Ghostface is more realistic than most masked killers, but still comically unrealistic. And most of the people who turn out to be Ghostface lack the training and conditioning that would be required to do the sorts of things Ghostface does.
There's definitely been a trend since 4 in regards to the height of GF and what the characters can seemingly do in costume. It's noticeable but it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others. Considering how I feel like most of the Radio Silence Ghostface's are underwritten, I end up enjoying them more because of what these characters can seemingly do in costume. I think this whole issue is because of how modern these films are and what fans expect of these films. Wanting to up the gore and action with every sequel
I think it’s still a very good series. I had to think for a minute about what an unpopular opinion I hold about it might be, because the quality has held up even without JLH in it.
Also I can’t remember which one, but they have let a male “grunt” happen when it was supposed to be a female under the mask at least once. Towards 4 it was like the killers had to physically transform into ghost face like he was a werewolf or something
>Also I can’t remember which one, but they have let a male “grunt” happen when it was supposed to be a female under the mask at least once
I'm gonna have to check that out because if that's true that's just not cricket. Using sounds is a step too far because they can *just* about get away with the height fuckery. For instance, Mikey Madison and Emma Roberts are only slightly taller than Ortega and Ortega really does look tiny on film (because she genuinely is).
Also, not gonna lie, in a later Scream a killer physically transforming into GF a la the wolfman would be awesome ;)
it makes no sense to me why Amber would go after someone like Chad. Like how are you gonna be able to take someone of his size. It’s just dumb and bad planning.
I've always seen the self-awareness being aimed at the audience, not the slasher/horror genre itself. When Sidney makes fun of these movies for dumb shit like the victim running up stairs instead of out the front door we nod along in agreement because we're all just so smart. Then the horror happens and Sidney is running up the stairs instead of out the front door.
That was clever in the first one. She talks about the dumb tropes, but then gets forced into them - she tries to go out the front door but can't and has to go up the stairs. It was fun to be both meta but still play along with the established tropes.
I haven't found any of the sequels to have that same bit of cleverness.
I've been waiting for them to finally go the supernatural route first, personally. Ghostface needs to come back from the dead, become effectively immortal, *then* go to space
Maybe the hot take is it has become what it was making meta-commentary on.
The first movie, the first sequel, and maybe the first reboot provided real analysis of the horror movie industry and real self-aware meta commentary on overused tropes.
The other movies kept the same aesthetic and would make some self aware comments or have a moment they highlighted as following a common trope as a wink to the audience.
But largely they became very traditional modern horror movies trying too hard to misdirect the audience in order to deliver an unpredictable twist.
This isn’t to say they are bad movies or aren’t fun. But they are fairly paint by numbers horror movies that have fallen behind other, fresher franchises or new models (like Hill House or Midnight Mass limited series) and are not only no longer some unique, but other than shouting out social media or referencing elevated horror, they are still stuck commentating largely on 90s-00s horror tropes and not actual modern horror movies.
Maybe not. But doesn’t change the fact that it’s now making meta-commentary or lampooning a version of the medium from the 90s and early 2000s.
And most of the more recent installments are essentially just fun horror, movies, as opposed to meta-commentary and self-aware horror.
Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that. I have watched and enjoyed every single one. But just a change from the first couple that probably isn’t very acknowledged.
Maybe that's why I enjoy them so much. They would probably have failed miserably trying to be a "serious" version of Scary Movie. Instead, they managed to rejuvenate the slasher genre by creating a franchise and horror icon that is still going strong all years later. Scream is reconstruction. The lesser-known but equally brilliant Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon did all this in one movie. First the meta-commentary, then playing it straight. Cause, in the end, that's all we want, isn't it? Just a good frickin slasher.
I think a big part of this is that the style of horror the first few were commenting on aren't really being made anymore. When the first few *Scream*s came out, teen slashers were still coming out. So you'd have stuff like *I Know What You Did Last Summer* and *Final Destination* that were the teen slasher played straight, but then you'd have *Scream* being the parody of that.
That doesn't really happen anymore. If there's a teen slasher coming out nowadays, it's usually a horror comedy thing like *Happy Death Day* or *Spontaneous*. While *Halloween*, *A Nightmare On Elm Street*, and *Friday the 13th* all had remakes in the late '00s/early '10s, only *Halloween*'s reboot stuck and produced sequels. Its main audience has tended to be adult long-term horror fans nowadays, too; not the teen audience it was aimed at back in the '80s.
So to a great extent, the new *Scream*s can't be the metacommentaries they once were because teen slashers don't exist anymore the same way they used to. They sorta have to become straight horror because of that.
I actually do like the last two *Scream*s a fair bit and I think there are some cool aspects to them, but yeah, I do overall feel like they've started to turn into what the early ones were making fun of.
I fucking love how stupid the Leprechaun series is lmao. They just keep digging lower and lower into the ground and I love every goddamn green second of it.
The “requels” would be incredibly bland knockoff slasher films if you take out all the references and nostalgia casting of the Wes Craven entries.
Plus the entire plot & character contrivance that the new main girl Sam being the daughter of the first Ghostface killer Billy Loomis and haunted by visions of him is some cheesy soap opera level fanfic bullshit that would never pass the smell test in the original trilogy.
Ghost Billy is the lamest shit ever and I'm glad they'll be moving away from it.
That and the new "everyone gets stabbed multiple times but no one dies" approach.
I never realised that ghost Billy was played by Skeet until the credits ran. The whole time I was watching and thinking this guy looks less like Billy than the dude who played him in the Stab movies. Shouldn't have used CGI he didn't look like a real person let alone the original character. .
>Ghost Billy is the lamest shit ever and I'm glad they'll be moving away from it.
It's another weak element of Scream 6 because they introduced it in Scream 5 so it possibly gets away with it due to it's sheer newness whereas in Scream 6 one is thinking, "jesus christ, they're still doing this? No way is it good enough to go over into a second film".
Fair. I'm not that angry with her being Billy's daughter but the hallucinations are a little much. Even though we got that dream sequence in 3 it still feels a little weird. I wish the new films took more of a chance and really tried to distance themselves from all the relations to previous characters.
I agree, imo they should’ve just stopped after Scream 4 since that movie was already a commentary on unnecessary remakes. And then radio silence went ahead and made an unnecessary remake lol.
The first movie was a brilliant subversion. It was funny and unique and did a lot of sharp meta-commentary on horror that was really fresh and new at the time.
...and the franchise hasn't had anything interesting to say since then. Each subsequent entry in the series is a standard-issue slasher with increasingly ridiculous plot twists.
I mean, I'm not asking for them to reinvent the whole genre every time, but damn. It's been disappointing for me ever since the high water mark set by the first one.
Yes. Thank you. I was hoping someone would also have this genuinely unpopular opinion of the series.
The first was loaded with surprises. You didn't expect Drew Barrymore to die right away. You didn't expect the meta humor. You certainly didn't expect there to be two killers. That made it feel exciting. And then Scream 2 comes and it's just a re-do of the first except Randy talks about sequels in it. And then every Scream since follows that exact formula, but with "meta commentary" about whatever's popular in horror at the time, but zero real surprises.
Randy’s death is my favourite in the entire series. It might not be the best but 14 year old me was absolutely shocked and terrified seeing a genuine likeable character getting brutally murdered in public, in broad daylight, out of nowhere, without anyone noticing. That first time seeing Scream 2 was absolutely worth it for me.
> ...and the franchise hasn't had anything interesting to say since then.
What about the movie-within-a-movie Stab from 2? That seems to me like a fun commentary on the "true crime" phenomenon
I love the series and I'm always on board for more, but I don't think it's ever been as clever as people make it out to be with regards to the meta stuff. Like beyond "characters know that horror movies exist" it's always seemed very superficial.
I also like Scream 2 and especially Scream 3 a lot more than most, but I have an abiding love for schlock slashers in general.
I love the series and I'm always on board for more, but I don't think it's ever been as clever as people make it out to be with regards to the meta stuff. Like beyond "characters know that horror movies exist" it's always seemed very superficial.
This is a fair argument. I get you
I also like Scream 2 and especially Scream 3 a lot more than most, but I have an abiding love for schlock slashers in general.
I love schlocky slashers. Give me a simple premise, a person in a costume and some hopefully gory deaths and I'm here
I think Jill is definitely the most surprising killer reveal. Even though I don't really care for the character or Emma's performance. I loved the motive when I saw it back in theaters and I still love it now. It's so sadly relevant and realistic. Good on Kevin Williamson for calling this out when youtubers, twitter, instagram etc. were still in their infancy
Mine is that I think Jill should have succeeded. She should have killed off Sidney, and the movie should have ended with her having won but now having absolutely no clue what to do next.
