The metacommentary about the current state of horror movies in Scream (2022, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) is fun, yet also disavows it from being considered derivative in a way where it suffers from a lack of originality. And it earned my respect for the most part because its points are valid and well-constructed.
The small town high-school teen slasher/corny melodrama hokum works for me. And I’m very grateful that R-rated teen horror movies haven’t exceeded 2 hour run times yet. (I’m still pissed off Transformers and superhero movies can go over 2 ½ hours.) What kind of sucks though is that there’s an uplifting, overly-sentimental agenda that seems to have been deliberately built in, which I just took offense to being in a slasher. But I can’t really complain—that’s what the majority wants so it must be right.
Although, okay one complaint. How does the kitchen in the opening scene have a land line? Or why isn't there some wisecrack about it at least? Still, yes the opening scene in any Scream is my favorite part.
Highlight of the movie: how amazing is Mikey Madison? I really dug her as SADIE in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019, Quentin Tarantino) because of how menacing she can be, and well, really enjoyable as a hysteric psychopath in that movie. But here there’s this warmth to her performance as a caring friend too. Anyways, also the high schoolers actually were cast by actors who look a little more convincing agewise.
1/13/2022 AMC Madison Yards 8
Atlanta, GA
DCP
