Paramount Pictures has revealed the first trailer for Scream 5 and it features several familiar faces, including the notorious killer Ghostface. Despite barring the same name as the original 1996 film, the new Scream is the fifth installment in the horror franchise, which also includes a TV spin-off of the same name. The trailer also features the return of original cast members Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox, and it is the first film in the franchise that is not directed by horror mastermind Wes Craven.
The Scream 5 trailer opens with a familiar scene, reminiscent of the original Scream film. A young girl, Tara (Jenna Ortega), is alone in her house and texting her friend, Amber, when suddenly the landline begins to ring. She ignores it because it's the twenty-first century and she's under the age of forty, but then she gets an odd text from Amber, telling her to answer the phone. She answers, thinking her friend is playing a prank, but then she hears a voice that horror fans will recognize immediately, asking her if she'd like to play a game.
Tara rushes to the front door. but she's slashed by a knife. She locks the doors using her phone, but the app notifies her that the doors have been unlocked. She tries to lock them again, but it's too late, the killer wearing the trademark Ghostface mask manages to get in and murders Tara. The trailer shifts focus to a woman (Campbell) jogging as she answers her phone. On the other end of the line is one of the returning original characters, Dwight "Dewey" Riley (Arquette). He tells her it's happening again and asks her if she has a gun, to which she promptly responds, "I'm Sidney Prescott, of course I have a gun."
The rest of the Scream 5 trailer features Ghostface hunting down a new group of young people while the original cast attempts to stop him. The 1996 Scream featured Sidney and her friends trying to survive as they are being stalked by Ghostface. Convinced that the killer is connected to her mother's murder one year ago, Sidney sets out to discover the identity of Ghostface, but everyone around her seems to be a suspect. The original Scream was noted for its self-awareness, with characters using the horror movie rules to survive the film.
Another staple of the Scream franchise is that Ghostface is always revealed to be someone close to the characters. Unlike other horror movie killers such as Michael Myers from the Halloween films or Jason Voorhees of Friday The 13th fame, Ghostface is an alter-ego always assumed by a different person (or persons) in each film. In the original movie, Ghostface is revealed to be two people, Sidney's boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and his accomplice Stu (Matthew Lillard). Perhaps this time around the killer will be revealed to be one of the original three cast members? Or perhaps another actor from the original film will reprise their role?
The new Scream is just the latest long-running horror franchise to return to the big screen. Halloween Kills, director David Gordon Green's follow-up to his 2018 film Halloween, will be released in theatres soon and also features the return of franchise protagonist Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee-Curtis). Both Sidney and Laurie are what's known as 'final girls,' a horror term used to refer to the last survivor of a slasher film, who is traditionally a young woman. Both characters are now older and much more guarded due to the recurring traumatic experiences. Hopefully, they can put these killers in the ground for good, but that will probably depend on how well the films do at the box office.
Scream 5 premieres in theatres on January 14th, 2022.
Source: Paramount Pictures | YouTube