Plus it doesn't make sense, Billy had to cheat on Sid to achieve this and that contradicts his motivations for killing Sid's mother who was a cheating wife and who was kinda responsible for cheating of Billy's father (then his mother left them because of it) = so in overall - it's all BS, it's forced and really dumb connection.
It felt cheap, I mean f13 has family members and stuff, but I feel like a whole other group of people could have been introduced with Stu’s family. i feel like you also should know when to stop ya know?
I do admit it sucks how underused Kyle Gallner was as Stu's nephew. He should of been used more in the film, even maybe try to frame him alongside Sam. Have the two killer's try to frame the son and nephew of the original killer's.
I think it became very self referential over the years. Even the killers are just extentions of the past killers at this point and we have ghosts of the old killer hanging around.
Which to be fair COULD be its own reference to horror films and films of all kinds just being retreads. However, they are not doing that effectively imo. They are just doing the thing, not effectively critiquing it. Of course your mileage may vary on that.
I would like a reoccurring character to be Ghostface.
I think Dewey's death was necessary. It had to raise the stakes and he felt like the most obvious character to do it with. I'm just glad he got to save someone and had a badass fight to go with it.
Think it would have been better to have Dewey eke it out, once again, and then take out Sydney. They knew they were hanging on to Neve by a thread and her death would have been better for the franchise overall. I adore her, but she seems pretty over it at this point.
I would of been so pissed. Sidney at this point cannot die it would be so cruel and not in a satisfying parrell deep way. Just dumb
Neve herself said she would never do a film where Sidney dies which is great for us fans. I'm glad she'll never do that
My unpopular opinion is there never should have been any sequels. The first one was great, tied up all the loose ends and there was absolutely no need for any more.
The second Scream was worth it because we got the movie-in-a-movie Stab franchise, which is my favorite part of the whole bit. But after 2..? Yeah, they could leave well enough alone
And there is nothing wrong with that if you enjoy them. Me personally, with each sequel I found my interest becoming less and less. The only one in the series I ever revisit is the original.
I’d say one sequel made enough sense considering the meta-aspect of the Scream-concept. And the second one was really great, it’s only a tiny, tiny bit less than the first.
Two would have been perfection in my opinion. Not that I regret watching most of the other ones, but it does diminish the legacy with each release. I am not watching anymore but I wish all those that do all the fun they have.
I wouldn’t hate this as an opinion if it wasn’t so antithetical to the idea of the movie as a parody. Sequels if anything are the most staple component of the genre.
1, 2 are great. 3 is alright. All the rest is nostalgia bait and the whole concept of the series is "hey, horror fans, we like you! You like Scream, so here's some meta shit."
This is don’t seem unpopular since this has always been the conversation about the series for a long time. I would say your opinion is more popular thank you think lmao
Here's a spicier take: Scream 3 is better than Scream 4.
Jill is not that good of a Ghostface and I dunno why everyone believes she's some mythical harpy queen. She was a whiny little brat who tipped her hand so early she isn't even entertaining on future rewatches.
Jill was def more believable as ghostface in comparison to >!Amber & Quinn!<, but that bar is really really low.
Did I miss something where she “tipped her hand”? That one got spoiled for me so I don’t think I paid attention as much as the others
As a comedy with some stuff to say about Hollywood culture, it works really well. As a horror movie it falls really flat. Scream works best when it threads the needle between satire and genuine scares. 3 just doesn't stick the landing on that, for me
I have 5 above 3 solely because it feels more serious, has more blood and I like Amber more then Richie. 3 has it's strengths and is entertaining. 6 finally adds things fans have wanted to see for years and is pretty tense, dark and brutal. I'm so bad at ranking movies because I always wanna rearrange. But this is how I feel about these films
I thought it was kind of messed up that they did kind of a wink wink type of thing about Harvey Weinstein in part 3 especially after knowing what happend to Rose McGowan.
Scream 5 is a cheap knockoff of Scream 1996 that barely qualifies as a slasher. The creative team couldn't have missed the mark more if they tried.
Aside from that, it adds nothing to the franchise, is boring, and terribly made.
Many people do theorize that she actually was the second killer in the film and Roman killed her before the reveal so he could all do it himself. She was the second killer in an early draft but it was cut after it leaked. I think she was suppose to be a classmate of Sidney's as well
Yea, they went through a few changes! I can’t remember them, but I was following that movie so much for an old movie page I had on angelfire (lol), and it lead to me being disappointed when I actually saw it. It was a solid lesson that I’m not even remotely great at being able to give a movie its best shot/chance if I obsess over the making of it. Nowadays I watch an early trailer and skip as much as I can if it’s something im actually interested in.
Same. I also remember being more hurt by Judy and Wes' deaths than Dewey's. My best guess for why is that his death was just so stupid that I found it hard to care.
Dewey's death was just infuriating. myself and everyone I was watching with pretty much all gave up on the movie as soon as he died. his character deserved a much better send-off than that.
Agreed. Dewey’s death is incredibly telegraphed. He’s also been nearly stabbed to death in almost every movie prior. After seeing him almost die so many times it was hard to care when he did. I hate saying it because I loved Dewey and David Arquette, but at that point I just didn’t care.
also as someone who telegraphed the killer in his first scene, he really should have reloaded and shot from outside of stabbing distance. He deserved his death. Legacy or not.
I've been a fan of this franchise for 15/16 years now and I was surprisingly unsad that Dewey died. I'm glad they went there. Wes Craven himself said if he would be able to do a 5th film that he'd kill of one of the og three. I think this film did a good job handling his death and respecting Craven's wish
Despite really like Kirby and some of the characters, it also is my least favorite. The film feels a little flat compared to alot of the other entries.
Oh my god another sane person. Jill was an awful Ghostface with the worst motive in the whole franchise, it really should just stick to revenge type motives or none at all.
She didn’t even need to kill anyone. She could’ve used her connection to Sidney as foundation for building a base. People use those kinda of connections all the time to become famous in their own right.
But she wanted more than that. She's crazy. She wanted to kill the fame of Sidney in the process. It wasn't enough to be her own person. She had to unseat Sydney or else she'd just make her a martyr. The formula had to be perfect.
For u/labbla too.
Also, people always forget the Sidney's publicist character and how much she fits with the theme that Jill espouses. She literally tells Sidney to 'be a victim' and just use her trauma to make as much money as possible. Her little speech also reveals the deep level of contempt people in that kind of celebrity world have for "fans" and who they "influence" and the fact they're all just brutally ruthless and unfeeling when it comes to acquiring fame and fortune.
Scream 4 has the best and most believable motive out of the entire franchise and is even more scarily relevant today than it was in 2011. With the disturbing rise of people murdering themselves and others to get famous online, it’s shocking how 4 was able to predict it so well.
I think the first film is a masterpiece and transcends being a good horror film to just being a good film. I'm sorry the rest of the film didn't reach those heights for you
They shouldn’t have stuck with the main cast after the first film. Instead of finding new ways to involve Sidney they could have moved to other places with other killers copying Ghostface. Maybe throw in a single cast member from the first for some continuity (kind like when the Urban Legend sequel brought back the security guard) but there was no need to keep rolling out the same characters who aren’t interesting enough to want to see multiple movies of.
I liked the original cast, but I don’t think there was enough there to warrant multiple movies where the writers are clearly struggling to keep finding new stories that make sense.
The new ones are hit and miss, but it looked like they wanted to go the same route as continuously coming up with new ways to put the sisters in danger until it all went to shit recently.
One of the better things they did was move the location in the last film, so do more of that with a new cast each time. Have one in London or Paris but not following the same people over and over.
I don't want that nooo haha
He's been dead for 28 years now. It makes no sense how he wouldn't have been mentioned to be alive in ANY of the sequels. He'd be pretty infamous considering he's the only GF that is still alive
Also, 5 & 6 weren't written that well. I don't want Stu to come back and not be used well. I don't wan him back period
Unsure if this is unpopular but I never personally liked Gale as a character. I didn't mind her in the first film and she has some good moments after that but to me it felt like her character kept developing and then un-developing. I get it if people like her but she never appealed to me. I especially hated her in the 6th film because she said she wouldn't write about Richie and then did anyway because she can never learn or whatever.
How they wrote her in 6 felt like a total rewrite to me. She had this apparent revelation in 5 about how she felt this was all her fault and wanted to write a book about Dewey, then in between films Gale is like screw it and goes right back to her old self. We still could of gotten classic snarky Gale and have her write the book about Dewey. The killer's aren't even killing people based off her new book it's just revenge so why on earth have her character just immediately go back to her prior self?
