Here’s Why Scream Should Change Directors for Every Sequel
The Big Picture Last week, word came down that the Scream franchise will undergo a major shakeup behind the camera. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking team behind Scream and Scream VI are out.
Writer/director Christopher Landon, the man who made Freaky and -- more importantly -- the excellent Happy Death Day, is in and will presumably be handling scripting and directing duties for the series' upcoming seventh installment. It's exciting news because Landon is a crafty horror filmmaker who can capably handle both the scary stuff and the series' more comic, self-aware elements. But his hiring is also compelling for another reason: As a newcomer to the series, Landon will be bringing a fresh point of view to Scream's meta, genre-referencing universe, and you'd have to assume he's working off an idea for the series that he's stoked about. And that got me thinking: Wouldn't it be great if that's what we got with every Scream sequel from here on out? Wouldn't it be thrilling if every installment from this point forward brought in a new filmmaker or filmmaking team who is stoked to put their stamp on and shake up the quarter-century-old franchise?The 'Scream' Franchise Has Done Sequels Well This is not to criticize those that have come before. Scream started out as director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson's baby. Craven, a veritable horror master, helmed the franchise's first four installments while Williamson scripted the first two and wrote early drafts for the next two. The original, of course, remains one of horror's defining achievements, while Scream 2 and 4 are good case studies of how to successfully put together a sequel. But Scream 4 didn't fare too well at the box office, Craven died in 2015, and Williamson seems content to only stay with the franchise in an executive-producing capacity. So when it came time to partially reboot the series in 2022, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett , and their writing team of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, stepped in to revive the series for a new generation. And they did a pretty great job of it, as Scream featured a likable batch of new characters, found fun ways to incorporate the legacy characters, and gave the world a pair of fucked-up new Ghostfaces who were forged in the embers of Reddit and Twitter. This one was a hit, so it wasn't surprising that both directors and both writers were brought back for Scream VI, which had a killer opening scene and some nifty chase sequences but ultimately didn't hold together nearly as well as the previous sequel. It's like Bettinelli-Olpin, Gillett, and company had an amazing idea for what they wanted their version of Scream to be and made a strong sequel out of it, but once it was a hit and they had to try to do it again, the inspiration well just wasn't as nearly as deep. New Filmmakers Could Keep 'Scream' Fresh The drop-off in quality from one film to the next is understandable, and it stands as a strong argument for turning each new Scream sequel over to a new team. While Hollywood typically likes to keep some consistency behind the scenes when a franchise is a big hit and churning out sequel after sequel, there have been instances where mixing it up has led to a more interesting franchise. For example, the first five Mission: Impossible movies all had a different director, giving each of them their own signature style and feel, at least until Mission 5 director Christopher McQuarrie ended up sticking around to become the de facto franchise ringleader. And after Christopher Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter films, a revolving door of directors began passing through Hogwarts until David Yates stayed on past film five to close out the series. One could argue that both of those series were able to sustain a sense of surprise and excitement because of the unique vision each new filmmaker brought with them when it was their turn to contribute to the whole. Scream could benefit from a similar system. This is especially true because the older the series gets, the less important its legacy characters are to the story. David Arquette's Dewey is dead. Neve Campbell's Sidney sat the last movie out, which didn't do much to diminish the film's box-office returns. Scream established a new cast of ongoing characters, including Melissa Barrera's Sam and Jenna Ortega's Tara, and while they're an affable bunch, I'm not sure sequel-spanning characters arcs should be the cornerstone of the franchise at this point., especially when audiences are rejecting the same old faces at the box office this summer. 'Scream' Needs New Ideas to Thrive At this point, what makes a Scream film work isn't the characters — it's the big idea each filmmaking team chooses to explore through Ghostface's motivations. Scream 4 holds up because it's about finding a shortcut to fame in the Internet age. Scream took a hard look at fandoms and the toxicity they can breed. Sure, it'll be nice if Campbell returns to the fold, and I assume Ortega's star is now bright enough that the series will hold onto her for as long as it can. But those things won't matter if there's not a current and cutting idea serving as the driving force behind the next sequel. And the one after that. And the one after that. This is why it's time to set some rules. Rule #1: Let's bring in new filmmakers, whether a single writer/director or a director with his own writing partner or partners, for each new Scream movie from this point forward. And let's mix it up! Let's get some women and people of color in charge of these things. Diversity is only going to help here. Rule #2: When you hire a filmmaker, tell them to pour everything they have into a single film and not to worry about setting up future installments. Yeah, I know cinematic universes are the order of the day now , but I don't think this franchise makes for a good fit with a large, expansive world. Rule #3: You can bring back past cast members, but have them serve the story, not the other way around. Again, when Williamson wrote the original Scream nearly three decades ago, it was the idea behind it — what if the teens being stalked by the slasher were well-versed in slasher movies? — that made it a genre-elevating smash. The best of the subsequent sequels have followed that lead. It's time to make that kind of idea-first mentality the priority going forward. And there's no better way to do that than by bringing in brand-new filmmakers to guide each new installment from here on out.
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