PLOT SUMMARY: After teens are attacked by Ghostface, Sidney Prescott is called to help bring the killer down.
Do you know what a requel is? Yes, it is a new term coined to explain what this Scream is about and the new characters take ten minutes to explain what this movie is supposed to be.
So basically, it's like explaining the punchline and of course that takes the humor away from the joke, isn't it?
Anyway, a requel is supposed to be a movie that is not a remake or a sequel but a combo of both. New characters, and old characters come together but the story isn't exactly continued. I mean in a way it is but...also not?
So okay, even after ten minutes of the explanation, it still doesn't make sense.
In many ways, the movie is constantly over-explaining and apologizing for what it is. It's not a Wes Craven film because unfortunately, the director passed away in 2015, and so the makers of the new movie keep requesting the viewers to give them a chance, that it won't be as good as the other movies, but they are trying, okay?
The sad part is that the movie did manage to create some interesting characters and didn't need to apologize or make fun of the fact that they aren't adding a 5 in front of the title even though it very well is.
Yes, at least the characters of Tara and Sam are interesting although their development and story is marred by a feeble attempt to poke fun at slasher movies at every turn. Minus all of it, and Scream could have been a decent movie.
SCREAM Movie Plot
The movie begins with Tara getting a phone call. The guy on the other side pretends to be someone who her mother knows. Speaking of, the mother never makes an appearance even though her daughters are practically murdered.
Anyway, the guy then tells her: let's play a game. Of course the game is a horror movie trivia game. Tara claims she doesn't care much for campy slashers but does watch sophisticated movies like The Babadook, It Follows and The Witch.
The guy on the other end shows her a video of Amber, Tara's best friend, and warns her that if she doesn't reply she will lose a friend. Tara texts Amber but the killer has cloned the phone.
Tara is frantic because she doesn't care much for the Stab franchise, the movies based on Sidney Prescott's life in Woodsboro; the very woman who has been part of the first Scream movie and has always survived along with her journalist friend Gale Weather, and sheriff, Dewey.
Tara must be a closet fan because she manages to answer some of the questions right, with a little help from Google. But she makes a mistake regarding there being two killers in the first Stab movie: Billy and Stu.
Tara freaks out and leaves the house to go save her friend only to find Ghostface right outside. She's stabbed immediately.
Tara tries to fight him off and manages a little bit, but Ghostface is too strong. The scene is well executed and Tara's desperate struggle is palpable. She is unfortunately stabbed several times and has her leg broken.
On the other side of the town, Sam is sitting with her boyfriend when she receives a message from Wes, a boy she used to babysit, who is the son of Sheriff Judy Hicks (from the previous movies), and Tara's friend. He tells her she needs to come back because her sister Tara was attacked.
Sam heads to Woodsboro with her boyfriend Richie who is all nice and adoring. Sam is haunted by images of a man in a bloodsoaked shirt, Billy. She tries to push away those thoughts and sees her sister at the hospital, surrounded by her friends. Amber makes a sarcastic remark concerning Tara's family issues and leaves.
Tara asks Sam to stay and of course she will. And of course Richie will too.
Richie gets curious about the Stab movies and decides to binge-watch them on Netflix.
Sam is in the bathroom, taking her meds and trying to avoid hallucinating Billy when Ghostface shows up to throw her around for a bit. She manages to get away and calls the cop who was supposed to be guarding her sister. He goes in and obviously sees nothing.
Sam feels guilt-ridden that Tara is under attack because of her and so confesses to her sister that Ghostface may have lured her back to Woodsboro on purpose.
Sam's story is about how as a child she came across her mother's journal and found out that her father wasn't her real father. Her real father's name was Billy, the killer from the first Scream movie. Her father found out that Sam wasn't his daughter, got angry and left. Sam cries about how she felt guilty about ruining their family and that she tried every drug available to dull the pain but when even that didn't work, she left town to protect Tara.
Tara isn't impressed with her heroic sacrifice to leave Woodsboro and tells her to get lost.
Sam gets lost with Richie who has been dubbed Netflix by Amber since he was unaware of any attacks taking place while watching movies.
