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, Joey King, KJ Apa, Bailee Madison, Chloe Grace Moretz, James Ransone, Olivia DeJonge, Austin Nichols, Judy Greer, Darce Montgomery, Dylan Minnette and Ariel Winter.

The film takes place 6 years after Scream 4 on the 20th anniversary of the 1996 Woodsboro Massacre where another massacre conducted by Ghostface begins to take shape relying on the rules of direct horror film sequels. Survivors Sidney Prescott, Dewey Riley and Gale Riley are forced to face Ghostface one last time as more teenagers including Sidney's foster daughter get caught in the crossfire.

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, Stu's house is occupied by Candace Knight who is holding a movie marathon of Hostel with her boyfriend Max Blake until they get a call from Ghostface. Thinking that Ghostface was just another prank caller, he hangs up on him. Candace and Max begin a discussion on whether or not if Eli Roth would make a Hostel Part 4 but the conversation ends when Candace heads to the bathroom.  

While waiting for Candace to return, Max gets a threatening phone call from Ghostface but was pranked by Candace who is finishing up in the bathroom. When Max is about to yell at Candace for scaring him, he is suddenly cut off which concerns her. When she returns to the living room, she finds Max gone and gets a threatening call from Ghostface who tells her that Max should've hung up on him. The terrified Candace is put through trivia questions regarding the deaths in the first Stab film and when she answers a correct answer to Steven Orth's death, Ghostface orders her to the garage where Max is kept.  

Candace enters the garage and finds Max gutted and strapped to a chair in a similar fashion to Steven Orth's death in the first Scream, much to her horror. After refusing more trivia questions, Candace is chased through the house by Ghostface until she reaches the attic where she tries to escape through the same window that Sidney used in the first film.  

Ghostface bursts into the attic and bashes Candace's head through the window before stabbing her in the back. He then drags her out of the attic and throws her over the stair railing where she falls onto a glass table. A dying Candace tries to escape through the front door as she sees her parents pulling into the driveway. Ghostface catches up and closes the door to prevent her from escaping. He then stabs her several more times before throwing her head first into the television set, fatally electrocuting and killing her. Ghostface flees as Candace's parents enter the house to find it in shambles and their daughter dead in the living room, much to their horror.  

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 Candace and Max 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 Max and Candace 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 Candace and Max 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 apologizes 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 wanted to finish what he started back in 1996.

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. During the murders, Roman was having an affair with Angelina Tyler, who was actually an accomplice to their plan. To Sidney's horror, Sharron revealed that Angelina was actually her former best friend, Angie Crick who idolized Sidney and wanted her fame and fortune. Upon finding out about Roman's infidelity, Sharron killed Angie in a jealous rage. 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 he 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.

A shocked Cassie asks Sharron why would she be her daughter with the latter explaining that Roman was her father and Sharron herself didn't want her to be in her life. Sharron also explained that she targeted her and her friends to finish what she started in 1996 with Stu. Stu then tells Sidney that he still had a thing for her which Mark responds by breaking out of his binds and tackle him, setting off a brutal melee with the survivors against the killers.

Kendall breaks out of her binds and flees with Tim hot on her trail. They take their battle into the kitchen with Tim trying but failing to slash Kendall's throat with his bowie knife but Kendall disarms him with a frying pan and forces his hand in a garbage disposal, mangling it beyond recognition. Gale, who broke free from her bindings tries to assist Kendall only for her to be stabbed in the chest by Tim who uses his only hand. As he watches Gale bleed out, he attaches his hand to the stump of his handless arm. Now crazed, Tim chases Kendall all over the house until he corners her in the basement.

Sensing her best friend in danger, Cassie comes to her rescue with Stu and Sharron in hot pursuit but Mark shoots them in the back, giving Cassie time to escape and save Kendall. The adults settled their battle in the living room where Hicks regains consciousness and joins the fray. As she tries to fight Sharron, the latter shoots Hicks in the heart with a gun, seemingly killing her. Meanwhile, Mark and Sidney are still fighting with Stu who stabs Mark in the chest twice, mortally wounding him and angering Sidney to the point where she stabs him multiple times with a kitchen knife before shooting him in the head with Mark's gun, killing him for good.

