The Scream trailer is for a movie called Scream that is also a sequel to Scream

The Scream franchise is back with its most meta horror-parody yet. In the first trailer for Scream 5, or technically just Scream, the franchise is caught halfway between a sequel and a reboot and that’s exactly where it wants to be. The movie, which brings back stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette, is set be released on Jan. 14, 2022.

Scream was always unique in that it was both a send up of the slasher genre and one of its best entries. Each Scream sequel skewered a new corner of the genre, but four entries in, it’s far and away the most consistently good slasher series there is. But more recently, the slasher has fallen out of favor or gotten just plain weird. The Halloween franchise, still going strong with Halloween Kills later this month, includes eight sequels in two different continuities along with two remakes. With a timeline as ridiculous as that, Scream’s new half-reboot will be fighting an uphill battle to make the satire land with a new audience.

Along with the movie’s returning characters, Scream will also feature a whole slew of young actors including Melissa Berrera (In the Heights), Jack Quaid (The Hunger Games), Kyle Gallner (Dear White People), Jenna Ortega (Iron Man 3), Mason Gooding (Booksmart), Mikey Madison (Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood), Dylan Minnette (Prisoners), Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers), and Sonia Ammar. According to the all, or most, of the movie’s younger characters seem to have one link or another to the kills from the first four movies in the franchise, which will make them targets this time around.

Scream 5, for lack of a better title, brings back the series’ long time writer Kevin Williamson as a producer, along with James Vanderbilt (Zodiac) and Guy Busick (Ready or Not). This is the first film in the series that will not be directed by horror-legend Wes Craven, who passed away in 2015. Instead, the new film will be directed by the team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, whose last project together was 2019’s horror-comedy Ready or Not.