Meanwhile the rest of the friends; Twins, Chad and Mindy, Wes, and Liv and Amber are at the bar. Liv sees Vince who she hooked up with once and now can't get rid of. After he creates a fuss in the bar and is sent out, he is promptly by Ghostface for peeing on the wall. Turns out Vince is Stu's nephew. It's important to connect every character with the original Scream characters for some reason. That is why it is Scream and not Scream 5, get it? Because it is a requel of the original Scream.
Anyway...
Sam doesn't want to give up trying to protect her sister and so visits Dewey who has become a recluse after he parted ways with Gale. He spares them a few minutes before throwing them out of his house.
He then calls up Sidney and tells her not to come Woodsboro. The same message is sent to Gale but in a text.
Dewey then decides the threat of Ghostface is real and decides to educate the new generation.
The next few minutes are spent describing the difference between sequels and requels. Dewey finally gives his two cents. He tells them that the killer is usually a romantic interest or a close friend. Everyone looks at each other but they still think it is Sam and she walks away in a huff.
It is now quite a few minutes that have elapsed since the last murder so it's time for the next victim.
Wes is at home getting ready and showering. His mother, Sheriff Judy Hicks is out for work when she receives a call from Ghostface who taunts her about Wes being his next target.
Judy hurries home. Parks the car. Runs up her porch when...Stab! Turns out she was the next victim. In broad daylight, the sheriff of Woodsboro is stabbed and left to die on the driveway.
Wes is dilly-dallying at home. There are a few scenes which force you to expect Ghostface to be behind the cupboard or fridge door. Of course it doesn't happen that way. We've been lectured about this movie being a Scream 2.0 so we know not to expect such obvious tricks.
Soon enough he goes out and then...stab! Wes still tries to put up a fight with Ghostface but then is brutally murdered.
Sam shows up and is sad to learn the boy she babysat is dead. She sees Dewey who looks sad too. Then Dewey sees Gale and is shocked. Hadn't he told her to stay away?
Before he can say anything, she practically beats him up for sending her a warning through text. She tells him she had to come because her producer forced her to cover the story and she couldn't miss the opportunity.
Sam sees a police officer who was supposed to be stationed at the hospital and guarding Tara. She goes up to him and makes a fuss while he stammers about being called to the crime scene. Sam rushes over and Dewey joins her.
They are on their way but Ghostface has already begun tormenting Tara. She calls the nurse but no one ever falls sick or gets hurt in Woodsboro so there is less staff. In fact only one nurse. And no other patients either.
Ghostface has a huge playground to play in. Tara has to hoist herself into the wheelchair and go to check out the odd noise all by herself. The first thing she sees is of course a dead cop. She is shocked and tries to go into hiding.
Richie tries to come to get but is promptly knocked over by Ghostface. See, there right there is a big hint. Ghostface kills anyone who comes in his way promptly. Yet, he only knocks out Richie and records Amber from the window. Highly suspicious, don't you think?
Tara tries to make a daring escape in her wheelchair but is thrown off. Ghostface is on the call with Sam who is given a choice: save Richie or Save Tara.
Sam begs and cries and ultimately reveals she has been stalling. She and Dewey make a hero entry by coming up in an elevator. Dewey shoots at Ghostface and...misses.
Ghostface is daring and agile and super strong. A tussle takes place and Ghostface is knocked over. Sam, Tara, Richie and Dewey make for the elevator but Dewey stops midway at the last second. He wants to make sure Ghostface is dead. Sam tells him to just come but Dewey knows how Scream movies work. Ghostface always gets up when least expected. He goes to Ghostface but is then interrupted by Gale's call. Ghostface goes for the kill.
Poor Dewey who was living a peaceful life until he got pulled back in, is killed mercilessly. The last thing he sees is Gale's picture on his phone.
Gale breaks down when she finds out about Dewey. Sidney comes over to console her. They decide they have to take down Ghostface and try to convince Sam to help. But Sam just wants to take Tara away and ignores them. Sidney has thought one step ahead and has put a tracking device in the car.
In the car, Tara learns to her horror that she can't find her inhaler. Richie refuses to head back to the hospital. Tara remembers her best friend Amber has one of her inhalers. They head over to her house.
SCREAM Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Amber is having a raging party. It is supposed to be a memorial party for Wes but the others don't care. They are used to their classmates being murdered? The new generation is simply interested in parties only.
