5CREAMS

5CREAMS is a 2018 American horror slasher film and the fifth and final installment of the Scream movie franchise. The film stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Bella Thorne, Alexandra Shipp, Graham Phillips, Nick Robinson, Patrick Dempsey, Matthew Lillard, Kodi Smith McPhee, Kaley Cuoco Sweeting, Joey King, KJ Apa, Bailee Madison, Chloe Grace Moretz, James Ransone, Olivia DeJonge, Austin Nichols, Judy Greer, Darce Montgomery, Portia de Rossi and Rebecca Gayheart.

The film was directed by Adam Wingard and written by Kevin Williamson. The film was released on May 4, 2018 to favorable reviews and was a box office smash with critics calling it a return to form for the series and Dimension Films distributes it.

Plot

The film opens up on the ending of the first film. In 1996, Stu Macher's corpse is loaded into an ambulance on the way to the morgue. At the morgue, a medical examiner examines Stu's corpse until an unknown figure suddenly enters the room and slashes the examiner's throat with a scalpel and stabs him to death. The assailant then steals Stu's corpse and then robs the examiner of his clothes before leaving the room.  

Twenty years later in 2016, Lois Kline and Murphy Carter from the second film return to their condo after their Windsor University reunion. They discuss about Stab becoming a tv series until Murphy's phone starts to ring. She answers her phone to discover Ghostface threatening her but she brushes it off as a prank call and hangs up. She and Lois decide to watch Stab as Lois goes to the garage to get a drink. As the movie starts, Ghostface calls Murphy again and a simple conversation begins about Stab. When Murphy brings up the upcoming Stab television series, Ghostface replies by saying that they're doing the pilot on location. A confused Murphy asks him what did he meant by that but Ghostface tells her to go to the garage to see what he meant.  

When Murphy gets to the garage, she finds it soaked in blood with broken beer bottles all over the floor. A scared Murphy slowly walks over to the fridge and opens it to find Lois's gutted corpse inside. Murphy screams in terror and runs back into the condo where she is forced to play trivia questions about horror tv shows. When getting a question on The Walking Dead wrong, Murphy is then chased throughout the condo until she hides in a closet. Murphy then attempts to call the police but while doing so, another Ghostface appears behind her and stabs her in the back, causing her to fall out of the closet.  

An injured Murphy tries to flee the bedroom but the real Ghostface appears and stabs her in the stomach and neck. As Murphy lies on the floor dying, the two Ghostfaces proceed to viciously stab her to death and eventually gutting her.      

The next day, Sidney Prescott has moved on from the 2010 Woodsboro Murders caused by her cousin Jill Roberts and is engaged to Tim Wright, a famous novelist who has a rebellious foster daughter, Cassie Lauren. Dewey Riley and his wife Gale are on the verge of a divorce and are not getting along like they used to. It wasn't long until the news of the deaths of Lois and Murphy hits Woodsboro and a police investigation begins.      

At Woodsboro High School, Cassie begins her first day making friends like Sean Derrickson, Claire Warren, Jessica James, Aaron Taylor, Terry Forbes, Stephanie Decker, Sadie Errickson and Camden Warner. As the kids discuss last night's murders at the school fountain, Cassie gets entranced by the school's popular quarterback, Ronnie Bennett. Back at home, Dewey and his new deputy, Erin Hicks who is the sister of the recently deceased Judy Hicks are investigating the murders of Lois and Murphy with Dewey hinting that there might be two killers doing a new string of murders while Deputy David Morris thinks that Jill Roberts is still alive and is hiring accomplices to do the murders which worries Sidney since the recent deaths happen to fall on the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Woodsboro murders.      

Meanwhile, a series of terrifying events unfold in one night as Sadie, Terry and Camden get threatening phone calls from Ghostface at Sadie's house which results in their deaths. Camden gets his throat slashed as they attempt to leave the house to get help and Terry and Sadie get involved in a car crash instigated by Ghostface who stabs Sadie to death before car crashes into a tree, mortally injuring Terry before being stabbed in the forehead by Ghostface. This kills Terry and Ghostface exits the car before it blows up in a fiery explosion.      