Down in the basement, A crazed Tim attempts to murder a cornered Kendall only for Cassie to appear and tackle him. As they struggle, Tim stabs Cassie in the shoulder prompting Kendall to kick him in the face. This forces his knife to be torn out of his hand stump and Cassie's shoulder. Together, the girls hold Tim to the ground and Cassie grabs his knife and brutally stabs him multiple times before impaling him to the fusebox, electrocuting him to death and causing the power to go out leaving the house in darkness. Kendall thanks Cassie for saving her and tells her that Sidney should've done the same for Olivia. The two girls then become friends and Cassie tears the knife out of Tim's charred corpse to confront her psychotic biological mother for a final battle.

Back upstairs, Sharron is sadistically torturing Sidney by slashing at her until Cassie and Kendall appear to her aid. Sharron then attacks the girls by stabbing Kendall in the stomach, wounding her. Cassie then stabs Sharron in the chest multiple times, this nearly kills her as she pleads her daughter to stop. Sharron then tells Cassie that she has Roman's eyes and orders her to kill Sidney. Seemingly obeying the task, Cassie obeys her but she betrays Sharron by slashing her throat, killing her before a badly injured Sidney shoots her in the head.

By dawn, police and ambulances approach the carnage with the survivors being loaded into ambulances. Sidney is then devastated to know that Dewey and Gale had died from their wounds and that Mark was found in critical condition. Hick, who survived by wearing a bulletproof vest, tells Sidney that Tim wasn't a novelist but he was the adopted brother of Billy Loomis, much to Sidney's shock.

At the hospital, Cassie and Sidney finally have a heart to heart talk where Sidney tells Cassie about the murders from the first four films and how she survived them. This makes Cassie finally accept Sidney as her foster mother. When Cassie leaves, Sidney looks out the window to see the sun rise, satisfied that the murders are once again over for good as the film ends.

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 as Deputy Erin Hicks

Alexandra Shipp as Stephanie Decker

Olivia DeJonge as Sadie Erickson

Joey King as Claire Warren

Dylan Minnette as Max Blake

Ariel Winter as Candace Knight

Trivia

• After The Vampire Diaries ended, Kevin Williamson devised a screenplay for a fifth Scream film despite Wes Craven's death in 2015 and in an interview, he said that Scream 5 will be the proper series finale.
• Despite developing a Scream 6 in the earliest stages, Kevin Williamson dropped plans for a Scream 6 and decides to end the franchise with Scream 5.
• Upon learning that another Scream film was in production, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette got on board production to reprise their respective roles of Sidney Prescott, Dewey Riley and Gale Weathers-Riley.
• Due to The Weinstein Company filing for bankrupcy, Dimension Films teams up with Universal Pictures to distribute this film.
• Katelyn Nacon was considered for the role of Jessica James but she backed out due to commitments to AMC's The Walking Dead.
• Adam Wingard was handpicked by Kevin Williamson due to his work on the 2011 slasher film, You're Next.
• Liv Hewson, Maika Monroe and Elle Fanning were considered for the roles of Jessica James, Cassie Lauren and Sadie Erickson
• Eden Sher and Saxon Sharbino auditioned for the role of Candace Knight.
• Matthew Lillard reprises his role as Stu Macher after reading the script and replied that 5creams is the fitting conclusion to the Scream franchise.
• John Krasinski was approached to play Deputy David Morris but he turned the offer down due to directing A Quiet Place (2018).
• Anya Taylor Joy auditioned for the role of Cassie Lauren.
• Patrick Schwarzenegger and Joel Courtney were considered for the role Camden Warner.
• Colin Ford auditioned for the role of Max Blake.
• 5creams was originally set for a release date of February 23rd, 2018 but the film was pushed back to May 4th due to false starts and the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstien which put The Weinstein Company out of buisness.
• 5creams received positive reviews from fans and critics who praise the film as a return to form for the franchise, the perfomances, story and meta humor. 5CREAMS currently holds 83% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reads, "Bringing the franchise back to it's bloody glory, 5CREAMS is a fitting coda to the beloved horror franchise that fans come to love since the late 90s and is loaded with blood, laughs and meta humor in spades along with good sense of closure."
• Jessica Sula and Sydney Park were considered for the role of Stephanie Decker.
• Patrick Dempsey returns in this film as Mark Kincaid after calling the script "Impressive".
• Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudolph and Anne Hathaway were considered for the role of Sharron Blake.
• Mandy Moore was originally cast as Deputy Erin Hicks but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with the show "This Is Us".
• Like his original script for Scream 2, Kevin Williamson originally wanted Sidney and Stu to stab each other to death during their fight but it was scrapped.
• Kevin Williamson added 3 killers in his script which were Tim, Sharron and Stu and stated that Sharron's motive for the massacre had tied the whole franchise together.