The fifth installment of the Scream film series was released in January 2022, to much excitement and box office success. While not achieving the high heights of the first film, it was still generally well-received by both critics and fans. Scream is an interesting franchise, in that none of the five films are wholly viewed as terrible. Most franchises with that many installments do not fare so well.
Part of why these films tend to do so well is that they are parody by nature and play on familiar themes while still being twisty and inventive. They're all whodunit style with villains that are usually important characters in the film, and they each pick a specific horror trope to parody. The first film is infamous for being a parody of slasher films, with the following two making fun of sequels and trilogies. 2011's Scream 4 then took on the remake/reboot trope, with Scream 2022 hoping to tackle the "requel."
This wasn't a big surprise to fans. As the Scream films mimic current horror trends, it was pretty easy to predict where this would probably go. There was some hope however that this film would tackle meta-horror instead and go really off the wall, so it was still a bit of a disappointment. Though it's a really enjoyable film, many fans felt that it was just a rehashing of Scream 4 because the difference between "reboot" and "prequel" was just too slim.
The thing with a "requel" is that it's not an entirely familiar concept to a lot of people, and it doesn't have a hard definition or set of tropes just yet. An important part of Scream movies is the rules. There is always a character who knows their stuff when it comes to horror, and they do a good job of establishing what tropes to look for when it comes to whatever they're parodying. Scream 2022 still does this well, but the rules explained are not all that different from what's been heard in Scream 4. It also lacks a bit of sense, as what Scream basically describes is the retconned sequel in the likes of Candyman 2021 or Halloween 2018. This film however isn't that at all, and tends not to indulge in many of those tropes. At least not differently than Scream 4.
One thing about Scream 2022 that was a bit of a fun reveal, is that the main group of friends audiences are following all have a connection to the characters from the other films. It's an interesting tie-in and plays well into the ending theme, but it's actually been done before. Jill, the main character turned villain of Scream 4, was the cousin of franchise final girl Sidney Prescott. Making the main characters connected to the OG cast is a nice touch, especially making the lead of the film a daughter of Billy Loomis, but it's been done before.
This is also present with the villains. At the end of the movie, it's revealed that the main character's boyfriend, Richie, is Ghostface along with Amber, the best friend of the first victim. These reveals are remarkably easy to spot from very early on in the film, but that's beside the point. What's really disappointing about them is that they feel really repetitive with Scream 4. The boyfriend is the killer all along and that's a fun callback to the original, but they don't follow through with that when it comes to his pairing with Amber. A male-female couple with crazy motives was just done in the last film.
In fact, their motives are almost identical. The motives of Scream 4 revolve around rewriting history for a new generation, changing the narrative, so Sidney isn't the victim anymore. Richie and Amber want to do the same thing as Jill and Rory, however, they're focusing more on changing the directory of the in-movie film series "Stab" as opposed to real-life by giving them more material to work with. It's supposed to be a commentary on toxic fandoms and obsession, but it really does just come off so similar.
There are differences between the two films, making Scream 2022 still worth a watch. It has a very 2022 feel that stands out, and it's overall a lot darker in tone than any of the other films. Some of it was actually quite sad. This is also the most gruesome Scream film by far with some fantastic gore and kills. They also make some pretty hard-hitting choices here, including the death of a legacy character. All the Scream movies are pure love letters to their fans, and horror fans as a whole, while simultaneously making fun of them. It's great, and there is enough of Scream 2022 distinction from the other movies to have it stand out and be enjoyed. One only wishes that they pushed the bar a little more and changed things up just a bit to take it over the edge.