“What’s your favorite scary movie?” used to be an innocent inquiry until the Scream franchise took the question to horrific territory. Wes Craven’s 1996 horror film became an instant classic the moment we saw ‘90s darling, Drew Barrymore, get the axe within the first fifteen minutes. Barrymore’s epic chase and death scene would be cemented as one of the most shocking turn of events in cinema. Barrymore, who graced the film poster and was pumped in press and media as the star eventually made way for three horror superheroes in Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette who would go on to become the series’ “final girls”. If you’re a horror fanatic, you already know Scream combined the slasher genre with a whodunit murder mystery which captivated audiences and is probably the best horror film of the iconic ‘90s. Fast forward to modern day: We’ve had four sequels to Scream and were due to get a fifth. Unfortunately, the passing of Craven and Cox and Arquette divorcing cockblocked us from the next series in the franchise. Instead, we got a meek, straight-to-MTV episodic series that didn’t live up to the hype and isn’t looped into the series’ cannon. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see Campbell’s Sydney Prescott unmask another villain, but we haven’t seen the last of the ever-changing Ghostface.
According to Variety, Spyglass Media Group is rebooting Scream with directors Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who helmed the horror box-office surprise, Ready or Not. That’s it – that’s literally all we know so far. But, now horror fans alike can start speculating on the who, what, where, and why! A reboot could mean two things: A, the old cast is coming back to continue the franchise or B, we’re getting an entirely new cast and story. It’s widely known Cox doesn’t want to return to the series, so our best bet may be that we’re going to start anew. However, Blumhouse did just essentially reboot the Halloween AKA Michael Myers franchise with the return of just Jamie Lee Curtis, so perhaps all we need is to see Campbell strutting her scream queenness on screen to jump right back into Woodsboro, California with our favorite character. Some fresh faces, quality-diverse characters, and a solid story can definitely put a modern Scream on the ultimate pedestal. This reboot should definitely be a thumbs up to any horror fan.
While every horror fan is geeking out with excitement, we can’t help but remember that Scream is where Rose McGowan first interacted with the repulsive Harvey Weinstein. Maybe it would be a progressive move to offer her a role in the film as a full three-sixty? Weinstein’s company, at the time, was behind the horror standout. Since that fool’s company has been abolished, Spyglass’ heavyweights Gary Barber, Andy Mitchell, and Milos Brajovic were able to take control of the franchise rights. Horror aficionados will be familiar with Spyglass’ work if you’ve read a previous article I wrote telling you to watch the mind-blowing horror film, Southbound, on Hulu. While reboots are often frowned up and panned by critics and fans – these guys are students of horror and leave no room for us to doubt their ability to deliver a solid piece of slasher cinema.
There’s no word yet on who will lead the film, but you can trust and believe we’ll all find out soon enough! In the meantime, Scream and it’s sequels are available to stream on Netflix – in case you’re wanting to binge on some horror during your Corona-quarantine. But, in the meantime – relive the nostalgia with the original trailer below: