Postmodern blood flows in the veins of fans: Review of the new part of the cult franchise "Scream".
More gore, more pop culture references, more suspects: the fans made a film for the fans.
The text does not contain spoilers, but somehow touches on plot details and minor details. If you do not want to know anything before viewing, we recommend that you read the review after the session.
"What's your favorite horror movie?" - most of those who were born in the 80s and 90s will answer without blinking an eye: "Scream", including the directors of the new part Tyler Gillette, Matthew Bettinelli and producer Chad Villella, known as the Radio Silence association. Together they worked on the anthology "Monsters of the South" and the perky horror "I'm going to look." The latter, through Adam Brody, became related to the franchise about a killer in a ghost mask: the artist played a policeman in the fourth part, and in this one (the fifth, but for some reason unnumbered) he received thanks in the credits.
Without a doubt, talented directors could not believe that they inherited a great brainchild, and insisted that it was only thanks to Wes Craven that they took up cinematography. Confessions of such strength are always infectious: gradually, one by one, Woodsboro veterans signed up to participate in the project. First, ex-spouses David Arquette and Courteney Cox (they owe their marriage to Scream), and then Neve Campbell - the main last girl of the 90s. But the composition of the reunion was not limited to the iconic trio: Deputy Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton) from the fourth part and Randy's sister Martha (Heather Matarazzo) from the third part appeared on the screen. If all these names mean nothing to you, then the film will be perceived quite difficult: the return implies a long acquaintance.
Everyone gathered for a non-joyful occasion like Dew and Gail's wedding anniversary or Sidney's (survival) birthday. The masked maniac has shown up again and again terrorizes the youth of Woodsboro: sister, brothers, great-nephews, children, brother-in-law or other relatives of the heroes of the original film are carried by a gallery of faces in front of the viewer. Trying to remember them all is not particularly worth it, perhaps only Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), who claims to be the last 5.0 girl, stands out in the script. Each of the recruits will become a suspect, and therefore there is no point in becoming attached to the heroes: most likely, they will either be killed or they will kill themselves.
"Scream" has become a symbol of postmodern flirtations and loud meth in slashers, although he was neither the first nor the last in this field. Genre variability was much more influential: the scary and funny were perceived as the emotional background of a bloody detective with not one but many murders and murderers, built according to the whodunit scheme (the heroine Justine Savoy Brown pronounces the formula on the screen). That is why the screenwriter of previous films Kevin Williamson (here he acted as one of the many producers) and director Wes Craven diligently led the audience by the nose, but still left clues: literal details in the frame or screaming cuts that gave a chance to guess who the masked killer was, to the climactic scene.
The 2022 Scream is similar to Jonathan Lynn's adaptation of the board game Cluedo. In the film "Evidence" (a classic detective in a confined space), several endings were shown, equally possible, and the narration was built in such a way that several people could independently turn out to be the killer. So here, the very third act (the longest scene in the original) can be “chopped off” and any other denouement screwed onto the editing table. During filming, the actors themselves sometimes did not know which version of the script would be final, and did not really understand who they were playing. And the answer to the main question of the entire series does not come from the internal logic of the plot, but from the filmography of Quentin Tarantino. Therefore, there is no triumphant opening of the curtain in the finale: everyone has a chance to turn out to be a ghostly face, except for the deceased (although the dead have already risen in Scream 3 - and this is a spoiler with an exposure of 20 years).
As a result of following a proven scheme, all newcomers to the battlefield, and above all the central last girl (here the miscast is to blame), become purely functional characters: the new Randy, another suspicious boyfriend, a strange best friend, the sister of the main victim, etc., etc. .P. The characters were archetypal even in the original, but still they had a genuine vitality, even though it was built on genre specificity. In addition, "Scream", like most of the films of Wes Craven, was a woman's affair: time after time, Sydney Prescott fought not only with another maniac, but also with any aggressive manifestations of the patriarchal world and the consequences of her own trauma (even before this became mainstream). And she was not alone in the battle: side by side stood the best enemy and sworn friend Gail Weathers.
Gillett and Bettinelli preferred cinephilism to humanism, and blind adoration to love. All two hours it is impossible to forget for a second that you are in the cinema hall, there are fans and sympathizers around, and on the screen there is a pop cultural product or, frankly speaking, fanfiction. Gillett and Bettinelli's film is a brilliantly conceived concept, a true exercise in greatness that looks better in text than on screen. It has a lot of good humor, some really brutal and frightening massacre scenes, funny meta-collisions, but in sum, Scream 5 is the same as Star Wars: The Force Awakens. JJ Abrams, an admirer of George Lucas, has inscribed himself in his beloved world, leaving room for a bow to the maestro, the exit of veterans, endless references and corrections for modernity (time passes, mores change).
However, Radio Silence, despite sometimes excessive reverence for the material (and tributes to Craven, bordering on vulgarity), still perfectly captured zeitgeist and fanaticism as the main driving force of everything that happens. Gale Weathers, at the end of the original trilogy, says that "pop culture is the politics of the 19th century." Over the past 20 years, it has become a religion, and family values, and moral guidelines for several generations at once. And therefore, the bribes are smooth: of course, the fans want to return to their beloved fiefdom of death, of course, the fans will be unhappy with the attempt on the holy altar of Woodsboro. It was already in Scream, Sydney can die, the killer is someone you know, never say: "I'll be right back", case closed, slashers are dead, long live slashers!
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