First Impressions: Scream (2022)

 In 1996, the first Scream movie came out, quickly becoming a box office hit and reviving the slasher genre. It was supposed to be a satire movie, relying heavily on cliches. Scream quickly became a cult favorite with Ghostface, the villain wearing the white scream mask, becoming one of the popular costumes to don on Halloween. 

Soon enough, sequels were announced, with only the fourth one performing disappointingly at the box office, while the third one generated more negative reviews. 

Still, the hype of Scream lives on, and now twenty-six years after the first film was released, Scream (not Scream 5 as it was originally planned) would release on January 14th 2022. 

The Killer is on this Poster. 

The tagline has piqued the interest of whoever has seen it. Have the creators of the movie finally decided to give away a major hint as to who the killer is going to be? Is the killer really on the poster? 

The trailer shows a girl being texted. She thinks it is her friend but soon realizes it is someone else. An intruder tries to get inside the house, disarming the security system. The girl spends agonizing moments trying to protect herself but is eventually killed. 

Sidney Prescott is lured back into this whole mess with Ghostface. In the past, killer always did seem to have a connection with her after all. 

In the first part, it was her boyfriend, who turned out to be the son of the father Sidney’s mother was having an affair with. Following his parents' separation. Billy wanted revenge and killed Sidney’s mother and then wanted to kill her. 

In the second part, it was Billy’s mother who works with an accomplice to kill Sidney. Her motive? Sidney had killed her son and so she wanted revenge. 

In the third part, it was her half-brother. After Sidney’s mother had an affair, she abandoned her son Roman and refused his attempt to reconcile. He gets so angry that he begins to film everyone Sidney’s mother has always been with. He then sends one of the videos to the son of the man Sidney’s mother had an affair with, Billy. This prompted Billy to go on a killing spree to get revenge. 

In the fourth part, it is Sidney’s niece Jill who conspired against her with the help of her boyfriends. Turns out Jill was jealous of Sidney getting all the pity and fame for being the sole survivor. So Jill wanted all of that. She hurts herself on purpose and harms Sidney just so she could be the sole survivor of this killing spree and garner all the attention and fame that came with this label. 

Sidney has so far survived all these incidents. But when another group of teenagers are targeted by Ghostface, Sidney lends her expertise to them. Her friends Gail, a news reporter, and Dewey, deputy sheriff, also join in. 

So far, none of the killers from the movies has ever been on the poster. Could this one be different? Could the killer actually be on the poster this time? 

The poster does feature more characters than in any of the previous parts. 

Could it be a trick? Ghostface is after all featured on the poster. 

Or could it actually be one of the characters? 

Perhaps it is Sidney who has suffered mental health issues following the trauma she received from all the killings. 

Perhaps it is Dewey who wants to prove his mettle by taking down a serial killer. 

Or perhaps it is Gale, tired after not getting as much popularity as she expected after reporting the killings from the previous parts. Or maybe she wants to be the centre of attention just this once. 

And then again it just might be one of the new characters featured on the poster. 

The answer will be revealed on January 14th 2022.