The Plot For ‘Scream 5’ Seems All Too Obvious, Right?

The Scream movie series has followed Sidney Prescott’s tortured life—from her high school days to her college years to her professional life. As Sidney attempts to move past her teenage years when her mother was brutally murdered and build a new identity, a different masked killer always seems to manifest and wreak havoc on her life. A horror franchise for the ages, the Scream movies combine to tell a story of pain, blood, heartache, and—ultimately—triumph.

And the franchise had seemingly met its end back in 2011. In Scream 4, Sidney returned to her hometown of Woodsboro to promote her new book. And then, right on cue, a new masked killer showed up to upend Sidney’s life once again. As the characters of the Scream franchise soon found out, the new murderer was following the rules of horror movie remakes.

Which seemed pretty serendipitous: what better way to end the franchise than for Sidney to overcome the events that were being “remade” from the first film? Director Wes Craven was in talks to direct Scream 5 and Scream 6, but those movies never manifested. And Scream 4 was met with moderate box office income and modest reviews from critics. From there, the series seemingly sizzled out.

That was until this week. For a bit now, the directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have been in line to direct the fifth movie in the Scream series. The only problem is that the franchise’s main star, Neve Campbell, was never on board—until this week when she newly expressed interest. And now a fifth installment may indeed be happening.

And while I’ve expressed my doubts about why this movie can work, there is something very intriguing about the idea of new filmmakers taking over Wes Craven’s horror masterpiece. In my mind, a very obvious plot line presents itself—which would take the series in a brand new exciting direction.

The potential story for Scream 5 seems all too clear to me once I think about the other films in the franchise, as each movie satirizes different elements and tropes of horror movies. The first Scream was more of a broad satire. The 1996 film pulled from several different slashers (most notably Halloween) in order to compile a horror film that both adhered to and broke the rules of the genre.

From there, the plot trajectories for each movie keep in line with the first film. Scream 2 came out in 1997 and satirized horror sequels; Scream 3 premiered in 2000 and, if you can believe it, played on the tropes of horror trilogies; and then, finally, Scream 4 played with the remake formula in 2011.

Which brings us to Scream 5. Like I wrote last week, the troubling part about continuing the Scream series is that its creator, Wes Craven, has died. The Scream franchise didn’t just satirizing horror movies, but satirized the very horror conventions that Craven himself helped establish. Thus, each and every Scream film is inextricably tied to its creator. Craven didn’t just have fun with the horror formula—he’s expressed his relationship with the horror genre’s conventions in an artistic way. There’s an emotional underlying to each Scream installment that tells us as much about the director as it does about the characters Craven created.

But that’s where Scream 5 can be different. It’s pretty rare for a horror franchise to remain under one director’s vision for its entirety. From Halloween to Saw to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, horror franchises are constantly remade and reinvented according to the times. Of course each new installment of a horror franchise is its own unique project, but each new installment must also adhere to the rules laid out by the original filmmaker.

And that’s where Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett come in. Each and every person who watches Scream 5—from diehard Scream fans to movie critics—will compare the new Scream film with Craven’s entire franchise output. And that’s where the new directors’ emotional attachment comes into play: how do they respond to that kind of pressure?

By satirizing that pressure, of course. I’m guessing that the new masked killer of Scream 5 will follow the rules of a horror reboot. Once a movie stripped away from its original creator, it’s then given a second life by new, young, up-and-coming filmmakers—and I’m guessing the new killer will become a manifestation of that trend.

So Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett must work through the tension of continuing Craven’s legacy—which will become the new emotional underlying of the film. Just like Craven wrestled with his relationship to the horror genre in film after film, these new directors must wrestle with the responsibility of continuing that level of satire.

The only question that remains is then: can Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett pull it off? Neve Campbell seems to think they can—and she might have better judgement than anybody.