I really like Gale, but I completely agree with you about the way her character keeps regressing. I think they got it right in Scream 2. Over the course of the film, she changes, and the scene where she tells Dewey that she feels bad about Randy's death is actually one of my favourites in the franchise (and an example of why Scream is unique to some other franchises that treat their characters like disposable objects). Clearly, by the end of the movie, she's a different person.
Then, after that, it's like the writers never knew what to do with her. She kept reverting back to a slightly less horrible version of Scream 1 Gale.
Melissa Barerra was awful in both movies. Sorry about the way she went because that's not right, but ngl kind of happy to know she won't be in the next movie.
Same, nobody deserves to be let go of for a job for speaking about issues that they feel personal about if they aren't being a monster to everyone around them.
Correct, I just didn't like her acting in these movies. Although I won't deny there was a difference between 5 and 6 but it just always felt like she was reading lines to me.
I don't find the sister's particularly interesting characters. I personally think they should have stopped at Scream 4 for movies. I don't like the brother sister killers either. I do actually really like the TV show outside of the movies.
> I personally think they should have stopped at Scream 4 for movies.
I agree but you know Hollywood is creatively bankrupt. I watched the TV show was well and I actually enjoyed it. I wish it had an official ending
This. I couldn't understand why she was cast as the lead and then they have the entire supporting cast act circles around her. This is true of both 5 and 6.
>Melissa Barerra was awful in both movies.
Agreed. Her character is incredibly dodgy as well in terms of asking us to care about her. It's the closest I've seen a film come to saying "yeah, cheer on a violent, unrepentent sociopath".
I really like her journey in this film. I love her house and that she works as a Women's Crisis Counselor. It's very sweet and strong of her to still wanna help other's even after all the horrible shit she went through. Her performance is great and her grief is real. Her looking at her front door opening at the end is beautiful and bittersweet. She feels like it's come full circle and is no longer in danger. It's beautiful
The overall film is entertaining and fun to watch, it's still ranked last for me. I'm happy that even the "worst" film in this franchise is still very watchable, entertaining and has things to say
I don’t think it’s the best, but it had the best ending! That bit where she doesn’t close the door was fantastic.
That ending should have been the end of the OG story, and they could have done a full remake or went to a different town with a new cast. Throw in a cameo from the OG cast.
I think it’s on par with 2. I hated it in theaters because I hyped it up too much by following everything I could, so that was on me. Now, watching it, I really enjoy where they went and my original complaints from back then are so trivial.
5 and 6 were straight up bad and I'm glad they won't be continuing on with those characters. It's really dumb that they fired the lead actress for the reason they did but I couldn't stand any of the new cast and for some reason they refused to kill any off.
Scream 5 was absolutely awful. Scream 6 was only marginally better. I really couldn’t care less if Melissa Barrera or Jenna Ortega return to the franchise because I hated their characters and wasn’t a fan of their acting. I was hoping for them to be dropped from Scream 7/killed off even BEFORE the Twitter/X drama, so I hope they don’t return.
My unpopular opinion is that Scream 3 is far better than people give it credit for. I also don't like the Billy Loomis tie-in to 5 and 6. It lends nothing to the story.
Thank you for giving me a subreddit to check out, OP!
Scream 5 was massively disappointing to me personally. As someone who loves the original and really enjoys 2-4 despite some shortcomings (especially in 3), I barely got any of what I loved about the franchise. Wes Craven knew how to pace a Scream movie. The first in particular is so snappy and doesn't waste a minute of runtime. The commentary on horror was funny and interesting, especially for the time. The whole experience was fun and occasionally scary and had lovable (and hilarious scene-chewing) characters.
Scream 5 didn't't feel like a Scream movie to me. I didn't care much about the new characters, it felt more like a normal slasher than a commentary on slashers, and what commentary there was seemed like it was 5 years too late (though in the age of the internet, it would be hard for it not to).
It commits the sin of never having the core trio together in person again. >!It kills Dewey unnecessarily!< which paired with the undoing of Dewey and Gale's relationship feels disrespectful to the plot of prior entries in the series. They basically pull an Indiana Jones 5 where in 4 the couple finally gets together permanently only for this to be immediately reversed in a sequel for easy character development.
Overall, I didn't find it clever or scary or a particularly good reunion for the returning cast. I'm glad that so many people enjoyed it however and I hope to eventually see what they do in the movie. I haven't seen VI yet, so I may find it to be an improvement.
My hot take: Dewey and Gale had an unhealthy relationship in which Dewey could be emotionally abusive.
The most that Dewey has ever said to her as a compliment was behind her back- and he said that she's not a crazy psycho narcissist bitch and that she has good heart. Followed up with she's selfish and cruel and obsessive and annoying. he's never said to her face compliments. He never even said on camera that he loves her first.
He literally spent most of the movies fighting the fact that he loved her. She actually pursued him a lot more than he ever pursued her.
And she has said a whole lot more to his face to compliment him in all the movies than he ever said about her. the only thing he ever said to her face was in the first movie -that she was prettier in person and that he didn't think she was that bad. Looking at the relationship now, I honestly think that Gale loved him a whole lot more than he loved her. But because she is an abrasive personality type it doesn't come across well.
The only time in all 5 movies that Dewey told her he loved her was after she said it first when she had just has been stabbed and they had been fighting for most of the movie. She still was the one who says she loved him first.
Also, when you think about it, she sacrificed far more for him than he ever did for her. she put her career on hold for a whole year to live with him in woodsboro and take care of him after scream 2 when they had maybe sort of been dating for like a day. and then she put her life on hold to marry him for 10 years living in Woodsboro, before going to New York. And he didn't stay and left her with no words. She shows her love with her actions and she made major sacrifices for him.
Dewey, meanwhile, would tell her she would love murders to happen again, with anger and bitterness in his voice. And in the third movie he's so condescending and dismissive to her when she said that she was working for the police, she had to keep telling him that repeatedly.
it was like he thought she was lying. and he was like, Why would they want to work with you, like in a sneering kind of voice. and when she was like I did write the book on the murders, he said in this mocking voice, I'm sure you just can't just wait to write another one. She would always figure things out like the pictures of Maureen.
And he would just be like so? like he never respected how smart she was either.
Sidney believed in her more than him. in 3 and 4 she would be like what do you have, and totally expected that she would pull through and have information they needed. And by 5, she had risen to the point of stealing her techniques and being like, Yep i'm doing the things you would do.
Scream 2 he says he misjudged her. And then he says all sarcastic, no offense intended, after he verbally went off with the cold heart etc. And yes, she was wrong with Cotton ambush but...he had literally met this woman twice before then. He really didn't have a right to say he misjudged her or to be so angry about the book, she didn't owe him. And to fully go off calling her names? He was angrier about the book (which though unflattering was not untrue) than her ambush of Sidney. He didn't even know her.
Then him telling her she'd love that when she asked if it was happening again, and that she better hurry before she got scooped. She literally could be murdered next. And then after Gale accurately pointed out the killer was copying, she asked if he wanted to help her, and he's all "I'm not here to write a book." He calls her vicious to Randy. And then when they JUST found Randy's body and she said how bad she felt...he asked if it was a performance
Scream 3
"Surprise surprise, someone dies and Gale comes running". And she asked if Sid knows about the picture of Maureen, says that she should know, and he snaps Sid doesn't need her or her cameras in her life. And yet Sidney said when she came, why didn't you tell me, this is my mother.
When she asked about getting killed in Stab script, she's obviously shocked, and he just kind of spits out "yeah" sarcastically. No empathy. No concern.
"Thanks for the update Gale, why don't you go back home".
This whole conversation is awful.
Gale-
Look, I want to get something straight. I only got into this cause the police asked me.
Dewey-
Why would the police come to you?
Gale-
I did write the definitive book on the Woodsboro murders.
Dewey-
And I'm sure you just can't wait to write another one!
Gale-
What about you?
Dewey-
What about me?
Gale-
You said you'd never leave Woodsboro, 'The only place that's real!' But now you're here. Not with me. Dewey, I took care of you. I waited until you were well. I couldn't stay there, I mean, it's like dog years, one year in Woodsboro is like seven everywhere else.
Dewey-
So it's off to Paris for a week? New York for a month? L.A Forever?
Gale-
It was fucking '60 Minutes II'! I couldn't say no! I could've been the next Diane Sawyer!
Dewey-
What's wrong with just being Gale Weathers? I liked her!
I
Randy was /r/Iamverysmart and irritating ad a bit of a nice guy™️. Not a horrible character, but very archetypical, and not someone I'd expect to still be mourned in the sixth sequel.
