Film: Scream

I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.. and today, my weekend cinema was - the new Scream! At the Omniplex, naturally, as the cheapest. They're really doing this franchise to death, but hey, I was curious..

Headed off in decent time - but with a match on, my side road, which I take to avoid Limerick City Centre traffic, was packed with traffic! So I did get there in time - but without much to spare. Three people greeted me at the door, ready to check my non-infectious credentials, and in I went. Lovely big screen, hardly anyone there.. I thought it might be on when I arrived, but it was a trailer for The Batman. So, I got to see about half of that trailer, and an ad, and the feature was on.

Yeah. Like The Matrix: Resurrections, this is basically a blatant attempt to cash in on the franchise, with plenty of nods and winks to fans to say yes, we know what we're doing is cynical. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette are roped in to support the latest crop of youngsters to be slaughtered. Of those, the only one I recognised was Dylan Minnette, who's shown up in a few things I've seen.

Now, this is a franchise with some rules. As in all the films, a guy is running around (or are there two?) wearing a mask inspired by the painting "The Scream", and a long black cloak. This person is nicknamed "Ghostface", for convenience, and his (or her) favourite method of murder is stabbing - with a nice, vicious-looking blade. The victims are chosen by some unknown rule relating to something that happened in the past, and generally, the more innocent they are, the longer they survive. And all of this happens in a small, American town called Woodsboro. Neve Campbell was the original target, Courtney Cox is a news anchor, and David Arquette was sheriff, and married to her - not much of a spoiler to say they're not together anymore, and his drinking and general moroseness cost him his job.. He's the only one of the old cast that still lives there, Courtney Cox comes back when she hears there's a story, and Neve Campbell comes because she thinks she has a duty to help the innocent.

A lot has been made of how clever this franchise is - yes, it is, and the characters are always big horror-film fans, full of trivia about various films, and dictating the horror film rules. Of course, like The Matrix: Resurrections, it's a nostalgia-fest - for whatever reason, I preferred when they did it for The Matrix. Here, I wasn't as impressed - although the whodunnit element is excellently done. As is pointed out, the killer(s) can be expected to come from the victim's group of friends, and frankly, any of them could be guilty. I think people are a little hard on Melissa Barrera, who plays the lead - she's OK, if not spectacular. And it's watchable - I just don't think I could go so far as to recommend it. Far too many jump scares, for one thing - although one sequence of them does work really well.

On my way out, I overheard one of the staff muttering to his co-workers that he just didn't see the point in putting on matinees for Scream that only attracted five people! (That'd be mine.) I completely agree - that was shown in a massive screen, practically empty. It's currently showing in two screens there - seems like overkill. But I'm glad they showed it - gave me something decent to go to!

Back to London tomorrow, and film again on Monday - this one will be A Brighter Summer Day, a Taiwanese film set in the early 60s, a coming-of-age drama mixed with gang warfare. Something of a marathon, but is supposed to be good - showing at the Prince Charles. Two and a half years since I was there last.. and for once, it was mostly sold out, so I booked!