The fifth Scream film is set to relaunch the meta slasher franchise for a new generation, as revealed in the first trailer.
Original stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette are returning for the first installment not directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. The film, simply titled Scream, is from the Ready or Not film-makers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Original writer Kevin Williamson is also onboard as executive producer.
“The idea of making these films without Wes Craven seemed challenging to me,” said Campbell to Entertainment Weekly. “I loved the man very much. But Matt and Tyler wrote me a letter, speaking of their appreciation and great respect for Wes Craven, and speaking of the fact that the very reason that they are directors today was because of these movies and because of Wes, and that meant a great deal to me.”
New stars to the fold include Jack Quaid, Jenny Ortega, Dylan Minnette and Mason Gooding.
Gillett has said that the identity of the killer was shrouded in so much secrecy that many cast members were kept in the dark through most of the shoot. “We were really careful to protect the big reveal of the movie,” he said. “We went as far as to withhold those moments in the script from the actors. We wanted everybody involved, to the degree that we could, to be a part of the whodunnit.”
The original film, released in 1996, reignited the horror genre during a decade in which it had fallen out of favour. It was a critical and commercial hit, leading to a resurgence of slasher movies, and led to three more sequels, the last of which was released in 2011. After the underwhelming box office of Scream 4 the franchise moved to the small screen with MTV’s Scream TV series.
The reinvention, which is released in January, comes as the slasher is making another comeback after Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy this past summer and There’s Someone Inside Your House this month, Amazon’s TV adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer which launches 15 October and the ongoing relaunch of the Halloween franchise.
