Scream 5 First Look: Ghostface, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette Join New Faces to the Franchise

Scream 5 is currently gearing up for its release on Jan. 14, 2022 and today EW revealed the first look at the latest sequel. The directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett were lucky enough to get the stars of the first four films, after the death of franchise creator Wes Craven‘s death. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are all back in their respective rolls as Sidney, Gale, and Dewey in the fifth Scream movie, which is simply entitled Scream.

Securing the long time stars was important to the new filmmakers, firstly they wanted to bring back the die hard horror fans and their version of the script prominently featured all the keys actors. According to EW the film is “about a new killer who puts on the Ghostface mask and begins targeting teenagers to resurrect secrets from Woodsboro’s corpse-filled past.”

“It was a wildly anxiety-producing situation,” Gillett told EW, “they were not disposable roles; they were very, very important and the heartbeat of what was great about the script. We couldn’t imagine the movie without any of them and so not having that perfectly locked-in right off the bat was definitely scary.”

Scream 5 — Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers in ‘Scream’ (2022)
| CREDIT: BROWNIE HARRIS/PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SPYGLASS MEDIA GROUP

“I genuinely was in two minds,” says Campbell. “The idea of making these films without Wes Craven seemed challenging to me. I loved the man very much. But Matt and Tyler wrote me a letter, speaking of their appreciation and great respect for Wes Craven, and speaking of the fact that the very reason that they are directors today was because of these movies and because of Wes, and that meant a great deal to me.”

In addition to the reassurance from the filmmakers, the actors were also happy to see that Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original 1996 Scream movie and two of the sequels, was also involved in the new project. “Knowing that Kevin Williamson was an executive producer on it set me at ease,” says Arquette. “He really knows the tone. I mean, he set the whole world up!”

They shot the new sequel in Wilmington, N.C. last fall and Campbell, Cox, and Arquette were joined by Marley Shelton, who played Deputy Judy Hicks in Scream 4. They also joined a bunch of new franchise faces as well including Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Jack Quaid, and Melissa Barrera.

While the film is a new story with new faces, Campbell, Cox, and Arquette, had the task of making a Scream film without without Craven, who died of a brain tumor in 2015. “From the second I walked on the set, I felt extremely emotional and felt a real missing and longing for him,” says Cox. “He had such [a] special, kind, and caring quality about him, not to mention his incredible talent as a filmmaker. I looked up to Wes immensely professionally but also as a friend. I feel Wes would be so happy with the way Matt and Tyler have rebooted this franchise.”

“I’m not overly religious or anything, but I definitely was speaking to him, praying about it,” says Arquette. “It brought back a ton of memories of Wes, and that was emotional, you know, but it was beautiful. There were little signs. There were certain takes where the wind would blow, and, I don’t know, I just felt his energy.”

The Scream movies known for it’s being a slasher film while discussing the slasher genre. Which is why Wes Craven‘s films worked so well. The mind that created Freddy Kruger gave us a film that explained all the slasher rules and kept us guessing on the killer until the last act. Director Gillett reveals they kept the cast members in the dark about important plot details as long as possible.

“We were really careful to protect the big reveal of the movie,” says Gillett. “We went as far as to withhold those moments in the script from the actors. We wanted everybody involved, to the degree that we could, to be a part of the whodunit. Obviously, you get to a point in the shoot where you have to let the cat out of the bag, but we went pretty far into prep and into production with a surprising amount of secrecy maintained.”

Even now, there haven’t been many plot details leaked which reveals how closely those secrets were guarded. However, Arquette did want one spoiler out there: “Dewey’s had a rough life of it, and in the fourth Scream, they wanted me to get rid of his limp,” he says. “But he’s got the limp back; I can give you that much!”

You can check out more first look photos of Scream below and check back tomorrow for when the trailer drops! As always be sue to follow ScaryNerd for all things horror, sci-fi and more. Scream will be released on January 14, 2022.