Scream (2022)

             

Matt Bettinelli and Tyler Gillett's Scream is a workmanlike reboot of the Wes Craven franchise. The screen writers, James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, have wisely tried to shift the emphasis of the franchise (that is why there is no Scream 5, yet) by introducing a new generation of suspects and victims to the mix. Four veterans of the 1996 original return with Skeet Ulrich back as a guiding spirit. The newcomers are a bland bunch, I enjoyed Jack Quaid the most, but the producers hit box office gold with the super hot Jenna Ortega and Scream 6 has already graced the theaters. Even though this is a reboot, the script pays great fealty to the original and, like all the films in the saga, offers an on-going meta-commentary on slasher film convention. Unfortunately, the directors can't quite generate the white knuckle intensity of Craven at his best: Last House on the Left, Scream, Red Eye, Wes Craven's New Nightmare.