It’s a pretty cliché setup on paper: a girl, home alone, answers the phone to an unknown caller. They strike up a conversation, and the topic drifts to scary movies. As if the robotic sounding voice on the other end isn’t already a bad sign, the girl quickly realizes that she’s in danger and is forced to play a sadistic game of horror movie trivia for her life before getting attacked. “Scream” could’ve very easily delved into predictability, but its opening sequence exemplifies everything that’s so brilliant about the franchise: the sharp writing, the pop culture references and horror movie tropes that are woven into it and most importantly, the perverse brutality and cruelty that director Wes Craven brought to the kills. These three factors should make it unsurprising that the franchise has been rebooted yet again; our zeitgeist is dominated by nostalgic references and the level of violence portrayed on the screen hits a limit that’s always being pushed, so it’s shocking that it took this long to begin with.

This time around, the girl getting attacked is Tara (Jenna Ortega), and her assault brings her sister Sara (Melissa Barrera) and her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) back to Woodsboro. After getting reacquainted with her group of friends—Chad (Mason Gooding), his sister Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Amber (Mikey Madison), Wes (Dylan Minnette), and Liv (Sonia Ben Ammar)—the characters start to go over the most important part of any “Scream” film: the rules, and specifically the rules of “requels,” sequels that aim to retcon the previous films of a franchise. After Sam and Richie visit a now retired Dewey (David Arquette), he tells Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Gale (Courtney Cox) of Ghostface’s reappearance. The search for the killer begins, secrets are revealed and the past comes back in more ways than one.

There’s a very important rule, if you will, to watching any of the “Scream” sequels: just go in with lower expectations. The original “Scream” is the greatest horror-comedy bar none, and while the sequels are pretty great, the fact that they’re descendants of an insurmountable masterpiece isn’t just an unfortunate aspect but often a visible nag. There were plenty of moments in this new “Scream” where this was all I could think about, but to act like this is similar to other cash grab reboots would be ignoring that this is a part of the “Scream” franchise, which, even without the presence of Wes Craven, automatically means that it’s above most modern horror films. For one, as someone who’s seen the original so many times that I could probably quote whole scenes of it, it’s refreshing to watch one of these and have no clue who’s behind the Ghostface mask, and especially because of how much fun “Scream” has in toying with the viewer. Every character is given a moment that makes you suspect them in equal measure, which makes the eventual reveal that much more surprising.

This is all standard for the franchise, but “Scream” sets its modern mark straight from its incredible new rendition of the legendary opening scene, where instead of discussing classics like “Friday the 13th,” Tara instead talks about her interest in “elevated horror” films like “The Babadook.” But outside of references to horror canon, the film’s main target is none other than the fans. In the “Scream” universe, the longest running metatextual gag is “Stab,” a film series based off of the Ghostface killings in the films, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this latest entry takes a stab (*ba dum tss*) at fandoms. All of the talk in the film about requels—especially a great joke about the latest “Stab” film being ruined by “the Knives Out guy,” a reference to “The Last Jedi”’s divisive reception—is fittingly satirical and self-referential, and it could’ve easily been a corny mess if it weren’t for the terrific ensemble cast. Everyone is clearly having a lot of fun with the material, and it makes the humor mostly charming. The clear standout, though, is Jenna Ortega; if there were anyone worthy of being a scream queen in this day and age, it’s her.

Of course, the meta stuff is just half of the appeal of “Scream.” Like any slasher, there will immediately be an audience there just for the titular slashing, and the plentiful amounts of gore will definitely scratch a horror junkie’s itch, but what makes the moments of extreme bloodshed as impactful as they are is the care that the film takes to show how it affects our characters. In the first film, Sidney’s character is dealing with the trauma of having lost her mother and now being hunted by a serial killer, and her role in this film as a figure that guides Sam and the other characters through their harrowing situation, albeit rather small, is executed well—one of the film’s best moments comes at its end, when Sam asks “Am I gonna be okay?” to which Sidney pauses before replying “Eventually.”

There will be people who think that “Scream” is an unnecessary film, and while it might not be up there with other horror reboots like the 2018 “Halloween,” (to be fair, not much is) it’s hard for me to not have a good time with a “Scream” film. More importantly, though, it’s great to see that the franchise still has potential after over 25 years since its inception and the death of Wes Craven. If this is the final film, I’d be okay with this note that it ends on, although I doubt it’ll be too long before we get another one; to quote Stu in the original: “Let’s face it, these days, you gotta have a sequel!”

Overall rating: 79/100