‘Scream 5’ Seems Unappealing To Neve Campbell With Passing Of Director Wes Craven

Horror outlet Bloody-Disgusting is now reporting that Scream-queen Neve Campbell isn’t particularly optimistic about the prospects of a fifth Scream film. Campbell, who portrayed the series’ main protagonist, Sidney Prescott, appeared less-than-thrilled at the prospect of making Scream 5 without Wes Craven. She did, however, make sure to provide credit where it was due to screenwriter Kevin Williamson, as Williamson penned the script for all four original Scream films. Although she didn’t seem particularly keen on the idea, the Scream franchise is historically profitable and as such, when asked about whether or not Scream 5 might be in the cards, Neve Campbell seemed to leave herself some wiggle room, just in case.

“Well, ya know, I think it would be challenging [since] Wes Craven passed away [and] he was the reason those movies were so good.I mean, obviously Kevin Williamson wrote brilliant scripts, but ya know, Wes was the heart of the thing. He was what kept the dynamic consistence. I think it would be difficult to work with another director. But ya never know.”

In 1996, Wes Craven redefined the horror genre for a third time in three consecutive decades, with the movie Scream. In 1972 Craven’s full-length horror movie debut Last House on the Left helped start a trend of hyper-realistic, hyper-violent horror films that would permeate grind house cinemas throughout the ’70s.

Craven gave the world Freddy Krueger with A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. Freddy is a horror icon recognizable to nearly every American nearly 34 years later. A Nightmare On Elm Street brought surrealism and black comedy to the slasher genre as well, where before it was largely lacking.

By 1996, Craven was an established master of horror and it was then that Scream once again set the tone for the horror climate to follow. Films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, and The Faculty did plenty to imitate the tone of Scream, according to critics. Moreover, even the already-established Halloween franchise wanted a piece of the hip teen horror market when Halloween: H20 arrived in theaters in 1998.

Scream spawned a number of financially successful sequels, Scream 2, Scream 3, and Scream 4 most recently in 2011. In 2015 the Scream franchise abandoned the big screen for a new home on MTV with Scream, a successful anthology slasher television series.

Since Wes Craven’s death in 2015, the future of the Scream franchise has been in considerable jeopardy. Unlike A Nightmare On Elm Street, Wes Craven directed every sequel to Scream in addition to the original.

A Nightmare On Elm Street, which received six sequels, a television series, and a 2010 remake, was the only Freddy Krueger film to be directed by Wes Craven until 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, a film often considered to be one which laid the groundwork for Scream.

Wes Craven wasn’t a horror-only director. In 1999 he directed the Academy Award-nominated drama Music of the Heart, starring Meryl Streep.