Later that evening, Cassie visits the video store to see Claire working as an employee. Claire then informs her that Randy Meeks used to work at the store and is reinventing the store. As the girls talk, they bump into Kendall Morris, the sister of Olivia Morris. As they console Kendall for Olivia's death that happened 6 years ago, Cassie receives a threatening call from Ghostface who proceeds to stalk and chase the girls throughout the store. Cassie, Claire and Kendall hide in the store room and finds a window to escape. As the girls climb out the window, Ghostface breaks into the store room and brutally kills Claire by stabbing and gutting her as Kendall and Cassie escape the store room.      

As the girls run out of the alley, they run into Gale who takes them back to Sidney's where Hicks and Morris put them and their friends who stopped by to visit under protection. When a tearful Cassie talks about how Claire died, Sean brings up the rules of an alternative sequel:      

1. The film has to ignore unnecessary sequels that the franchise.      
2. The film has to pick up where the first film left off while retconing the first film's ending to break new ground for originality.      
3. Any new or old characters have to die while staying true to the source material and an old villain might return for revenge.      
4. The old rules still apply.      

As Sean explains the rules, Sidney overhears the conversation and fears that someone from the past is haunting the present and gets a threatening call from Ghostface who then tells her to come to the door and finds a news paper article dated May 14th, 1996. That date was the day of Maureen Prescott's murder and the disappearance of Stu Macher's corpse.

At the same time, Morris and Hicks are investigating crimes scenes of Sadie's house and the video store with Hicks finding Claire's disemboweled corpse crucified on the wall of the video store in a similar fashion to Derek Feldman's corpse from Scream 2. Above Claire's body is a message written in blood saying, "Surprise Sidney" which shocks Hicks to the point where she realizes that the killer is after Sidney.

Hicks is called to the school by an unknown source to discover that the school's fountain is completely destroyed and Camden's body which disappeared from Sadie's house is propped up against the debris in a similar fashion to Steven Orth's corpse from the first film. The source that called her is none other than Mark Kincaid who was informed of the murders of Lois and Murphy and was brought in to investigate the incidents.

The next morning, the school was shut down due to the murders and the fountain's destruction, much to the relief of students. Meanwhile, Dewey and Gale have a heated argument about the investigation bringing Dewey to the boiling point, insulting her about writing another book. This causes her to storm out of their house. Around the same time, Sidney comes face to face with Woodsboro alumni Sharron Blake who was a former queen bee at the school and had a rivalry with Tatum Riley. As Sharron and Sidney call a truce for their rivalry years ago, Sidney gets a call from Ghostface who threatens to finish what he started back in 1996 by killing Cassie and her friends. This alarms Sidney and Sharron who then joins the investigation of the murders.

At Kendall's house, Morris looks into Stu's disappearance even further and is shocked to find out that a morgue attendant was murdered and robbed of his clothes by someone who stole the body. After he reports it to Dewey, Morris is swiftly attacked by Ghostface and is incapacitated. Ghostface then attempts to kill Kendall who witnesses her uncle's attack but she gets away with a slashed arm. Kendall calls Dewey who comes to her aid only for Morris to be thrown from the bedroom window to his death, leaving Kendall devastated.

Meanwhile, Cassie and the kids discuss the events of last night at the coffee shop with Jessica announcing that she will throw a memorial party at her house to which Cassie reluctantly agrees to go after a chance encounter with Ronnie when he discusses the disappearance of Stu Macher's body back in 1996. Back at the house, Dewey, Sidney, Kendall, Sharron, Tim, Hicks and Mark have found out about the report Morris gave them before he got killed which upsets Sidney to the point where she suspects that Stu is still alive.

