It has been a decade since the last Scream movie brought the series to an assumed close, but now we are ready to receive a new sequel in the franchise, with veterans Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette all returning again to reprise their roles alongside a whole new young cast of would-be victims for the new owner of the Ghostface mask to systematically kill off before the big reveal of his or her identity in the final reel.
So, considering the history of the franchise, why is the movie called Scream and not Scream 5? While this has been seen recently in other franchises like The Fast and The Furious, which has used every possible combination of those words to avoid the use of numbers after the title, horror movies have never really steered away from it until recently, with the likes of David Gordon Green’s Halloween reboot and the recent Candyman. Though those were more straightforward reboots. Scream is literally Scream 5 and serves as a continuation of what has come before in the previous four movies. In a recent interview with US Weekly, executive producer Kevin Williamson explained that there was a reason for slashing the “5” from the movie.
“Well, it was always Scream 5 because it’s the fifth one,” Williamson explained. “So I think we just threw that name out, but I don’t think they ever seriously were going to call it a Scream 5. I don’t think anybody wanted to see the number five after something. You’d have to ask them – Paramount or whoever, but I think taking the 5 off and calling it Scream[works] because it’s brand new. There’s the legacy cast, and how they infuse this new world and there’s this whole new generation and a new cast of characters that are extremely fun. I think it was a great cast. It’s an amazing group of kids and young talent and they’re very, very good. They pop off the screen, and now our Sidney and our mature characters who enter into it, they’re the adults. It works really really well.”
Scream, the new version and not the original, is the only movie in the franchise so far to be directed by someone other than Wes Craven, and there has been a lot of focus on making sure that the movie doesn’t do anything to taint the legacy left by the late director, who managed to redefine the horror genre multiple times during his career.
During an online reunion, Kevin Williamson said, “I had been really apprehensive about doing one of these films without Wes. The directors actually sent me a letter when the offer was sent and said the reason they are directors is because of Wes. So they’re even so honored to even be asked to make this film, and that they’re such huge fans of him and the films themselves, and of the cast, and that they really wanted to honor his voice, which I really, really believe they did.”
Along with the three long-time Scream alums, Marley Shelton also returns to play her Scream 4 character of Deputy Sherrif Judy Hick and they are joined by franchise newcomers Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Dylan Minnette, Mikey Madison, Sonia Ben Ammar, and Kyle Gallner. Scream recently unveiled new posters and trailer, and will be arriving in theaters on January 14th, 2022. This news originated at Us Magazine.
Source: movieweb.com