There are some doubts clouding over the friends and they keep blaming each other. Liv and her boyfriend Chad get into a fight. Chad goes after Liv, can't find her and gets an invitation to accept find a phone app. He accepts and finds Liv phone outside in a secluded spot. Before he can figure out where Liv is...stab!
Chad tries to scuffle with Ghostface who is ten times stronger than Chad who is supposed to be an athlete. He manages to get stabbed a couple of times and is left to lie on the lawn.
Sidney and Gale realize that the trio they have been tracking stopped at the house where, gasp, Stu used to live.
Its all coming together now.
Liv comes and whines to Mindy who gives her some shade. Liv, who is wearing a very distracting silver eye shadow comes up with a retort and takes away Mindy's snacks.
Tara comes for her inhaler. The rest of the kids are sent home after Richie tries his hand at being stern and needs help.
He goes to get a beer later from the basement, asks Mindy for company and she declines because she's busy watching a Stab movie and screaming at a character to turn around because Ghostface is standing right behind him.
Unknown to Mindy, Ghostface is standing behind her. As she's yelling, her intuition warns her someone is behind her. She turns and barely moves out of stabbing way. Sam comes to help while Ghostface does some running around.
The friends regroup and blame each other before Amber shoots Liv in the head, bored of hiding her identity as Ghostface. Everyone scatters. Richie tells Sam he suspects Tara to be Amber's accomplice as Ghostface cannot act alone and they are desperately trying to make a movie that mimics the original and that one did have two murderers, right?
Sam is outraged he would suspect her sister. He reasons it's because Tara must be mad for being abandoned. Sam knows her sister better than Richie and goes to find her. She finds Tara, all tied up in a closet and hesitates to untie her.
Gale and Sidney arrive and Amber rushes out, pretending to be stabbed. Gale doesn't buy it and is promptly shot. They all go inside, everyone is hit in one way or another. Sam tries to help Sidney when Richie comes over and stabs her, revealing to be Amber's accomplice.
Amber and Richie go on about how they are huge fans of the Stab Movie series but we're disappointed by the last movie and wanted to give the makers new material. They were going to put all the blame on Sam as she was the daughter of Billy and so had hone crazy.
Considering they are fans of the "stab" series, why are they using guns?
Anyway, Tara comes to save the day after Sam went with her instincts and untied her, but she is injured poor thing.
Amber and Richie were practically undefeated while wearing the Ghostface garb. Without it, they take a few hits but can't be kept down by people who are taller and stronger. Of course it is noticeable that Amber is shorter than all the times we saw Ghostface. Was she wearing heels?
Amber is finally shot and falls on the stove which is lit. She burns. Richie and Sam tussle and Sam gets hurt. She sees a reflection of Billy and understands that she is the daughter of a serial killer after all. She finds a knife and stabs Richie several times until blood splatters everywhere. Billy's ghost is proud.
Sidney and Gale arrive and are shocked at first but then remind her that Ghostface killers usually get up at the last moment. So they shoot Richie's corpse.
But just then, Amber comes rushing in, only her face burnt to a crisp. It's Tara's turn to shoot Amber and she gets her in one shot. Tara is a teen and makes a perfect shot. Dewey was a sheriff for a long time and couldn't hit Ghostface at close range...
The police finally arrived. Mindy and Chad made it alive. Gale and Sidney discuss a new book. Gale says that she has no intention of giving the killers any notoriety. She would rather dedicate the book to Dewey. Sidney approves.
The movie ends.
Scream would have been an enjoyable installment to the franchise if it didn't spend most of the time pointing out that it was a requel, was relevant and was making fun of itself.
It's almost unfair to the characters Sam and Tara that were actually well fleshed out and an interesting duo added to the franchise.
Hopefully we will see them in the next part where Sam's character can be further explored. Does she desire blood now? How will she cope knowing she's a serial killer's daughter and had just killed her boyfriend? Will Tara support her sister and help her curb any killing tendencies that arise?
Like Sidney, Sam had to kill her boyfriend too?
Will Sam and Tara's mother finally show up?
Hopefully, she will.
Scare Scale: 3.5/5
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