To add more distress to the tension, Hicks brings up an unsolved and painful crime committed six years ago at the Woodsboro hospital where someone raped and killed her sister, Judy Hicks. A shaken and inconsolable Kendall tells the group that Jessica is throwing a memorial party at her house to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Woodsboro massacre.

Sidney then realizes that the killer is planning to make his move at the party and is shocked that Jessica's house used to be Casey Becker's house. The group then realizes that the killer may try to finish what he started back in 1996 and decides to investigate the party. As they leave for Jessica's house, Sidney and Mark rekindle their relationship after a heartfelt talk much to Tim's jealousy. Meanwhile, a rogue Gale then visits Sean's house to join him for Jessica's memorial party but Sean gets a threatening call from Ghostface who then attacks them. During the chase, Ghostface knocks out Gale and kills Sean in a more grislier fashion of Tatum's death by breaking his back with the garage door crushing it twice and stabbing him through the mouth. After killing Sean, Ghostface then kidnaps an unconscious Gale.

That night, Sidney, Cassie, Kendall, and the others make it to the party where they begin to investigate the party as the kids minus Kendall participate in the festivities. During the investigation, Kendall tearfully reveals to Sidney that she is the sister of Olivia Morris and was devastated when she found out that her sister was killed during the 2010 Woodsboro Massacre. Sidney then tells the sobbing Kendall that she tried to save her but was too late to do so and apoligizes for her failure to which Kendall forgives her.

Meanwhile, Stephanie and Aaron get high in the master bedroom and begin to have doggy style sex but are interrupted by Ghostface who stabs Aaron through the throat and back multiple times, killing him as Stephanie watches in horror. A chase then ensues between Stephanie and Ghostface as she locks herself the attic. Stephanie then finds a window and climbs out to see her friends partying in the pool. As she screams for help, Ghostface breaks into the attic and drags Stephanie back into the window and kills her.

Back at the party, Cassie tries to find Sidney but runs into Ronnie who dances with her during a slow song, this leads them into having sex in Jessica's room. Jessica gets a call informing her that Sean was found gutted at the school's football field hung from the goal post much like Principal Himbry from the first film. When Jessica tells the partygoers this, they are all drawn away to the school, leaving only Jessica, Cassie, Ronnie, Mark, Sidney, Sharron, Tim and Dewey remaining at the house. Jessica is furious at the fact that everyone left to see Sean's body and cools off in the pool.

Back upstairs, Tim and Mark get in a heated fight over Sidney which results in an explosive brawl which was broken up by Dewey who then tells Mark to leave while Sidney gets angry with Tim and breaks off the engagement to be with Mark. Back in Jessica's room, Cassie and Ronnie finish having sex until Sharron accidentally walks in on them. Before Sharron can close the door, Ghostface appears behind her and stabs her in the shoulder as Ronnie and Cassie get dressed. As Sharron was about to be stabbed in the head by Ghostface, Ronnie shields himself in front of her and is stabbed deeply in the heart, killing him.

Sharron and Cassie flee to find Sidney but finds Aaron's dead body in the master bedroom and escape into the attic where they attempt to climb out the window but Ghostface catches up to them and stabs Sharron to death, causing Cassie to fall into the pool where Jessica is bathing. As an angry Jessica yells at Cassie for scaring her but Cassie warns her of the killers presence and the two girls exit the pool to find Dewey. As they head into the house, the girls discover Stephanie's disemboweled corpse hanging from a tree a few feet away causing both Jessica and Cassie to scream in terror.

Back in the house, Sidney tries to calm Mark down but he angrily tells her why didn't she tell him that she was engaged with Sidney stated that she didn't want to hurt him like before. As Mark spoke, the screams of Jessica and Cassie are heard from outside, which alerts Sidney and Mark and they come to their rescue. Meanwhile, Kendall finds Ronnie's dead body and tries to find Dewey for help but is chased by Ghostface who then kidnaps her.

