The helped rejuvenate horror during the 2000s and brought with it a slew of imitators, but none can match the distinct energy of the Scream franchise.
Scream and its sequels are able to endure in a way that few other horror films can thanks to their unabashed love for the genre and the continued survival of its final girl protagonist, Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. It’s been nearly a decade since Scream 4, but work has been under way for the fifth entry in the Scream series with the filmmaking duo Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) directing the movie. Details have been slim on what lies ahead for Sidney Prescott and the rest of the Scream universe, but the world is now a little closer to knowing after Williamson shared some news to celebrate the conclusion of the film’s production.
Williamson’s tweet reveals that the next movie is just called Scream rather than the presumed Scream 5, in a move that’s similar to what’s been done with the recent Halloween and reboot sequels. Check out Williamson's post below.
The new movie has confirmed important returning characters, but this title could speak to the new future that Scream wants to build for itself. “Every step of the way there's pressure and temptation to emulate the things that we love about the Scream movies,” reveals Gillett of Radio Silence to Screen Rant. “Everything we know and understand about tone we learned from Kevin [Williamson] and Wes [Craven]. That's not hyperbole in any way, shape, or form. They taught us everything we know.”
Radio Silence were chosen by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group to helm this return to the Scream series because the duo’s previous horror movie, Ready or Not, effortlessly juggles comedy, horror, and a self-aware nature in the same way that Craven’s films do. “Our comedy just started to become horror. Intentionally or not, when something is in your DNA you just end up going there,” explains Bettinelli-Olpin over Radio Silence’s trajectory. “There would be no Ready or Not without Scream,” he reiterates.
Scream will be a mix of old and new, but Gillet assures fans that they want this movie to be just as good as they do: "If you're a fan of the franchise then there is so much that you're going to love about this and if you're new to the Scream universe then you will fall in love with it in the way that we fell in love with the first movie." Now that production has wrapped there is still a long road ahead until the film’s release in January 2022. Hopefully Scream will continue to tease information on the sequel while still maintaining mystery over the many surprises that it has in store.
