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Scream 6 and 65
Mar. 19th, 2023 04:00 pmI saw two movies in theater this weekend, which is something I did a lot more frequently pre-pandemic. Yesterday I saw Scream 6 with a friend (with whom I saw last year's Scream in theaters and watched Scream 4 for the first time on streaming). I'd been super excited for it because good grief do I love this franchise, but while actually watching it I felt disengaged and vaguely disappointed. It's an adequate entry in the franchise, but there's no escaping the fact that this is just a franchise now, with all of the accompanying mediocrity you inevitably get when you churn out one installment a year. The writing was flat, the jokes weren't funny, and except for one scene that had already been played out in trailers, the Ghostface scenes were fairly boring. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega are good in their roles, and I appreciate the sister dynamic, but it's hard to care about any of the other new characters, which makes their deaths (or survivals) pretty meaningless. There's no comparison to poor Tatum in the first movie, whose horrific death feels like an actual blow because of how good of a friend she is to Sidney.
To an extent, I don't think there's much the Scream franchise can do at this point to satisfy older fans because you can't compete with the nostalgia factor of the OG (especially without Neve Campbell!). I'm sure #6 was much more fun for new fans who were introduced to the franchise last year. Seeing 65 today in comparison made me realize that since you can't compete with nostalgia and since we're not going to get a sequel with Sidney, Gail, and Dewey, what I really want is actually a Scream reboot with the same vibes. Which is exactly what 65 gave me today.
65 is a silly movie in which Adam Driver plays an alien who crash lands on Earth 65 million years ago and has to battle dinosaurs in his quest to reach an escape pod with the only other survivor, a young girl who lost her parents. Is it a ridiculous movie with mediocre writing? Absolutely. Did it give me very similar vibes as the OG Jurassic Park in terms of appealing acting and great dinosaur jump scares? Absolutely. Did it manage to do this way better than last year's Jurassic World Dominion, even with Laura Dern and Sam Neill? Abso-fucking-lutely!
In that sense, 65 was far more satisfying than Scream 6. Both were mediocre, but one had all of the baggage of a franchise while the other had all of the vibes of a franchise without the baggage (plus Adam Driver!). It makes me understand a little better why I gravitated toward the Scream TV show a few years ago, even though it was not, objectively, a good show. It had enough similarities to the OG Scream to hit that nostalgia factor, but the characters, unlike in Scream 6, had no idea that they were in a franchise.
To an extent, I don't think there's much the Scream franchise can do at this point to satisfy older fans because you can't compete with the nostalgia factor of the OG (especially without Neve Campbell!). I'm sure #6 was much more fun for new fans who were introduced to the franchise last year. Seeing 65 today in comparison made me realize that since you can't compete with nostalgia and since we're not going to get a sequel with Sidney, Gail, and Dewey, what I really want is actually a Scream reboot with the same vibes. Which is exactly what 65 gave me today.
65 is a silly movie in which Adam Driver plays an alien who crash lands on Earth 65 million years ago and has to battle dinosaurs in his quest to reach an escape pod with the only other survivor, a young girl who lost her parents. Is it a ridiculous movie with mediocre writing? Absolutely. Did it give me very similar vibes as the OG Jurassic Park in terms of appealing acting and great dinosaur jump scares? Absolutely. Did it manage to do this way better than last year's Jurassic World Dominion, even with Laura Dern and Sam Neill? Abso-fucking-lutely!
In that sense, 65 was far more satisfying than Scream 6. Both were mediocre, but one had all of the baggage of a franchise while the other had all of the vibes of a franchise without the baggage (plus Adam Driver!). It makes me understand a little better why I gravitated toward the Scream TV show a few years ago, even though it was not, objectively, a good show. It had enough similarities to the OG Scream to hit that nostalgia factor, but the characters, unlike in Scream 6, had no idea that they were in a franchise.