Back outside, Sidney and Mark find Cassie and Jessica screaming at Stephanie's hung corpse with Sidney recognizes the tree as the same one that Casey was hung from 20 years ago. As the head back in to warn Dewey, two Ghostfaces appear and severely wound Mark, forcing Cassie, Sidney and Jessica to flee into the house with the killers hot in pursuit. As the three women head up the stairs, one of the killers slashes Jessica across the back and is dragged away only to be stabbed to death with Cassie and Sidney looking on in horror.

Cassie and Sidney flee upstairs to find Dewey inspecting Sharron's body which fell from the attic. As Sidney explains the situation to Dewey, Sharron (who apparently survived her attack) suddenly springs up and stabs him in the back several times, killing him and revealing her to be the killer. She then pursues Sidney and Cassie to the patio doors to find Hicks, Mark, Kendall and Gale tied to chairs with tape with two Ghostfaces ambushing them, with one holding Cassie at knife point and the other stabs Sidney when she tries to save her.

The Ghostface that stabbed her unmasks himself as Tim and the other killer unmasks himself as none other than Stu Macher who survived the 1996 Woodsboro massacre. They reveal their motives to a betrayed Sidney with Tim revealing in a flashback sequence that took place a couple days after the events of Scream 4 where Judy Hicks leaves the hospital after visiting Sidney. Upon returning to her squad car, she hears noises in an alley near the hospital and investigates only for Tim to brutally rape and kill her with Stu's help.

An enraged Hicks breaks out of her binds and tries to shoot him but Tim knocks her out. Stu explains his motive as revenge for what she did to him in the climax of the first film and he still had a thing for her, much to Mark's disgust.

Sharron then reveals to Sidney that Roman Bridger wasn't the only one who started the events to the first three films. She played her part in the massacre back in 1996 by killing Steven Orth for dumping her for Casey Becker and rejecting her sexual advances when she tied him to the chair and gutted Casey out of fury for stealing him away from her. She then tells Sidney that she was the one who attacked her in the bathroom at the school and stayed at the school to kill Himby once all of the student have left for Stu's party. She ended up meeting Roman a year after the murders and they got married before the events of Scream 2.

Once Sidney triumphed over Mickey Altieri and Debbie Loomis, Sharron and Roman took matters into their own hands and started a massacre of their own in Hollywood setting up the events of Scream 3. Their plan once again backfires resulting in Roman's death which left Sharron devastated. At that time, she was pregnant with Roman's baby at the time of the aftermath of the events of Scream 3 and gave it up for adoption once she gave birth to a girl. She then admitted that before she met Roman, she rescued Stu from the morgue and discovered his was still alive.

Thoughts of revenge consumed Sharron for a long time until she reunites with Stu to start a new string of murders in Woodsboro by motivating Jill Roberts to kill Sidney for killing Roman and makes her jealous for the fame she gained due to the murders and her book Out Of Darkness, setting off the events of Scream 4. When Sidney killed Jill, Sharron and Stu along with Tim took matters into their hands and plot to kill Sidney and reunite with Sharron's long lost daughter who is none other than Cassie.

Cast

Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott

David Arquette as Dewey Riley

Courteney Cox as Gale Riley

Chloe Grace Moretz as Kendall Morris

Bailee Madison as Cassie Lauren

Kodi Smith McPhee as Sean Derrickson

Austin Nichols as Tim Wright

James Ransone as Deputy David Morris

Darce Montgomery as Camden Warner

Graham Phillips as Terry Forbes

KJ Apa as Ronnie Bennett

Nick Robinson as Aaron Taylor

Patrick Dempsey as Mark Kincaid

Bella Thorne as Jessica James

Judy Greer as Sharron Blake

Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher

Kaley Cuoco Sweeting as Deputy Erin Hicks

Alexandra Shipp as Stephanie Decker

Olivia DeJonge as Sadie Erickson

Joey King as Claire Warren

Portia de Rossi as Murphy Carter

Rebecca Gayheart as Lois Kline