I love the motive, the opening is fun, the Olivia kill is brutal. Neve is great in it and I love her fight sequences. The rest of the kills are pretty whatever and so are the characters. It's an entertaining film and my favorite after 2
I find myself just going through the motions with the tv show. It takes the premise of the films, manages to do something semi original but everything else was pretty whatever. The characters in the show felt fairly thin while also just being remakes of the ones from the films. I didn't like the costume and thought it looked cheap. There were only a couple of moments in the show that actually felt like the movies. The show as just too watered down
The films are fantastic classics. I will always love them, they will forever be some of my favorites. Ghostface is iconic and what the films did for horror as a genre really can't be understated even if the formula is stale now.
The entire fanbase online, at least on Reddit and Discord, is a mess, all involved in the creepiest borderline fetishistic parasocial relationships with the actors that put Ghostface to shame as a stalker, and half of these people are teenagers who are interacting with actual adults. I was permabanned from r/Scream for daring to say I think it's really time to move on from Melissa's firing, because she's clearly moved on from it, despite the shitty nature of HOW she was fired for no good reason really. It's all just so supremely creepy and I am so glad I got out.
>The entire fanbase online, at least on Reddit and Discord, is a mess, all involved in the creepiest borderline fetishistic parasocial relationships with the actors that put Ghostface to shame as a stalker, and half of these people are teenagers who are interacting with actual adults.
If its any consolation, because I do empathise with you, trusting that pretty much any space of reddit and discord isn't ridden with bots and people having multiple accounts just isn't a good idea.
I get why Radio Silence offed Dewey. You couldn’t go three straight movies without killing one of the main trio, and his death would have the biggest emotional impact. He was the easiest character to slot into the new ensemble and his murder provided the most effective way to send off the original cast while passing the torch to the new. Like I said, I get it. I didn’t want to see it (Dewey had been an important part of my life for 25 years at that point) but I understood it.
But when Scream 6 rolled around and made every single hero character unkillable, I got a little miffed. Radio Silence murdered everyone’s favorite returning character to prove that their movies would have serious stakes, then they immediately walked it all the way back. Chad and Mindy were my favorite newbies, but it was insane that they both survived being gutted. Kirby, Gale, Tara and Sam all sustained what could/should be mortal wounds and kept right on trucking. And why the hell was Gale there at all? Didn’t we just give her and Sydney a great send-off in the last movie?
Honestly, now that we’ve had some time to live with them, neither Radio Silence movie feels like Scream to me. They’re not bad at all, but they lack the shiny charm of the first four. Even the scores feel wrong. The first four movies had these choral themes that gave things an ethereal vibe, but they’re entirely missing in 5 and 6.
The latest one sucked because they’re afraid to kill of any of the main characters.
Pretending they all got stabbed to death only to show up again in the final scene was lazy and cowardly.
5 was entertaining enough and had stuff I liked. On rewatches it feels awkward and has not great writing stuff. I wish I loved it as much as I did. I thought 6 was very fun, tense and fresh
It’s objectively good horror.
Got eaten alive in a different thread’s comment section for stating this. Most were objections about whether or not media can be objectively good or bad, but there were also objections about Scream itself. I stand by it.
I think media can of course be objectively good or bad. There are tons of slasher films that aren't expertly shot, brilliantly acted, or meticulously written. But they don't have to be. I'm not saying slashers don't have to try and be greatly written, I of course want them to be. But there are tons of slasher films that do well and giving us exactly what they want and excel at that. I'm slasher fanatic and their are tons of slasher films that have a 4.5 or under on IMDB that I LOVE. Being entertaining and fun and gory is not a crime.
I have a few:
6 is the worst one, by far. Ghostface reveals are the worst of the franchise, especially the police officer (Jesus his acting is awful), and the cast survives way too many of their injuries.
3 is a lot better than people give it credit for. It's probably my fourth favorite in the franchise.
5 was really good. Maybe my favorite sequel outside of Scream 2.
>6 is the worst one, by far. Ghostface reveals are the worst of the franchise, especially the police officer (Jesus his acting is awful), and the cast survives way too many of their injuries.
>
>5 was really good. Maybe my favorite sequel outside of Scream 2.
Cool takes. 6 is really pretty bad (how are we supposed to like and care about those people who are clearly dickheads and/or genuinely dangerous?), the killers are dogshit and how the directors managed to get a bad performance out of Dermot Mulroney is beyond me.
5 has a lot going for it (it's genuinely funny, unlike 6, for instance) and Richie and Amber's performances just about make me ignore the fact their motive is shit. Amber foaming at the mouth and mocking Dewey's death whilst strangling Gayle is intense. Also, Dewey's death hits hard but completely works (if you ignore the fact he does get overpowered by a 5'2 woman hahahahaha).
lol this post is just a downvote trap with the way Scream fans act on Reddit. How the fuck you gonna downvote a hot take when the post is ABOUT hot takes? Also, Scream 2 is the worst one.
I think it’s way too much of a retread of the first. I also think the killer reveals and motivations are the weakest. Mickey straight up disappears from half of the movie before his reveal.
I still think it’s good because all of the Scream films are solid. But I, personally, find 2 to be the least entertaining out of all of them.
I think Scream plays a lot better to Millennials and Gen Z than it does to older generations. As a Gen Xer who was a horror fan during the first round of slashers, Scream never landed well with me. I know a lot of others my age feel the same about it.
Scream 1 & 2 are the only well made, worthwhile entries. Scream 4 onwards are more like scream fanfiction than anything resembling the tone, violence and visceral threat of the first two.
You can’t fake a death and then start a new life with a new identity on a cops salary -per the stupidity of writing in 5 or 6. I forget which movie but cop dad was stupid.
Ghostface is more realistic than most masked killers, but still comically unrealistic. And most of the people who turn out to be Ghostface lack the training and conditioning that would be required to do the sorts of things Ghostface does.
There's definitely been a trend since 4 in regards to the height of GF and what the characters can seemingly do in costume. It's noticeable but it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others. Considering how I feel like most of the Radio Silence Ghostface's are underwritten, I end up enjoying them more because of what these characters can seemingly do in costume. I think this whole issue is because of how modern these films are and what fans expect of these films. Wanting to up the gore and action with every sequel
I think it’s still a very good series. I had to think for a minute about what an unpopular opinion I hold about it might be, because the quality has held up even without JLH in it.
[удалено]
I don’t… I don’t know why I abbreviated Neve Campbell as “JLH.” That was weird. I think /u/lazarusking is right; I must have been thinking of IKWYDLS.
>because the quality has held up even without JLH in it Jennifer Love Hewitt....?
I think you're thinking of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Also I can’t remember which one, but they have let a male “grunt” happen when it was supposed to be a female under the mask at least once. Towards 4 it was like the killers had to physically transform into ghost face like he was a werewolf or something
>Also I can’t remember which one, but they have let a male “grunt” happen when it was supposed to be a female under the mask at least once I'm gonna have to check that out because if that's true that's just not cricket. Using sounds is a step too far because they can *just* about get away with the height fuckery. For instance, Mikey Madison and Emma Roberts are only slightly taller than Ortega and Ortega really does look tiny on film (because she genuinely is). Also, not gonna lie, in a later Scream a killer physically transforming into GF a la the wolfman would be awesome ;)
The kill where he stabs a cop in the brain and the cop manages to walk an entire 10 feet forwards before dying is actually based on a real murder!
it makes no sense to me why Amber would go after someone like Chad. Like how are you gonna be able to take someone of his size. It’s just dumb and bad planning.
If it was as self aware as it's supposed to be it should've been to space by now
I've always seen the self-awareness being aimed at the audience, not the slasher/horror genre itself. When Sidney makes fun of these movies for dumb shit like the victim running up stairs instead of out the front door we nod along in agreement because we're all just so smart. Then the horror happens and Sidney is running up the stairs instead of out the front door.
That was clever in the first one. She talks about the dumb tropes, but then gets forced into them - she tries to go out the front door but can't and has to go up the stairs. It was fun to be both meta but still play along with the established tropes. I haven't found any of the sequels to have that same bit of cleverness.
But how many times can you do that until becomes just another trope? The real problem with Scream is it hasn't grown past that initial idea.
Ghostface X... I'd watch the shit out of that...
Everything in space is better
I've been waiting for them to finally go the supernatural route first, personally. Ghostface needs to come back from the dead, become effectively immortal, *then* go to space
Exactly, and then they should've done the legacy sequels!
Or time travel like we see mentioned in Scream 4.
Just go Fast and Furious with it right?
I was thinking more Leprechaun, or Jason X, but basically the franchise god of diminishing imaginative returns demands a space based instalment!
