. My jaw dropped when I saw her get stabbed right as she approached her front porch, not even. Ghostface swooped in for the kill, with not a moment to spare. We don't even get to see much progress from Judy's character, which was a shame. I personally still believe it would have been more interesting if she was the third killer, the one to devise the planning for it all, having a different vendetta than the other two. At least Judy still got an intense death that'll have you mopping up your own drool from your jaw dropping.
In comes three more characters that I will pair together and that is Mindy Meeks-Martin, Chad Meeks-Martin and Liv Mckenzie. I was hoping that Liv would have had a more artsier vibe to her, that she would be a smart ass, we need at least one smart ass who calls it out like they see it. Too bad that Mindy called this one and said Liv would be too boring to be the killer, well she is also too boring to be an actual character as well. I would have at least liked to hear them say that Liv is related to the McKenzie's who had to call the police when Casey was murdered at their neighbor's house. That would have been more interesting for me for that kind of connection. Then we have Chad who is Liv's boyfriend, which is an odd couple if you ask me, especially when at the party scene, she wants to get him alone, he's like "I don't think so, what if you're the killer". Liv is offended and storms off, only to be the reason why Chad goes outside to look for her, leaving himself vulnerable to a ghostface attack. Chad is also Mindy's twin brother, which she has become the new horror movie geek that we all adore, knowing that we have another eyes and ears for the audience. She is pretty much a female Randy, telling us about requels and then watching the Stab version of Randy as she is about to be attacked herself, just a great homage to the scene from the first Scream.
How can we forget Amber, well, she is kind of easy to forget, knowing she doesn't really develop as a character until what she coins as Act Three. She blows us away like she blew Liv away with her psychotic energy like she snorted a million pixie sticks, then drank espresso, then chugged down a red bull after pretending to be attacked, only to shoot Gale, leaving her immobile on the ground. It does not bother me that Amber is a female, because well I am female and I know that adrenaline can make me feel as strong the hulk if driven enough. It does not bother me that she is not as tall, but it does bother me when she catches Dewey off guard, then digs it in deeper, making it hurt more when she devalues him, saying that he died like a p***y. That's when she crossed the line, leaving him with "It's an honor", as if that was going to soften the blow. That only made my tears stream harder as I lost the one character in this franchise that was besides Sidney, the backbone. Still mourning that loss, it's still sore so I will go on.
Gale is not very significant in this one in my opinion, but she does assist on exacting vengeance on the one we dare not name like she is Voldemort. Gale is in New York and Dewey just couldn't hack it, he was always more about the simpler things. Gale always wanted more for herself, was never satisfied with what she already had and Dewey just could not keep up with her. They split up and unfortunately she only received a text to inform her about the attacks, so of course, that drew her in out of anger. Gale has definitely grown though and no one seems to be talking about the fact that after the hospital scene, after learning of Dewey's demise, she apologizes to Sidney about writing the book on her mother, Maureen. I could not believe she apologized to Sidney, it was very telling of where their relationship transitioned from enemies, to frenemies to Dewey bringing them together to become actual friends with a bonded connection of losing a mutual friend.
Sidney swears that she will never step foot in Woodsboro ever again but Dewey brings her back, to protect her own and also to fight in honor of Dewey. I love her attitude in this one, she is fed up with ghostface, she is ready to fight with no fear or even remorse, because she asks Sam to kill ghostface with them, not stopping til he's in the ground. Though Sidney is not in this movie a lot, she does steal the show every time she's on screen. Also have to mention how I hope so very much that when Sidney says Mark is her husband, I truly hope it is Kincaid because I want them to have a happy ending.
So I will briefly sneak in Vince because apparently that's what the movie itself does to his character. He's in and then he's out, he's only there to be the creeper with a cool ass car who gets to die with "Red Right Hand" playing in the background. I love Kyle Gallner's acting skills and just wanted to see more of him, I just feel like they did him dirty with just a little pokey poke to the neck, down he goes. That's really it, that's all we can really say about Vince, also that his mother is Stu's sister. So much that we could have done with that and this is what was given to us.
Cue Dewey's iconic Scream 2 theme because we are about to leave the best for last. Dewey was down on his luck, he lost everything and kept himself secluded so he didn't have to face anyone, only to get the knock on his trailer door. Getting up from watching his ex wife Gale, even after the divorce, still supporting her, what a gentleman. He reluctantly opens the door to find Sam and Richie, in need of his help. Playing on Dewey's kind nature, he lets them in and warns them about the rules, about how to survive. He had one of the best lines in this movie and that was: "Maybe you're the killer, cos that cut deep". Best line ever. I feel like the movie set up a dark foreshadowing over Dewey, knowing what was to come for his fate. He saved someone, only to be killed, but killed honorably, because I believe he went back with Randy in mind, also with Sidney in mind, when Randy says that you have to make sure they're dead, Sidney telling him to shoot Roman in the head, it was homage to them. Dewey just tugs at my heart, his character was so wholesome, childlike at first hungry for knowledge, then turning into a true hero at the very end. Dewey will always be Woodsboro's Finest.
So onto Act Three, Amber and Richie are revealed as the two killers with a motive that I feel is quite brilliant, especially in this time. They were pointing out toxic fandom and how they wanted to make their own movie, knowing that they hated the last one, causing them to take matters into their own hands. Amber unveiled more than just the mask, she went all Super Psycho Sweet sixteen on us, revealing also that she was the one who killed Dewey, therefore a sought out revenge ensues on her as she gets shot then lit the f**k on fire, well deserved and good for Gale. Richie is not as convincing as a psycho, a creeper, yes, but not psycho. I feel like maybe the only person he stabbed was Sam and he would later regret that decision as Sam unleashes every ounce of hell on him as she stabs him MANY MANY times. That was the moment, like I said before, Richie assisted Sam's character to elevate on a higher level of intrigue. She has visions of her dead father who is also the well known killer Billy Loomis, which I liked the hallucinations of him, I was giddy when I saw him for the first time. I liked that Billy was directing her, making her that much more conflicted. She tries to stifle him but she gives in, leaving us with a fantastic ghostface kill.
So this was no Babadook but this is on the way of paving a new path for Scream that I am excited to see where it goes. I hope there's more between Tara and Sam because I love their characters, where they're taking them. Cos let's face it, these days we gotta have a Requel......
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