'Scream' review: Franchise's fifth film is smart, funny, fast-paced

Before we get into the details of "Scream," the fifth installment in the dormant horror franchise, let’s talk nomenclature. Is this a sequel or a reboot? The former is what we typically call any movie with a numeral after its title; the latter is Hollywood marketing-speak for remake. "Scream" takes its title from the original 1996 film but puts itself into a whole different category. As one media-savvy character suggests, it's a requel.

To hear the term explained fully, you’ll have to see the movie. Disregard the dismal January release date, the too-long gap since the previous entry (2011’s "Scream 4") and the fact that this is the first in the franchise not directed by the late Wes Craven ("A Nightmare on Elm Street"). This new "Scream" is a refreshingly smart, funny, fast-paced splatter flick. Like its predecessors, it plays with the conventions of its genre and pays homage to the very classics it’s mocking ("Halloween," "Friday the 13th," even "Psycho"), but it also touches on new cultural forces that didn’t exist in the original film — namely, social media, toxic fandom and the dubious concept of "elevated horror."

We pick up with yet another copycat killer wearing the now-famous "Ghostface" mask and terrorizing the California town of Woodsboro. After young Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) barely survives a stabbing, her estranged older sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera, "In the Heights"), returns home to help. Sam is keeping a dark secret that — mild spoiler — will resonate strongest with longtime fans of the series.

Tara’s Woodsboro friends, who already know the Ghostface M.O. (don’t forget, their town inspired a movie franchise within this franchise, "Stab"), quickly realize that one of them is the killer. Could it be Amber (Mikey Madison), who has a crush on Tara? What about Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), a horror-film expert who’s always one step ahead? Or Wes (Dylan Minnette), the oh-so-innocent son of Sheriff Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton, reprising her role)?

The young actors are uniformly appealing, but the best moments come from the original series’ core cast of Neve Campbell as hardened survivor Sidney Prescott, Courteney Cox as the ambitious journalist Gale Weathers and a show-stealing David Arquette as her onetime husband, Sheriff Dewey Riley. These now-seasoned actors seem to share a bond, particularly real-life former spouses Arquette and Cox, who strike a surprisingly emotional chord in this otherwise breezy-and-bloody entertainment.

Briskly directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett from a fun-loving script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, "Scream" manages to jump-start an old story, pay tribute to its past and maybe even pass the torch. Is there anything else a requel is supposed to do?