Scream V officially premiered on January 14th, 2022, marking about 11 years since the last Scream movie came out. According to Letterboxd, the reviews for this movie are assorted between describing it as a cinematic masterpiece and something that should have never been produced in the first place. In my opinion, I would have to agree with the people who think this movie should have never seen the light of day. It wasn’t as horrible as Scream 3, yet it definitely did not meet my expectations in the slightest. 

First of all, I find it absolutely ridiculous that Sidney Prescott (the main character in pretty much every Scream movie) was barely even in this film. In fact, she wasn’t even entirely relevant in this storyline since it was focused on two different new characters. To me, Sidney Prescott will always be the superior “Final Girl,” and perhaps my love for her makes me biased, but I still believe her screen time, when compared to other less-relevant characters to the Scream franchise, was disappointing.  

Additionally, I noticed that some major parts of this storyline made almost zero sense whatsoever. One of the biggest reasons why the entire film revolves around this one character named Sam is because she is the daughter of Billy Loomis, the original Ghostface from the first film. Throughout the entirety of the movie, she would have these visions of her father, Billy, telling her to do the right thing. The irony in that is incredible, because why would he, the original main antagonist, be telling her to do the right thing? 

Although the plotline of this movie was mostly a disaster, I feel like it should serve as a lesson for other directors to stop bringing relatively older horror movies into modern perspectives. For instance, the first Scream movie was released in December of 1996. Instead of continuing on with the series and making it more and more relevant with modern times, I think that even a remake could have been more successful. I just think that Scream is such an iconic 90’s movie, and the plot honestly deserves to stay in the 90s. 

Also, there were so many unlikable characters in this film. I honestly couldn’t stand the two main characters or the entirety of the friend group. It was crystal clear that one of the characters, Mindy, was the off-brand version of Randy from the first two Scream movies. The way that they made her the “logical” one made me hate it so much more. Not to mention, her clothes were ugly, and I’m not sure why she wanted to be “quirky” and call the situation a “requel.”

Now the moment you have all been waiting for, who was Ghostface? I won’t spoil the whole movie, but I will say that this was the most predictable villain I’ve ever seen out of the entire series. My friend and I guessed who it was within 15 minutes of watching the film, and our opinions never changed throughout the entirety of the movie. It was so obvious, and it was definitely the worst Ghostface reveal they have ever had. 

Overall, as a fan of the Scream movie series, I was highly disappointed with Scream 5. I know it was supposed to be dedicated to Wes Craven, the original director of the other four Scream movies, but I honestly could never see him enjoying this. I know for a fact he’s rolling in his grave right now, and the new directors, David Arquette and Neve Campbell, did him so dirty.