WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Scream, now playing in theaters

Scream is the latest largely meta entry in the long-running franchise. But on top of the standard Scream meta-commentary, there's also a lot of surprisingly earnest melodrama and character comedy. That's not even considering the return of major characters from the film's past. A lot is going on in Scream, and not necessarily for the better.

Scream suffers from a surprisingly common problem in recent films. There are good concepts and characters in the latest entry of the franchise, but it's too overstuffed to properly develop most of it. In this regard, it actually shares a pretty glaring flaw with -- of all things -- Disney's Encanto.

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Scream has a deceptively massive cast, shifting between multiple storylines. Taking place in the same town as the original film, Scream picks up 25 years later. The primary plot thread is nominally focused on Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), estranged sisters with a dark secret. But the film also spends time reintroducing the survivors of the original series, as well as an entirely new batch of teenagers caught in the crosshairs. There's even Sam's boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid), who effectively serves as the film's comedic relief until the somewhat obvious third-act twist. It's a lot of balls in the air. This ends up having the negative effect of dividing the film's attention.

Gale (Courtney Cox) and Syd (Neve Campbell) effectively have their own plotline that just happens to intersect with Sam and Tara before they can be killed. The teens are also largely underdeveloped, living props outside of the just self-aware enough twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown). Sam and Tara, the new group of friends and the returning survivors all could have carried their own full narrative at the center of the film and gotten a good amount of development in the process. Instead, they're largely ciphers who fill their basic archetypes well until they get picked off. Sam and Tara get the most development, but their fellow teens are largely forgettable. Even the movie's throughline, a commentary on fandom, feels slightly underbaked due to the winding nature of the film's perspective.

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The reveal of Richie's motivations lacks the impact it should have because the film has been getting distracted from its meta-commentary with a melodramatic family drama and teenage shenanigans. The movie wants to talk about toxic fandom, but the reunions and secrets and character comedy and jump scares all end up distracting from that throughline. Scream is a well-made film with lots of good ideas, but it doesn't fully commit to any of them. As a result, Scream ends up feeling overstuffed.

In this way, it's surprisingly similar to Encanto, Disney's latest animated feature. The movie is a vibrant and fun experience with a terrific soundtrack. But the story is too overstuffed with good ideas, setting up characters only to push them to the side. Consequently, the theme of the film is touched upon but drowned out by the time spent on all the elements introduced.

Both Scream and Encanto are trying to tell straightforward stories. But in introducing so many characters and plot twists instead of just focusing on the central character arcs, the movies don't work as well as they could. The filmmakers add so many hurdles to their narratives that they become bogged down. The interpersonal dramas are good but don't get the time they need to grow. Neither Encanto nor Scream are bad movies. Both have elements that work very well for their intended audience and are fun overall. But the lack of direct focus in the story means both films suffer in their scripts, which leaves them lacking as a result.

Scream is currently playing in theaters and Encanto is now streaming on Disney+.

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