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In the first Scream, Jamie Kennedy’s Randy Meeks warned Sidney Prescott, “This is the moment when the supposedly dead killer comes back to life, for one last scare.” And though the final girl assured us it wouldn’t happen in her movie, the franchise refuses to die. The series has endured, cranking out rather high-caliber sequels since 1996 (except for part 3. We don’t talk about that one or Roman). But how long can the franchise keep refreshing itself and stay relevant? According to the original film’s writer, Kevin Williamson, potentially forever.
While attending the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Kevin Williamson sat down for an interview with Collider to discuss his latest horror film, Sick. Talk then turned to the beloved franchise he helped launch with horror icon Wes Craven. The screenwriter had this to say when asked if the series could go on forever:
Yes. At first, I might have thought the opposite of that, but now since I’ve been proven wrong repeatedly, and this last Scream was such a pleasure — I think one of the wonderful things about Scream is there’s a different killer in every film, whereas in most, you know, Halloween and Friday [the 13th], there’s Jason, there’s Michael, there’s Freddy; they don’t go away. Ghostface changes with every movie and so we have an opportunity to change the motive and change the story, and we can always twist and turn it. It was meant to be sort of a game-changer all along. So the trick is, how do we keep the game changing? And I think this new team that I’m working with [is] awesome. They’re absolutely amazing. They’re wonderful human beings. They’re talented, and it’s just been a pleasure to be a part of this new regime.
Kevin Williamson is right. Ghostface’s ability to change from movie to movie allows the series a sort of freedom to evolve and adapt over time in a way that other slashers don’t have the space to do. Halloween has had to reboot its timeline no less than three times to refresh the franchise, shake off decades worth of bad sequels and justify the return of Michael Myers to keep fans interested — and the series profitable. Halloween Ends (the thirteenth film in the series) had to take some big and polarizing swings to tell a new story. But the Scream franchise has positioned itself to continue for as long as fans are willing to keep showing up in theaters to see masked iller taunt teens, without having to reset any timelines.
Besides its often meta-commentary, the whodunit mystery aspect of the films also sets the Scream franchise apart from other movies in its genre. Whereas other slashers rely on filmmakers concocting convoluted reasons to revive their movie’s big bad, often getting wilder and more paranormal with each outing, this series changes the identity of the iconic Ghostface mask in every installment. With an ever-changing villain, the horror juggernaut has been able to stay relatively fresh, making it one of the best horror movie series of all time. This year saw the release of the critically well-received fifth slasher installment, with the sixth movie already greenlit and filmed.
Let’s hope Kevin Williamson remains as “thrilled” with the series as he was working on the fifth installment. It’s always awesome to see the creator still having an active hand in his creation.
As of right now, the are some quick things we know about Scream 6, which you can catch in theaters on March 31, 2023. Fans might also be interested in CinemaBlend’s list of upcoming horror movies. And for all of your other film-going plans in the coming months, you can look at our 2022 movie release schedule.