#A Very Funny, Very Bloody Sequel

Like all “Scream” films, “Scream” 2022 opens with an attack. This attack is meant to reflect the opening of the first film, which saw Drew Barrymore and her blonde Louise Brooks wig brutally dispatched by a horror movie-loving killer who first tormented her via phone before showing up in person. Back then, young people actually answered their phones — and they mostly used landlines. But times have changed, and when a landline rings in the house of 21st-century teenager Tara (Jenna Ortega), she looks utterly perplexed. She approaches the ringing plastic rectangle the way someone might approach a dusty old relic in some far corner of the world’s most boring museum. What is this strange device, and why won’t it stop making noise? 

The caller, who has a voice that’s instantly familiar to fans of the franchise, gets Tara talking and eventually asks her that now-iconic question: “What’s your favorite scary movie?” Tara is a horror fan, but again, times have changed. She’s not the type to name-drop “A Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Halloween.” Instead, Tara is a fan of “elevated horror,” calling out “The Babadook,” “The Witch,” and “Hereditary,” among others. But that’s not what the killer wants to hear. They’re more interested in hack and slash, and to prove it, here comes a big, sharp knife headed directly for Tara’s vital organs. 

So far, this all feels fairly familiar, but then “Scream” starts to shake things up. Tara’s estranged older sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera), returns to Woodsboro with her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid, who is very funny here) in tow. Since this sort of ritualized masked serial killer attack is a common occurrence for the unfortunate folks of Woodsboro — there’s an entire “based on a true story” film franchise, “Stab,” that exists within the world of the franchise — Sam decides she needs to turn to someone who has handled this sort of thing before: poor, sweet, innocent dork Dewey Riley (David Arquette).