Scream Directors Say Trailer Contains ‘Misdirects,’ Tease Plenty More Surprises

The directors of Scream say that fans who are concerned about the trailer’s reveals need not worry, as what they’ve seen are just the tip of a “very deceptive iceberg.” The trailer for the film released yesterday and contained what looked like Ghostface laying waste to a lot of characters in the film. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, along with executive producer Chad Villella, spoke with Bloody Disgusting and teased that there’s still quite a lot of surprises to come. You can see the highlights below:

Bettinelli-Olpin on whether the trailer includes some misdirection: “That is a very safe assumption. 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.”

Gillet on keeping the audience guessing: “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. 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, 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.”

Bettinelli-Olpin on amping up Ghostface’s terror level: “That’s a hundred percent the goal. That was our goal with Ghostface here. Let’s make Ghostface as scary as we possibly can because it’s one of the things that we love so much about the original. Even though it can be goofy sometimes, or close to being goofy, we were focused on how you balance that so that it’s true to Ghostface but also as scary as possible.“

Villella on how much the trailer shows: “This is the tip of a very, very large iceberg. A very, very deceptive iceberg. The marketing campaign is just kicking off, and we’re very excited for all the materials that will flow out over the next three months leading up to release. This is just the first taste. It shows you the heart of the movie without showing you too much of what happens. That’s exactly what we’re going for; we want people to lean in, but we don’t want the movie to be ruined. We want them to enjoy every minute of it and discover what’s going on and who’s who in the theater.”

The new film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Marley Shelton, Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Jack Quaid, and Melissa Barrera and is set to release on January 14th, 2022. It’s described as follows:

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.