What’s your favorite scary movie? If it’s Scream, then you’re in luck as a fifth entry in the franchise is only about half a year away. The simply titled Scream will continue the legacy of Wes Craven’s meta horror-comedy series by bringing back Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox as well as introducing a fresh generation of kids for Ghostface to terrorize, including Melissa Barrera (In the Heights), Jenna Ortega (Yes Day) and Dylan Minette (13 Reasons Why).
Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are stepping into Craven’s enormous shoes to helm this reboot. Well, more accurately, it’s a legacy sequel as what most fans are calling Scream 5 will definitely have a lot of callbacks to the franchise’s past. While speaking to Scream fansite Hello Sidney, the Radio Silence filmmakers promised there will be “a ton of easter eggs” for fans to seek out. As Gillett said:
“A lot of it came from the script, where the entry point is accessible to everybody. This isn’t a movie that you need to have seen 27 other movies to understand […] But, your experience will be extremely heightened the more knowledge you have of those previous four. We have a ton of easter eggs. It wouldn’t be a SCREAM movie if it wasn’t self-referential and didn’t talk about, you know, where the genre is at in a kind of pop culture sense.”
Previously, we had heard that Scream ’22 was dialing down the meta angle, which is definitely a good idea after that element arguably got out of hand in Scream 3 and 4, but it also suggested the franchise might be losing what makes it unique. Thankfully, Gillett’s comments make clear that the “self-referential” quality and the commentary on the wider horror genre that’s present in earlier films will be a part of this new movie.
Scream will be returning to its roots in many ways, not least in moving the characters back to Woodsboro, the location of the original Ghostface murder spree. What’s more, set photos have teased a return to Stu Macher’s house, the setting for the final showdown of the first film. This has led to a lot of fan theories that the new Ghostface will be connected to Stu in some way. Which would fit with Gillett’s tease that the film will hark back to the past.
Scream is set to slash its way into cinemas on January 14th, 2022.