The past few years have been a great time to be a horror fan, as a variety of exciting projects have been released resulting in critical and box office success. Plenty of iconic properties have been given new life, including Halloween, Child's Play, and Scream. The latter project just wrapped filming, and fans are eager to see what Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and do with the franchise. The fifth installment marks the first movie since Wes Craven passed away, and one producer recently revealed how it'll tie to its predecessors like Drew Barrymore's iconic original.
The fifth Scream movie's title and release date were recently confirmed, with Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette set to reprise their roles. The pressure is on for highly anticipated sequel to deliver on the legacy of the franchise, and especially connect to the beloved 1996 original. I recently had the chance to speak with the filmmakers, where producer William Sherak explained how the new movie is connecting to the previous installments, while also being accessible to newcomers. In his words,
Our goal is that if you're in the younger zone of getting into horror and you haven’t seen the original Screams, this should deliver what that did. And I think that’s our tie-back. As opposed to going into story points of how we do it, it really is that we tied to develop a movie in the Scream franchise where if you’re a huge fan like all of us of the original Scream, it delivers what Scream movie should deliver. And if you haven’t seen any of them because you’re 19 years old or 17 years old whatever it is, and it came out a while ago. It should hopefully feel like what that felt like back in the ‘90s. And deliver that experience of true horror mixed with some fun that gives you an entrance point into really loving the genre going home.
Well, this is exciting. It looks like the new Scream is named after the original movie purposefully. Namely because the filmmakers are hoping to accomplish with having audiences feel a mixture of horror and comedy. Additionally, they're hoping that the new installment in the slasher property will help to inspire a new generation of horror fans, just as Wes Craven had did back in 1996. No pressure, though.
I had the chance to speak with William Sherak and directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett while they were still on the set of Scream 5 movie, or as it's officially titled Scream. Wes Craven's original movie was massively influential on the group, and it should be interesting to see how many references and callbacks are ultimately made. But it's the connective tissue to Craven's work that convinced Neve Campbell to return for her fifth time playing Sidney Prescott.
Scream is a unique horror movie franchise because of how meta the movies are. They constantly reference the horror genre, often with characters who are obsessed with horror, while also living through their own in real-time. And just as the 1996 original brought new life to slashers when it hit theaters, the cast and crew are hoping to elicit a similar reaction with the recently wrapped fifth installment.
The fifth Scream movie is currently expected to hit theaters on January 14th, 2022. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next movie experience.
