It’s been 25 years since Wes Craven’s Scream turned the slasher genre on its head, completely upending and reinventing what had long since become one of the horror genre’s most stale and uninspired subsets. A slew of imitators naturally followed in its wake, but they couldn’t come close to the self-aware modern classic.
January brings the release of the fifth installment, also titled Scream, which exists somewhere between a sequel and a reboot. Legacy star Courtney Cox thinks it’s neither, though, preferring to view it as the beginning of an all-new franchise, and original writer Kevin Williamson wants it go on forever.
The scribe has been involved in every film whether it be contributing to the screenplay or serving as a producer, and in a new interview with US Weekly, he admitted that nothing would make him happier than seeing the adventures of Ghostface carry on in perpetuity.
“I would love for it to live on forever because I love knowing that this universe is turning and Scream is in it. I love that they keep making Halloween because Scream is an homage to Halloween. I hope they never stopped making Halloween movies. I’m still waiting for another Friday the 13th, and I hope that comes soon and I would love to see Scream live on. I think there’s a place for these franchises, and as long as we can tell new, original stories across the board, I still think franchises can live on.”
Horror has continued to play well at the box office despite the pandemic, so Scream should be a big hit when it arrives in three months. Compared to other long-running horror properties, a quarter of a century is a drop in the ocean, and if the latest chapter in the saga lives up to its critical and commercial potential then there’s no reason why it would be the last.