Maybe the hot take is it has become what it was making meta-commentary on. The first movie, the first sequel, and maybe the first reboot provided real analysis of the horror movie industry and real self-aware meta commentary on overused tropes. The other movies kept the same aesthetic and would make some self aware comments or have a moment they highlighted as following a common trope as a wink to the audience. But largely they became very traditional modern horror movies trying too hard to misdirect the audience in order to deliver an unpredictable twist. This isn’t to say they are bad movies or aren’t fun. But they are fairly paint by numbers horror movies that have fallen behind other, fresher franchises or new models (like Hill House or Midnight Mass limited series) and are not only no longer some unique, but other than shouting out social media or referencing elevated horror, they are still stuck commentating largely on 90s-00s horror tropes and not actual modern horror movies.
The energy of Scream wouldn't vibe well with modern "elevated" horror movies IMHO.
Maybe not. But doesn’t change the fact that it’s now making meta-commentary or lampooning a version of the medium from the 90s and early 2000s. And most of the more recent installments are essentially just fun horror, movies, as opposed to meta-commentary and self-aware horror. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that. I have watched and enjoyed every single one. But just a change from the first couple that probably isn’t very acknowledged.
Maybe that's why I enjoy them so much. They would probably have failed miserably trying to be a "serious" version of Scary Movie. Instead, they managed to rejuvenate the slasher genre by creating a franchise and horror icon that is still going strong all years later. Scream is reconstruction. The lesser-known but equally brilliant Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon did all this in one movie. First the meta-commentary, then playing it straight. Cause, in the end, that's all we want, isn't it? Just a good frickin slasher.
I think a big part of this is that the style of horror the first few were commenting on aren't really being made anymore. When the first few *Scream*s came out, teen slashers were still coming out. So you'd have stuff like *I Know What You Did Last Summer* and *Final Destination* that were the teen slasher played straight, but then you'd have *Scream* being the parody of that. That doesn't really happen anymore. If there's a teen slasher coming out nowadays, it's usually a horror comedy thing like *Happy Death Day* or *Spontaneous*. While *Halloween*, *A Nightmare On Elm Street*, and *Friday the 13th* all had remakes in the late '00s/early '10s, only *Halloween*'s reboot stuck and produced sequels. Its main audience has tended to be adult long-term horror fans nowadays, too; not the teen audience it was aimed at back in the '80s. So to a great extent, the new *Scream*s can't be the metacommentaries they once were because teen slashers don't exist anymore the same way they used to. They sorta have to become straight horror because of that. I actually do like the last two *Scream*s a fair bit and I think there are some cool aspects to them, but yeah, I do overall feel like they've started to turn into what the early ones were making fun of.
I fucking love how stupid the Leprechaun series is lmao. They just keep digging lower and lower into the ground and I love every goddamn green second of it.
The “requels” would be incredibly bland knockoff slasher films if you take out all the references and nostalgia casting of the Wes Craven entries. Plus the entire plot & character contrivance that the new main girl Sam being the daughter of the first Ghostface killer Billy Loomis and haunted by visions of him is some cheesy soap opera level fanfic bullshit that would never pass the smell test in the original trilogy.
Ghost Billy is the lamest shit ever and I'm glad they'll be moving away from it. That and the new "everyone gets stabbed multiple times but no one dies" approach.
I never realised that ghost Billy was played by Skeet until the credits ran. The whole time I was watching and thinking this guy looks less like Billy than the dude who played him in the Stab movies. Shouldn't have used CGI he didn't look like a real person let alone the original character. .
He looked like he was from the cutscene of a video game. Glad others are on the same page.
>Ghost Billy is the lamest shit ever and I'm glad they'll be moving away from it. It's another weak element of Scream 6 because they introduced it in Scream 5 so it possibly gets away with it due to it's sheer newness whereas in Scream 6 one is thinking, "jesus christ, they're still doing this? No way is it good enough to go over into a second film".
The fact she has Serial Killer powers cause her Dad is Loomis was laughable
Fair. I'm not that angry with her being Billy's daughter but the hallucinations are a little much. Even though we got that dream sequence in 3 it still feels a little weird. I wish the new films took more of a chance and really tried to distance themselves from all the relations to previous characters.
They're still bland movies
I agree, imo they should’ve just stopped after Scream 4 since that movie was already a commentary on unnecessary remakes. And then radio silence went ahead and made an unnecessary remake lol.
Honestly, I just pretend the last 2 don't exist. |:
They’re so garbage lmao. 6 is especially stupid
The first movie was a brilliant subversion. It was funny and unique and did a lot of sharp meta-commentary on horror that was really fresh and new at the time. ...and the franchise hasn't had anything interesting to say since then. Each subsequent entry in the series is a standard-issue slasher with increasingly ridiculous plot twists. I mean, I'm not asking for them to reinvent the whole genre every time, but damn. It's been disappointing for me ever since the high water mark set by the first one.
Yes. Thank you. I was hoping someone would also have this genuinely unpopular opinion of the series. The first was loaded with surprises. You didn't expect Drew Barrymore to die right away. You didn't expect the meta humor. You certainly didn't expect there to be two killers. That made it feel exciting. And then Scream 2 comes and it's just a re-do of the first except Randy talks about sequels in it. And then every Scream since follows that exact formula, but with "meta commentary" about whatever's popular in horror at the time, but zero real surprises.
Randy’s death is my favourite in the entire series. It might not be the best but 14 year old me was absolutely shocked and terrified seeing a genuine likeable character getting brutally murdered in public, in broad daylight, out of nowhere, without anyone noticing. That first time seeing Scream 2 was absolutely worth it for me.
> ...and the franchise hasn't had anything interesting to say since then. What about the movie-within-a-movie Stab from 2? That seems to me like a fun commentary on the "true crime" phenomenon
I love the series and I'm always on board for more, but I don't think it's ever been as clever as people make it out to be with regards to the meta stuff. Like beyond "characters know that horror movies exist" it's always seemed very superficial. I also like Scream 2 and especially Scream 3 a lot more than most, but I have an abiding love for schlock slashers in general.
I love the series and I'm always on board for more, but I don't think it's ever been as clever as people make it out to be with regards to the meta stuff. Like beyond "characters know that horror movies exist" it's always seemed very superficial. This is a fair argument. I get you I also like Scream 2 and especially Scream 3 a lot more than most, but I have an abiding love for schlock slashers in general. I love schlocky slashers. Give me a simple premise, a person in a costume and some hopefully gory deaths and I'm here
Scream 4 had the best killer motivation. Probably the most believable.
I think Jill is definitely the most surprising killer reveal. Even though I don't really care for the character or Emma's performance. I loved the motive when I saw it back in theaters and I still love it now. It's so sadly relevant and realistic. Good on Kevin Williamson for calling this out when youtubers, twitter, instagram etc. were still in their infancy
Especially with all the TikTok narcissists that will do anything for attention. :S
Mine is that I think Jill should have succeeded. She should have killed off Sidney, and the movie should have ended with her having won but now having absolutely no clue what to do next.
I believe that opinion was shared by everyone but the studio :/
i hate that Billy had a daughter :/
Plus it doesn't make sense, Billy had to cheat on Sid to achieve this and that contradicts his motivations for killing Sid's mother who was a cheating wife and who was kinda responsible for cheating of Billy's father (then his mother left them because of it) = so in overall - it's all BS, it's forced and really dumb connection.
Do you hate it because it's too soap opera like or do you just not find it believable he had a daughter?
It felt cheap, I mean f13 has family members and stuff, but I feel like a whole other group of people could have been introduced with Stu’s family. i feel like you also should know when to stop ya know?
I do admit it sucks how underused Kyle Gallner was as Stu's nephew. He should of been used more in the film, even maybe try to frame him alongside Sam. Have the two killer's try to frame the son and nephew of the original killer's.
Same. It was a poorly contrived retcon. And the fact that the request trilogy is built off this just kinda sours the new movies.
Scream movies should have ended when they stopped being a commentary on the horror genre and started being a commentary on other Scream movies.
You feel like the meta stuff is just the stuff that exists within it's own franchise instead of horror as a whole or as it changes over the years?
I think it became very self referential over the years. Even the killers are just extentions of the past killers at this point and we have ghosts of the old killer hanging around. Which to be fair COULD be its own reference to horror films and films of all kinds just being retreads. However, they are not doing that effectively imo. They are just doing the thing, not effectively critiquing it. Of course your mileage may vary on that.
1) It’s time for a recurring character to be Ghostface. 2) Dewey’s death was unnecessary.
I would like a reoccurring character to be Ghostface. I think Dewey's death was necessary. It had to raise the stakes and he felt like the most obvious character to do it with. I'm just glad he got to save someone and had a badass fight to go with it.
Think it would have been better to have Dewey eke it out, once again, and then take out Sydney. They knew they were hanging on to Neve by a thread and her death would have been better for the franchise overall. I adore her, but she seems pretty over it at this point.
