The original movie of the horror series Scream was released in 1996, directed by Wes Craven. It was a great success, accumulating over $173 million worldwide with a budget of $14-15 million. Craven continued to make Scream movies until his passing in 2015. A different director made the sixth movie, and a third director is directing the Scream 7 movie, coming out this February. Many people dislike how long the series is becoming and feel it is repetitive. However, some fans still believe in the series and think it will be a good movie.
The Scream series has been popular among horror movies for a long time, but the series’ supposed repetitiveness in the long series has caused a massive loss of fans. Some current fans are excited by Neve Campbell’s return as the protagonist, and some fans want the series to end to not harm its reputation.
The plot of a movie holds everything together. A bad plot will ruin a movie, and a good plot might save it from the repercussions of other aspects, like CGI or acting, being bad. Plot twists in a movie are often drastic and can make a movie good.
“I think that depending on what direction they go in, it could still be interesting. But from seeing the movies currently, it’s very repetitive. So, I’d say like from the direction they’re going in right now, not really,” Isabella Carty (10) said.
Scares in horror movies can mean many different things. It can include jumpscares, sustained anticipation and brutal scares. Anticipation is a very common tactic in Scream movies. An example is the phone call scenes in Scream, which are moments when you know something is going to happen, but you don’t know what. Many people think those are the best kind of scares.
“Having adrenaline for not knowing what’s coming next is the scariest,” Chloe Crisler (12) said.
Some movie series can go on and on with sequels for a long time, with the popularity, acting and quality of the original films increasing the likelihood of more and more sequels. Hayden Williams (9) believes that the genre of a movie affects how long a movie can keep releasing sequels for.
“It depends on the movie. Like Iron Man could go for a bit. Scream, I don’t know about that so much. But it also depends on the genre and what type of movie it is,” Williams (9) said.
Familiarity with previous movies in a series affects how much you understand or enjoy a new installment, the amount depending on how many sequels there are.
“I think that being familiar with the old movies is going to help you understand the new movies better,” Ady Klosterman (11) said.
In some horror movies, shock value is the scariest thing about a movie. An example of shock value being scary is brutality. Brutality can be scary because it grosses some people out, making them fearful. Jude Webster (9) believes movies used to be scary because of shock value.
“Most of the time now it’s a story and you’re trying to build something up and it normally flops because not too many people can do a good horror movie story. I feel like in the past it was more based on shock value, like Terrifier,” Webster (9) said.
Many movies can easily become boring due to repetitiveness in sequels. Too many sequels makes that repetitiveness increase, then the reputation of the series can be ruined, because fans won’t like the unchanging plot.
“I don’t think it can [stay popular] because over time people are just gonna think they’re adding on to stuff. It’s just gonna be more boring and boring until it just becomes unwatchable,” Williams (9) said.
Though Scream has supposedly been very repetitive, many fans are still looking forward to the seventh movie. Some fans believe the seventh movie will save the series and will be a great movie due to the new director.
