Direction: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Country: USA
The fifth installment in the Scream franchise is co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the pair who made an impression three years ago with Ready or Not. Sadly, they were unable to put a fresh spin in a sequel, which, being hackneyed and immature, feels unnecessary within the slasher saga created by Kevin Williamson and the late Wes Craven, to whom the film is dedicated. This is the first of the series without the latter at the helm.
The crazed Ghostface returns to Woodsboro and targets a few more youngsters directly related to the original murders that occurred twenty five years before. Among them is Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), who hides a family secret that could be at the source of the recent attacks. She soon begs for the help of the town’s former Deputy Sheriff, Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and unexpectedly meets with two other female survivors, the brave Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and the news reporter, Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox). Sad to say that all three actors reprising their roles here perform on autopilot.
Imbued with fruitless stabs of suspense and a sense of constant tribulation that is more repetitive than challenging, this film employs overused conventions glued together by a catastrophic, invertebrate plot that shows a blatant lack of attention to detail. Each scene prompts laughs of annoyance and déjà vu instead of proper scares. With boredom, let’s just scream for no more!