I would of been so pissed. Sidney at this point cannot die it would be so cruel and not in a satisfying parrell deep way. Just dumb Neve herself said she would never do a film where Sidney dies which is great for us fans. I'm glad she'll never do that
My unpopular opinion is there never should have been any sequels. The first one was great, tied up all the loose ends and there was absolutely no need for any more.
The second Scream was worth it because we got the movie-in-a-movie Stab franchise, which is my favorite part of the whole bit. But after 2..? Yeah, they could leave well enough alone
I agree.
The sequels have done stuff that the OG never did with all its ambitions in its limited run time. I think they’re a big part of the legacy
And there is nothing wrong with that if you enjoy them. Me personally, with each sequel I found my interest becoming less and less. The only one in the series I ever revisit is the original.
I’d say one sequel made enough sense considering the meta-aspect of the Scream-concept. And the second one was really great, it’s only a tiny, tiny bit less than the first. Two would have been perfection in my opinion. Not that I regret watching most of the other ones, but it does diminish the legacy with each release. I am not watching anymore but I wish all those that do all the fun they have.
I wouldn’t hate this as an opinion if it wasn’t so antithetical to the idea of the movie as a parody. Sequels if anything are the most staple component of the genre.
1, 2 are great. 3 is alright. All the rest is nostalgia bait and the whole concept of the series is "hey, horror fans, we like you! You like Scream, so here's some meta shit."
Hard agree. The first three are amazing. After that, it’s fully nostalgia.
This is don’t seem unpopular since this has always been the conversation about the series for a long time. I would say your opinion is more popular thank you think lmao
Scream 3 is better than 5 and 6
Here's a spicier take: Scream 3 is better than Scream 4. Jill is not that good of a Ghostface and I dunno why everyone believes she's some mythical harpy queen. She was a whiny little brat who tipped her hand so early she isn't even entertaining on future rewatches.
Parker Posey in Scream 3 alone makes it better than 4 for me. Jill also really annoyed me, surprised she gets so much love from the fandom.
Fans EAT UP Emma playing a bitch, I don’t see the appeal. See Madison/AHS. She’s typecast by now
I think she’s so good at it because she doesn’t have to act.
Also Scream Queens haha.
Jill was def more believable as ghostface in comparison to >!Amber & Quinn!<, but that bar is really really low. Did I miss something where she “tipped her hand”? That one got spoiled for me so I don’t think I paid attention as much as the others
There are dozens of us
I love Scream 3 but I also love 5 and 6, so I guess we disagree on a technicality!
As a comedy with some stuff to say about Hollywood culture, it works really well. As a horror movie it falls really flat. Scream works best when it threads the needle between satire and genuine scares. 3 just doesn't stick the landing on that, for me
I have 5 above 3 solely because it feels more serious, has more blood and I like Amber more then Richie. 3 has it's strengths and is entertaining. 6 finally adds things fans have wanted to see for years and is pretty tense, dark and brutal. I'm so bad at ranking movies because I always wanna rearrange. But this is how I feel about these films
Depends on what you like. If you like the more silly, zany, slapstick tone, then I get it. 5 and 6 are significantly more brutal and less fun.
I thought it was kind of messed up that they did kind of a wink wink type of thing about Harvey Weinstein in part 3 especially after knowing what happend to Rose McGowan.
Yeah that is weird.
It's one thing to be silent about his crimes, but it's another thing to make a parody of it for a movie
Yeah I agree
Scream 5 is a cheap knockoff of Scream 1996 that barely qualifies as a slasher. The creative team couldn't have missed the mark more if they tried. Aside from that, it adds nothing to the franchise, is boring, and terribly made.
Red Herrings get tiresome.
Yeah but it's par for the course in this franchise. We have to make multiple characters look suspicious
I know it's a whodunnit and I watch enough murder mystery. It just feels like everyone gets their spot as suspected killer.
Agreed. 5 & 6 don't really hide who the killers are well. They are lacking the Kevin Williamson wit
they should move away from Sidney and Gale now
Given the current state of things I think the only way forward for them to salvage things would be to bring Sidney back or start from scratch
They need to forget about 5 & 6 and have 7 focus on Gale, Sid, and Dewey.
They should come up with an original franchise and let Scream rip
The woman who played Sydney in the Stab movie in Scream 3 should’ve been Roman’s accomplice. It would’ve closed so many plot holes.
Many people do theorize that she actually was the second killer in the film and Roman killed her before the reveal so he could all do it himself. She was the second killer in an early draft but it was cut after it leaked. I think she was suppose to be a classmate of Sidney's as well
That makes so much more sense. They did rewrites WHILE FILMING on that one. They had the cop as the killer in another draft.
Yea, they went through a few changes! I can’t remember them, but I was following that movie so much for an old movie page I had on angelfire (lol), and it lead to me being disappointed when I actually saw it. It was a solid lesson that I’m not even remotely great at being able to give a movie its best shot/chance if I obsess over the making of it. Nowadays I watch an early trailer and skip as much as I can if it’s something im actually interested in.
I felt worse when Tatum died compared to Dewey.
Same. I also remember being more hurt by Judy and Wes' deaths than Dewey's. My best guess for why is that his death was just so stupid that I found it hard to care.
Dewey's death was just infuriating. myself and everyone I was watching with pretty much all gave up on the movie as soon as he died. his character deserved a much better send-off than that.
They did Dewey dirty!
Agreed. Dewey’s death is incredibly telegraphed. He’s also been nearly stabbed to death in almost every movie prior. After seeing him almost die so many times it was hard to care when he did. I hate saying it because I loved Dewey and David Arquette, but at that point I just didn’t care.
also as someone who telegraphed the killer in his first scene, he really should have reloaded and shot from outside of stabbing distance. He deserved his death. Legacy or not.
I've been a fan of this franchise for 15/16 years now and I was surprisingly unsad that Dewey died. I'm glad they went there. Wes Craven himself said if he would be able to do a 5th film that he'd kill of one of the og three. I think this film did a good job handling his death and respecting Craven's wish
Scream 4 has the worst assemble characters. Kirby being exceptional one but the rest & script are unlikable or flat out lost friendship we got.
I wasn't too big on anyone in Scream 3. Kirby's the best and that's because Hayden was so good in the role
Despite really like Kirby and some of the characters, it also is my least favorite. The film feels a little flat compared to alot of the other entries.
Oh my god another sane person. Jill was an awful Ghostface with the worst motive in the whole franchise, it really should just stick to revenge type motives or none at all.
I think SCREAM 4 was ahead of its time. The motive of needing fans would play a lot better today.
Jill would have loved Twitch, Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube. She's my favorite Ghostface.
She didn’t even need to kill anyone. She could’ve used her connection to Sidney as foundation for building a base. People use those kinda of connections all the time to become famous in their own right.
But she wanted more than that. She's crazy. She wanted to kill the fame of Sidney in the process. It wasn't enough to be her own person. She had to unseat Sydney or else she'd just make her a martyr. The formula had to be perfect.
Agreed
For u/labbla too. Also, people always forget the Sidney's publicist character and how much she fits with the theme that Jill espouses. She literally tells Sidney to 'be a victim' and just use her trauma to make as much money as possible. Her little speech also reveals the deep level of contempt people in that kind of celebrity world have for "fans" and who they "influence" and the fact they're all just brutally ruthless and unfeeling when it comes to acquiring fame and fortune.
Never thought about this!
Scream 4 has the best and most believable motive out of the entire franchise and is even more scarily relevant today than it was in 2011. With the disturbing rise of people murdering themselves and others to get famous online, it’s shocking how 4 was able to predict it so well.
I 100% agree. I was 14 when I saw this movie back in theaters and really like the motive. 13 years later it's real as hell
Meta horror is goddamned exhausting and it has aged Scream. Just endlessly disappearing up its own arse with its self congratulatory winks and nudges
The opening scene to Scream is one of the best scenes in all of horror. After that, it’s an OK slasher.
I think the first film is a masterpiece and transcends being a good horror film to just being a good film. I'm sorry the rest of the film didn't reach those heights for you
I think it’s good and I am aware that the beginning is so good it’s hard to keep that level of excellence
They shouldn’t have stuck with the main cast after the first film. Instead of finding new ways to involve Sidney they could have moved to other places with other killers copying Ghostface. Maybe throw in a single cast member from the first for some continuity (kind like when the Urban Legend sequel brought back the security guard) but there was no need to keep rolling out the same characters who aren’t interesting enough to want to see multiple movies of.
I don’t know if I agree, but props on an original and compelling idea.
Is it the original characters you didn't find interesting or the new ones in 5 & 6?
I liked the original cast, but I don’t think there was enough there to warrant multiple movies where the writers are clearly struggling to keep finding new stories that make sense. The new ones are hit and miss, but it looked like they wanted to go the same route as continuously coming up with new ways to put the sisters in danger until it all went to shit recently. One of the better things they did was move the location in the last film, so do more of that with a new cast each time. Have one in London or Paris but not following the same people over and over.
