Scream will be back with a vengeance in 2022. The classic slasher franchise exploded onto the screen in 1996, with audiences loving horror master Wes Craven’s tension and the knowing meta-commentary. Two sequels soon followed, with a fourth in 2011, and the fifth installment Scream (we agree, the title is annoying) due in January.
The hype machine kicked into gear earlier this week when the first trailer was released. This contained a lot of iconic Scream imagery, with old and new characters uniting to face a new spree of Ghostface killings. Those who’ve seen the rest of the franchise may think they know where this one is going, but apparently, there are surprises in store.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have given an interview to Bloody Disgusting in which they assure us the trailer doesn’t spoil too much. As Bettinelli-Olpin said:
This was a hard trailer for [marketing] to put together, and I think one of the things we’re happy with is that anything that you might think is a spoiler in this, there’s a good chance you’re wrong. There are misdirects within the movie. There are misdirects within the trailer. For us, that’s just the fun of the whole thing to make this a big whodunnit. Spoilers suck, but the fun as fans is to talk about who might be the killer. Then to go through it forensically to try and find out and see if you can win the game, basically.
Gillett went on to say that one of the best things about the Scream franchise is the way it plays with expectations:
I can say that every corner of this movie, during the making of it, we have been very aware how to service fans, where the misdirects are happening, and the path that we want to lead people down. Obviously, without spoiling the movie, we can certainly say that the trailer is definitely doing that dance. Part of what we love about the Scream movies, and what we love about the Scream fandom is just how deep people watch these movies.
We think some of the fun of this experience is this forensic watching of things and trying to figure out who the killer is. It’s all a part of what’s so unique and so special about this franchise to us. As deep, deep fans of the original four, we took pains to populate the world of this movie, and certainly the materials with as many fun nods and Easter eggs and misdirects as possible.
The pair teased that the trailer is merely the beginning of the marketing campaign and that the next three months will feature a wealth of material keeping interest stoked in the project. There’s going to be a particular focus on making sure Ghostface is as scary as possible, and actively tried to avoid him being at all “goofy”.
Judging by the trailer Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett have nailed the tone, with the main scene in the trailer a clever modern update of the original’s iconic opening scene in which Drew Barrymore meets a sticky end. Let’s hope for more details very soon.
Scream slashes its way into theaters on January 14th, 2022.
