Scream Solidifies Jenna Ortega As This Generation’s Next Scream Queen
Scream is back, but how does it hold up in the iconic franchise?
Twenty-five years after the murders that shocked the town of Woodsboro and turned Sidney Prescott into a final girl, a new killer dons the Ghostface mask. Billed as a relaunch of the series, Scream is a direct sequel to Scream 4. Centered around a new group of friends, a new Ghostface killer begins a killing spree… but with a twist. This time Ghostface is targeting a group that has connections to the original victims. Melissa Barrera plays Sam Carpenter, a girl with a rough past and a secret, who returns to Woodsboro when her younger sister Tara, played by Jenna Ortega, is attacked. Sam turns to David Arquette’s Dewey for help, which leads to the return of Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers and Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott to stop Ghostface once and for all.
The new Scream gives us a solid combination of new and nostalgia. It’s great to see the original trio return, as well as a few other surprising Scream alumni, and the new cast is excellent. Jack Quaid brings a lot of humor, Dylan Minnette has fun scenes that play on our assumptions about slashers, and Jasmin Savoy Brown steals every scene she’s in. The weakest link is Sonia Ammar who plays Liv, a character that feels like it wouldn’t effect the story much at all if she wasn’t included. The new cast is also refreshingly diverse featuring queer characters and people of color who don’t all stereotypically get killed off as would be expected in a typical slasher. In fact, these characters have the chance to become final girls themselves, which is so exciting to see for the first time on screen. The film also stars Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, and Kyle Gallner.
When it comes to the humor and horror, Scream really delivers. A great example of this is Jenna Ortega’s opening scene. She plays homage to Drew Barrymore role, answering the phone, but ends up having an ironically funny and nuanced conversation on horror films with the killer before things turn deadly. Scream is a powerhouse of a film for her, solidifying her as a future scream queen. Her performance is relatable and authentic. Ortega really is one of the best young actresses of our time.
The film also dives head first into meta commentary. While the original films satirized the cliches of the slasher genre, this film takes that to the next level, as it also tackles reboot culture, toxic fandom, and requels. Another theme that I think this film attempts to explore but doesn’t quite land is a parallel between the final girl and the descendant of a serial killer.
Written and directed by the team behind 2019’s brilliant, but underrated, Ready Or Not, this was the perfect group to bring back this franchise. This is the first Scream movie since Wes Craven’s death and I think he’d be really proud of what they pulled off here, as well as the ways they paid tribute to him in the film. With classic scares, tons of laughs, and meta commentary on the horror genre, Scream is a bloody good time and secures Jenna Ortega as this generation’s newest scream queen.
Scream is playing in theatres now.