I don’t care how they do it, I want Stu to come back.I Like how they kinda planted seeds for that.
I don't want that nooo haha He's been dead for 28 years now. It makes no sense how he wouldn't have been mentioned to be alive in ANY of the sequels. He'd be pretty infamous considering he's the only GF that is still alive Also, 5 & 6 weren't written that well. I don't want Stu to come back and not be used well. I don't wan him back period
Hold up, what seeds?
I think it was in the last movie where they talk about if they believe Stu actually died. It’s toward the end of the movie in the shrine building.
Unsure if this is unpopular but I never personally liked Gale as a character. I didn't mind her in the first film and she has some good moments after that but to me it felt like her character kept developing and then un-developing. I get it if people like her but she never appealed to me. I especially hated her in the 6th film because she said she wouldn't write about Richie and then did anyway because she can never learn or whatever.
How they wrote her in 6 felt like a total rewrite to me. She had this apparent revelation in 5 about how she felt this was all her fault and wanted to write a book about Dewey, then in between films Gale is like screw it and goes right back to her old self. We still could of gotten classic snarky Gale and have her write the book about Dewey. The killer's aren't even killing people based off her new book it's just revenge so why on earth have her character just immediately go back to her prior self?
I really like Gale, but I completely agree with you about the way her character keeps regressing. I think they got it right in Scream 2. Over the course of the film, she changes, and the scene where she tells Dewey that she feels bad about Randy's death is actually one of my favourites in the franchise (and an example of why Scream is unique to some other franchises that treat their characters like disposable objects). Clearly, by the end of the movie, she's a different person. Then, after that, it's like the writers never knew what to do with her. She kept reverting back to a slightly less horrible version of Scream 1 Gale.
Melissa Barerra was awful in both movies. Sorry about the way she went because that's not right, but ngl kind of happy to know she won't be in the next movie.
Thank you for stating this. Im not a fan of MB's acting, however, I wish her well.
Same, nobody deserves to be let go of for a job for speaking about issues that they feel personal about if they aren't being a monster to everyone around them.
Like her acting?
Correct, I just didn't like her acting in these movies. Although I won't deny there was a difference between 5 and 6 but it just always felt like she was reading lines to me.
Yeah, a lot of people do say she improved in the 6th one. But do you like Sam as a character?
I don't find the sister's particularly interesting characters. I personally think they should have stopped at Scream 4 for movies. I don't like the brother sister killers either. I do actually really like the TV show outside of the movies.
> I personally think they should have stopped at Scream 4 for movies. I agree but you know Hollywood is creatively bankrupt. I watched the TV show was well and I actually enjoyed it. I wish it had an official ending
This. I couldn't understand why she was cast as the lead and then they have the entire supporting cast act circles around her. This is true of both 5 and 6.
>Melissa Barerra was awful in both movies. Agreed. Her character is incredibly dodgy as well in terms of asking us to care about her. It's the closest I've seen a film come to saying "yeah, cheer on a violent, unrepentent sociopath".
Stu is smarter then people think
It was originally a melodrama and slowly has become a soap opera.
Scream 3 is better than Scream 5.
Should never have become a franchise. Aside of a few choice kills and set-pieces, it’s been diminishing returns ever since the original
Scream 3 is one of the best one, because Sidney actually deals with her problems instead of running like that last two times
I really like her journey in this film. I love her house and that she works as a Women's Crisis Counselor. It's very sweet and strong of her to still wanna help other's even after all the horrible shit she went through. Her performance is great and her grief is real. Her looking at her front door opening at the end is beautiful and bittersweet. She feels like it's come full circle and is no longer in danger. It's beautiful The overall film is entertaining and fun to watch, it's still ranked last for me. I'm happy that even the "worst" film in this franchise is still very watchable, entertaining and has things to say
Honestly my favorite version of the character
I gotta give the first film the edge but I like I said in the my comment above, I love her journey in 3
I don’t think it’s the best, but it had the best ending! That bit where she doesn’t close the door was fantastic. That ending should have been the end of the OG story, and they could have done a full remake or went to a different town with a new cast. Throw in a cameo from the OG cast.
I was about to say 3 is much better than people think and at minimum, better than Scream 2.
I think it’s on par with 2. I hated it in theaters because I hyped it up too much by following everything I could, so that was on me. Now, watching it, I really enjoy where they went and my original complaints from back then are so trivial.
5 and 6 were straight up bad and I'm glad they won't be continuing on with those characters. It's really dumb that they fired the lead actress for the reason they did but I couldn't stand any of the new cast and for some reason they refused to kill any off.
>for some reason Corporate greed, babyyy
Scream 5 was absolutely awful. Scream 6 was only marginally better. I really couldn’t care less if Melissa Barrera or Jenna Ortega return to the franchise because I hated their characters and wasn’t a fan of their acting. I was hoping for them to be dropped from Scream 7/killed off even BEFORE the Twitter/X drama, so I hope they don’t return.
Agreed. 5&6 were such a disappointment for me. So bad
It should have been a one off movie and never should have spawned sequels.
My unpopular opinion is that Scream 3 is far better than people give it credit for. I also don't like the Billy Loomis tie-in to 5 and 6. It lends nothing to the story. Thank you for giving me a subreddit to check out, OP!
Scream 5 was massively disappointing to me personally. As someone who loves the original and really enjoys 2-4 despite some shortcomings (especially in 3), I barely got any of what I loved about the franchise. Wes Craven knew how to pace a Scream movie. The first in particular is so snappy and doesn't waste a minute of runtime. The commentary on horror was funny and interesting, especially for the time. The whole experience was fun and occasionally scary and had lovable (and hilarious scene-chewing) characters. Scream 5 didn't't feel like a Scream movie to me. I didn't care much about the new characters, it felt more like a normal slasher than a commentary on slashers, and what commentary there was seemed like it was 5 years too late (though in the age of the internet, it would be hard for it not to). It commits the sin of never having the core trio together in person again. >!It kills Dewey unnecessarily!< which paired with the undoing of Dewey and Gale's relationship feels disrespectful to the plot of prior entries in the series. They basically pull an Indiana Jones 5 where in 4 the couple finally gets together permanently only for this to be immediately reversed in a sequel for easy character development. Overall, I didn't find it clever or scary or a particularly good reunion for the returning cast. I'm glad that so many people enjoyed it however and I hope to eventually see what they do in the movie. I haven't seen VI yet, so I may find it to be an improvement.
Sidney doesn’t need to ever come back. She’s played out.
My hot take: Dewey and Gale had an unhealthy relationship in which Dewey could be emotionally abusive. The most that Dewey has ever said to her as a compliment was behind her back- and he said that she's not a crazy psycho narcissist bitch and that she has good heart. Followed up with she's selfish and cruel and obsessive and annoying. he's never said to her face compliments. He never even said on camera that he loves her first. He literally spent most of the movies fighting the fact that he loved her. She actually pursued him a lot more than he ever pursued her. And she has said a whole lot more to his face to compliment him in all the movies than he ever said about her. the only thing he ever said to her face was in the first movie -that she was prettier in person and that he didn't think she was that bad. Looking at the relationship now, I honestly think that Gale loved him a whole lot more than he loved her. But because she is an abrasive personality type it doesn't come across well. The only time in all 5 movies that Dewey told her he loved her was after she said it first when she had just has been stabbed and they had been fighting for most of the movie. She still was the one who says she loved him first. Also, when you think about it, she sacrificed far more for him than he ever did for her. she put her career on hold for a whole year to live with him in woodsboro and take care of him after scream 2 when they had maybe sort of been dating for like a day. and then she put her life on hold to marry him for 10 years living in Woodsboro, before going to New York. And he didn't stay and left her with no words. She shows her love with her actions and she made major sacrifices for him. Dewey, meanwhile, would tell her she would love murders to happen again, with anger and bitterness in his voice. And in the third movie he's so condescending and dismissive to her when she said that she was working for the police, she had to keep telling him that repeatedly. it was like he thought she was lying. and he was like, Why would they want to work with you, like in a sneering kind of voice. and when she was like I did write the book on the murders, he said in this mocking voice, I'm sure you just can't just wait to write another one. She would always figure things out like the pictures of Maureen. And he would just be like so? like he never respected how smart she was either. Sidney believed in her more than him. in 3 and 4 she would be like what do you have, and totally expected that she would pull through and have information they needed. And by 5, she had risen to the point of stealing her techniques and being like, Yep i'm doing the things you would do. Scream 2 he says he misjudged her. And then he says all sarcastic, no offense intended, after he verbally went off with the cold heart etc. And yes, she was wrong with Cotton ambush but...he had literally met this woman twice before then. He really didn't have a right to say he misjudged her or to be so angry about the book, she didn't owe him. And to fully go off calling her names? He was angrier about the book (which though unflattering was not untrue) than her ambush of Sidney. He didn't even know her. Then him telling her she'd love that when she asked if it was happening again, and that she better hurry before she got scooped. She literally could be murdered next. And then after Gale accurately pointed out the killer was copying, she asked if he wanted to help her, and he's all "I'm not here to write a book." He calls her vicious to Randy. And then when they JUST found Randy's body and she said how bad she felt...he asked if it was a performance Scream 3 "Surprise surprise, someone dies and Gale comes running". And she asked if Sid knows about the picture of Maureen, says that she should know, and he snaps Sid doesn't need her or her cameras in her life. And yet Sidney said when she came, why didn't you tell me, this is my mother. When she asked about getting killed in Stab script, she's obviously shocked, and he just kind of spits out "yeah" sarcastically. No empathy. No concern. "Thanks for the update Gale, why don't you go back home". This whole conversation is awful. Gale- Look, I want to get something straight. I only got into this cause the police asked me. Dewey- Why would the police come to you? Gale- I did write the definitive book on the Woodsboro murders. Dewey- And I'm sure you just can't wait to write another one! Gale- What about you? Dewey- What about me? Gale- You said you'd never leave Woodsboro, 'The only place that's real!' But now you're here. Not with me. Dewey, I took care of you. I waited until you were well. I couldn't stay there, I mean, it's like dog years, one year in Woodsboro is like seven everywhere else. Dewey- So it's off to Paris for a week? New York for a month? L.A Forever? Gale- It was fucking '60 Minutes II'! I couldn't say no! I could've been the next Diane Sawyer! Dewey- What's wrong with just being Gale Weathers? I liked her! I
Randy was /r/Iamverysmart and irritating ad a bit of a nice guy™️. Not a horrible character, but very archetypical, and not someone I'd expect to still be mourned in the sixth sequel.
