By Ryan Mantilla

Set 25 years later, the town of Woodsboro is yet again dealing with an unidentified serial killer.

It's a little bit early to start celebrating Halloween, but one of the cult classics that is Scream just dominated the theaters, and we can't help but scream our lungs out from both excitement and fear. 

It's been so long since Wes Craven's fourth Scream movie premiered in cinemas. Although the late director passed away in 2015, his films are far from dead. The horror icon is responsible for your childhood nightmares. He directed Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Last House on the left, and The Hills Have Eyes. Of course, who would ever forget Freddy Krueger? That creep of a man who gives literal nightmares. 

The first Scream film in 1996 kept surprising its audiences from the start until the end. Drew Barrymore—a renowned actress—got killed in the first scene, and that is when the film started to be interesting because who would kill Drew Barrymore right before our eyes? She was America's sweetheart!

No one can beat the classics, but don't get us wrong, Scream 5 is just as good (if not excellent). 

Scream is undoubtedly one of the best horror flicks that graced the cinemas because of the mere fact that the killer is wearing a Halloween costume. It just comes to show that killers could be anyone. And that's what made the movie terrifying: killers come in all shapes and sizes—and costumes in this case. 

Serial killers are just anywhere, and they can be anyone you know around you, even the cutest of things or people. Not to scare you, though, but what have we learned from all the slasher movies from the past? If there's one thing you should remember, it's that you can't fully trust anyone, not even your love interest. Just take it from the 1996 version. The killer is Billy Loomis. A hottie. 

The 2022 sequel didn't disappoint

Expect twists and turns in the film. The film wasn't trying hard. All of the elements of the old-school slasher movies are still there—embodying the quirks of 90s horror films like jump scares, shocking twists, killers (of course), a squad, feisty teenagers, over-the-top-deaths, and a final girl. Yes, as much as we hate spoilers, we all know Scream movies always tend to end up with final girls. 

Let's face it. There are always final girls like Sidney Prescott from Scream in 1996. Final girls refer to a woman left alive to tell the tale. It just screams women empowerment but in the form of a horror/thriller. If men could kill, women can survive—or kill sometimes.

Scream 2022 paid tribute to all slasher classics. Sometimes moviegoers aren't asking for a different story. Some sequels tend to break away from the original story in the hopes of presenting a fresh concept. However, some fans wanted similarities, and Scream 5 made that work.

Movies like Midsommar, Hereditary, Get Out, Us, It Follows, The Witch, and Black Swan are good, of course. Magnificent, even. They are different. It broke the stereotype. But it's okay to follow the general rule of horror movies sometimes; to entertain.

Scream 5 casts include Jenna Ortega from You, Dylan Minette from 13 reasons why, Mikey Madison from Better Things, and other breakthrough artists. It was co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, with James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick serving as co-writers.

The return of iconic casts 

Scream fans, or We Craven fans in general, could enjoy the new release. Familiar faces are returning, and it is nostalgic. Comforting, actually. It will bring you back to a time when everything is okay; you're a kid with no bills to pay. Except, this is a slasher movie. You're meant to be scared and stressed at times. You'd scream.

Spoiler-alert: there would be jumpscares. Lots of it. Be prepared.

Despite criticisms, people can never change that Scream broke all the rules of slasher films in the late 90s and 80s and permanently modified the horror scene forever for the new generation of filmmakers. We can't talk about modern horror without talking about Scream. That's proven to be accurate up to this day. 

Previous horror and slasher flicks characters tend to be clueless about horror films. It is annoying how they always go to places without realizing the danger they might get themselves into. Scream made it clear in the first scene that horror does exist, starting with a now-iconic line, "Do you like scary movies?"

If you need a little refresher, the life of Casey Becker—Drew Barrymore's character—depended on a series of horror quizzes. If she answers incorrectly, she dies. Scream is a horror movie where all characters know the genre's existence.

Sam Zimmerman, the curator of horror streaming service Shudder, stated,, "Scream mainstreamed metatextual storytelling and made that analytical understanding of the genre mainstream in a lot of ways."

The film premiered in January and became available from streaming services this month. Scream is set to be released digitally on March 1, 2022. You can stream it on Vudu Movie & TV Store or VUDU on your Roku device.