There’s no denying that West Craven’s Scream is one of the most important horror movies ever made. Hitting theaters in 1996, the Neve Campbell-led film revitalized the dying 1990s horror genre with a terrifying whodunit slasher that took a self-aware, meta-textual approach. It ultimately launched a franchise that has since spanned 30 years, leading to the polarizing Scream 7, a movie that refocused the story on Sidney and her daughter Tatum following the Core Four-centered installments. As critics and general audiences remain divided on Scream 7, fans can now stream the best Scream movie since the original on Netflix.
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On April 10th, Netflix started streaming 2022’s Scream, one of the best sequels in the franchise. The movie marked the franchise’s first installment since 2011’s Scream 4 and the start of Spyglass Media Group’s ongoing franchise revival and is set 25 years after the events of the original film as a new Ghostface targets a group of teenagers connected to Woodsboro’s deadly past. As estranged sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter, along with her friend group, become the target of a new wave of killings, Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley return to uncover the meta-slasher mystery.
Scream (2022) Was a Near-Perfect Requel
Reviving a franchise from an 11-year dormancy is no easy feat, but Scream did a pretty great job of it. The movie managed to perfectly balance nostalgia with a new story, bringing back legacy characters to mentor a new cast and audience through a fresh wave of Woodsboro murders. At the same time, the movie retained the self-aware, suspenseful DNA of the 1996 original that made it so great, delivering the exact type of meta-commentary fans expect from the franchise. The film offered clever meta-commentary on modern horror fandom, social media, and even the trope of returning to the original source material, and it did so while delivering some of the most brutal kills the franchise had seen up to that point.
The franchise’s fifth installment absolutely succeeded in passing the torch to a new generation of characters and fans. The film earned widespread critic and audience praise, securing a ”Certified Fresh” 76% critic score and an even better 82% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the latter of which is the second-highest in the franchise. It was also a box office hit with a $138 million worldwide gross, ultimately securing the franchise’s future for three additional films, with Scream 8 officially in development, with Lilla and Nora Zuckerman writing, following the success of Scream 7.
Other Horror Movies Now on Netflix
Netflix has a pretty impressive horror catalog, and it’s getting a bit bigger in April. In addition to Scream, the streamer has already added the Idris Elba-led Beast and its own new shark-attack creature-feature horror film Thrash. Even more horror movies are set to arrive throughout the month, including A Quiet Place Part II on April 11th, Halloween Ends on April 13th, and 2025’s Him on April 19th.
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