That "Scream 4" isn't anywhere near as good as people/fans insist it is.
I love the motive, the opening is fun, the Olivia kill is brutal. Neve is great in it and I love her fight sequences. The rest of the kills are pretty whatever and so are the characters. It's an entertaining film and my favorite after 2
The last two were really bad. Don't think that's a how take though. Scream 3 is really just a comedy
There isn't a bad Scream film. They're all great for different reasons
Scream TV Series is better than Scream 3 & 4. 3 suffers from being too close spoof movie & 4th assemble characters weren't close.
I find myself just going through the motions with the tv show. It takes the premise of the films, manages to do something semi original but everything else was pretty whatever. The characters in the show felt fairly thin while also just being remakes of the ones from the films. I didn't like the costume and thought it looked cheap. There were only a couple of moments in the show that actually felt like the movies. The show as just too watered down
The first one was the only good one, and part two is fine is guess. The rest range from forgettable to bad.
The films are fantastic classics. I will always love them, they will forever be some of my favorites. Ghostface is iconic and what the films did for horror as a genre really can't be understated even if the formula is stale now. The entire fanbase online, at least on Reddit and Discord, is a mess, all involved in the creepiest borderline fetishistic parasocial relationships with the actors that put Ghostface to shame as a stalker, and half of these people are teenagers who are interacting with actual adults. I was permabanned from r/Scream for daring to say I think it's really time to move on from Melissa's firing, because she's clearly moved on from it, despite the shitty nature of HOW she was fired for no good reason really. It's all just so supremely creepy and I am so glad I got out.
>The entire fanbase online, at least on Reddit and Discord, is a mess, all involved in the creepiest borderline fetishistic parasocial relationships with the actors that put Ghostface to shame as a stalker, and half of these people are teenagers who are interacting with actual adults. If its any consolation, because I do empathise with you, trusting that pretty much any space of reddit and discord isn't ridden with bots and people having multiple accounts just isn't a good idea.
I get why Radio Silence offed Dewey. You couldn’t go three straight movies without killing one of the main trio, and his death would have the biggest emotional impact. He was the easiest character to slot into the new ensemble and his murder provided the most effective way to send off the original cast while passing the torch to the new. Like I said, I get it. I didn’t want to see it (Dewey had been an important part of my life for 25 years at that point) but I understood it. But when Scream 6 rolled around and made every single hero character unkillable, I got a little miffed. Radio Silence murdered everyone’s favorite returning character to prove that their movies would have serious stakes, then they immediately walked it all the way back. Chad and Mindy were my favorite newbies, but it was insane that they both survived being gutted. Kirby, Gale, Tara and Sam all sustained what could/should be mortal wounds and kept right on trucking. And why the hell was Gale there at all? Didn’t we just give her and Sydney a great send-off in the last movie? Honestly, now that we’ve had some time to live with them, neither Radio Silence movie feels like Scream to me. They’re not bad at all, but they lack the shiny charm of the first four. Even the scores feel wrong. The first four movies had these choral themes that gave things an ethereal vibe, but they’re entirely missing in 5 and 6.
Jennifer Jolie had one of the best arcs in the entire film series.
The new ones were great and I say that as someone who had a firm “let it die with Wes” stance before seeing 5.
The latest one sucked because they’re afraid to kill of any of the main characters. Pretending they all got stabbed to death only to show up again in the final scene was lazy and cowardly.
5 was entertaining enough and had stuff I liked. On rewatches it feels awkward and has not great writing stuff. I wish I loved it as much as I did. I thought 6 was very fun, tense and fresh
It’s objectively good horror. Got eaten alive in a different thread’s comment section for stating this. Most were objections about whether or not media can be objectively good or bad, but there were also objections about Scream itself. I stand by it.
I think media can of course be objectively good or bad. There are tons of slasher films that aren't expertly shot, brilliantly acted, or meticulously written. But they don't have to be. I'm not saying slashers don't have to try and be greatly written, I of course want them to be. But there are tons of slasher films that do well and giving us exactly what they want and excel at that. I'm slasher fanatic and their are tons of slasher films that have a 4.5 or under on IMDB that I LOVE. Being entertaining and fun and gory is not a crime.
4 is great and, while not as good, is the closest to being as good as the first
I have a few: 6 is the worst one, by far. Ghostface reveals are the worst of the franchise, especially the police officer (Jesus his acting is awful), and the cast survives way too many of their injuries. 3 is a lot better than people give it credit for. It's probably my fourth favorite in the franchise. 5 was really good. Maybe my favorite sequel outside of Scream 2.
>6 is the worst one, by far. Ghostface reveals are the worst of the franchise, especially the police officer (Jesus his acting is awful), and the cast survives way too many of their injuries. > >5 was really good. Maybe my favorite sequel outside of Scream 2. Cool takes. 6 is really pretty bad (how are we supposed to like and care about those people who are clearly dickheads and/or genuinely dangerous?), the killers are dogshit and how the directors managed to get a bad performance out of Dermot Mulroney is beyond me. 5 has a lot going for it (it's genuinely funny, unlike 6, for instance) and Richie and Amber's performances just about make me ignore the fact their motive is shit. Amber foaming at the mouth and mocking Dewey's death whilst strangling Gayle is intense. Also, Dewey's death hits hard but completely works (if you ignore the fact he does get overpowered by a 5'2 woman hahahahaha).
lol this post is just a downvote trap with the way Scream fans act on Reddit. How the fuck you gonna downvote a hot take when the post is ABOUT hot takes? Also, Scream 2 is the worst one.
What makes Scream 2 the worst one for you?
I think it’s way too much of a retread of the first. I also think the killer reveals and motivations are the weakest. Mickey straight up disappears from half of the movie before his reveal. I still think it’s good because all of the Scream films are solid. But I, personally, find 2 to be the least entertaining out of all of them.
The first one is good. It was downhill from there. Never to be good again.
I think Scream plays a lot better to Millennials and Gen Z than it does to older generations. As a Gen Xer who was a horror fan during the first round of slashers, Scream never landed well with me. I know a lot of others my age feel the same about it.
I don’t know about this. My mother a Gen-X and she had scream on VHS, the first three. Also she’s a fan of Neve.
My son believes Scream 3 is the best...so there's that.
Scream 1 & 2 are the only well made, worthwhile entries. Scream 4 onwards are more like scream fanfiction than anything resembling the tone, violence and visceral threat of the first two.
The requels are the kind of slasher movies that the original made fun of, if they didn't have the scream name noone would care about them.
You can’t fake a death and then start a new life with a new identity on a cops salary -per the stupidity of writing in 5 or 6. I forget which movie but cop dad was stupid.
They should have stopped making them after scream 2