The trailer for the new Scream movie is full of seemingly major reveals, including the possible death of a character and one of the film's big plot points. However, according to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Ready or Not), there's also a lot of misdirection at play.
"That is a very safe assumption," Bettinelli-Olpin told Bloody Disgusting when asked if there's more than meets the eye to the Scream trailer. "This was a hard trailer for [marketing] to put together, and I think one of the things we’re happy with is that anything that you might think is a spoiler in this, there’s a good chance you’re wrong. There are misdirects within the movie. There are misdirects within the trailer. For us, that’s just the fun of the whole thing to make this a big whodunnit. Spoilers suck, but the fun as fans is to talk about who might be the killer. Then to go through it forensically to try and find out and see if you can win the game, basically.”
Directed by Wes Craven, the original Scream hit theaters in 1996 and caught audiences off-guard with its self-aware, post-modern approach to the slasher horror genre. Craven would carry that approach over into the movie's subsequent three sequels, all of which knowingly toy with and do their best to subvert horror fans' expectations. And while Scream (2022) is the first film in the series produced since Craven's death in 2015, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett say they've remained faithful to the spirit of what came before.
“I can say that every corner of this movie, during the making of it, we have been very aware how to service fans, where the misdirects are happening, and the path that we want to lead people down," said Gillett. "Obviously, without spoiling the movie, we can certainly say that the trailer is definitely doing that dance. Part of what we love about the Scream movies, and what we love about the Scream fandom is just how deep people watch these movies. We think some of the fun of this experience is this forensic watching of things and trying to figure out who the killer is. It’s all a part of what’s so unique and so special about this franchise to us. As deep, deep fans of the original four [films], we took pains to populate the world of this movie, and certainly the materials with as many fun nods and Easter eggs and misdirects as possible.”
James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, White House Down) and Guy Busick (Castle Rock, Ready or Not) supplied the script for Scream, with Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott), Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers) and David Arquette (Dewey Riley) starring opposite several franchise newcomers playing the new generation of Woodsboro teenagers. The film opens in theaters on Jan. 14, 2022.
Source: Bloody Disgusting