Ghostface slashes again in first bloody (and self-aware) trailer for long-awaited 'Scream' revival

What's your favorite scary movie? If you answered, Scream, then you'd be correct. After a decade-long hiatus away from the big screen, the self-aware horror franchise is back with a trailer for its fifth installment. In keeping with recent horror revivals, the latest sequel is simply titled Scream. The footage proves that there is still some ghoulish life left in this series, immediately poking fun at the obsolescence of creepy calls over landlines in the age of texting.

With original director Wes Craven sadly no longer with us, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the Radio Silence filmmaking duo behind 2019's Ready or Not) take over the directorial reins, working from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt (Murder Mystery) and Guy Busick (Castle Rock).

While some thought that Scream — out in theaters this coming January — would be a flat-out reboot, that's not the case. Neve Campbell (Sydney Prescott), Courtney Cox (Gale Weathers), and David Arquette (Dewey Riley) are all reprising their iconic roles from previous installments. A new Ghostface is picking off Woodsboro teenagers related to the original killers and these characters are about the only people equipped to solve the mystery before too much blood is shed. Fortunately, Sydney is packing heat because after four films of near-misses, she knows better than to go about her life unarmed.

"It was a wildly anxiety-producing situation," Gillett admitted to Entertainment Weekly. "They were not disposable roles; they were very, very important and the heartbeat of what was great about the script. We couldn't imagine the movie without any of them and so not having that perfectly locked-in right off the bat was definitely scary."

Watch the trailer below:

"I genuinely was in two minds," Campbell told EW, explaining her hesitancy to come back (she was one of the last of the Scream OGs to board the project). "The idea of making these films without Wes Craven seemed challenging to me. I loved the man very much. But Matt and Tyler wrote me a letter, speaking of their appreciation and great respect for Wes Craven, and speaking of the fact that the very reason that they are directors today was because of these movies and because of Wes, and that meant a great deal to me."

"Showing up on set, seeing Neve and David and Courteney for the first time, seeing Ghostface for the first time, it was surreal," added Bettinelli-Olpin. "It felt like we were having this weird, out-of-body fan experience, but we were also doing our adult job at the same time."

Jack Quaid (The Boys), Jenna Ortega (Jane the Virgin), Melissa Barrera (Vida at Starz), Mason Gooding (Star Trek: Picard), Kyle Gallner (Veronica Mars), Marley Shelton (Scream 4), Jasmin Savoy Brown (The Leftovers), Roger L. Jackson (the longtime voice of Ghostface), and model/musician Sonia Ben Ammar co-star.

Scream hacks its way into theaters Friday, Jan. 14, 2022.

Check out a poster and a slew of production stills in the gallery below.