24. Scream; movie review

 

 

SCREAM

Cert 18

114 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence

After two weeks of 2022, the runaway leader of the box office is Scream, so for the sake of completeness, I spent a Thursday afternoon taking it in at Derby Odeon.

There have been enough surprises in the past 11 years to ensure that I have an open mind towards movies 99 per cent of the time.

But I am afraid that I have never been into slasher pics and, therefore, had a pretty good notion that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin's picture would leave me cold.

It gives me no pleasure to report that my instinct was correct.

Eleven years ago I wrote: "While I understand Scre4m is meant to be comedy horror it just seemed like a giant send up of slasher movies.

"Thus, there was very little suspense, a few puerile jokes and and whole bag of self-mockery."

To be fair, this time I did jump three times today so I guess there must have been moderately more suspense but, for much of the time I was just irritated.

This is the 5th in the franchise and I presume the studio has gone back to the original title because most of the audience will be too young to been aware of the previous four.

It stars Jenny Ortega as Tara who, in the movie's opening sequence, receives the inevitable threatening phone call while she is home alone.

Just as predictably, Ghostface appears in her kitchen and slashes and stabs her.

She survives, prompting her estranged sister (Melissa Barrera) to return home with her gormless, lapdog  boyfriend (Jack Quaid).

The attack on Tara is just the beginning of the vicious slashings and killings which prompt old faces, Dewey (David Arquette), Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Gale (Courteney Cox) to return to the scene of their previous horrors.

I said that Cox was too old to appear in such nonsense back in 2011 and here she is again, looking even less comfortable.

I have to say, I was utterly underwhelmed by a movie which mocks itself throughout with jokes which are as lame as they have always been.

It took the franchise no further forward but has already made lots of money.

Reasons to watch: No.1 at the box office

Reasons to avoid: Seen it all before

Laughs: None

Jumps: Three

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 3/10

Did you know? The previous four films were directed by horror legend Wes Craven, who died in 2015. 

The final word. Neve Campbell: "Those actors, Matt and Skeet, and everybody involved were just so phenomenal that it really brought me straight back to that time in Santa Rosa, California, which was a very, very special time for all of us and obviously meant a lot to our lives." Screen Rant

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