Scream (the new one) is suddenly available to stream on Paramount Plus

Wait, what was that slipping out of the shadows? Thankfully, not a masked murderer brandishing a razor-sharp knife — just a movie about one.

Scream, the better-than-expected sequel/reboot from January, has quietly made its way to streaming in a surprise release from Paramount Plus, who decided to forego any fanfare. The movie’s just ... there now. That said, the surprise release isn’t much of a surprise — when the service launched last year, bosses who hoped to go toe to toe with Netflix announced that all future Paramount theatrical releases would only take 45 days to make it exclusively to the streaming platform. Scream is right on time.

Meta and of the moment, Scream picked back up with the franchise’s legacy characters — and the lead cast of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette — while spinning an entirely new story about the next generation of slasher victims. We dug it, and enjoyed the critical thesis of the ending even more. Matt Bettinelli-Olpi and Tyler Gillett (Ready or Not) understood the assignment: twist and turn and make a movie that’s as much about probing the horror genre as thrilling the audience.

“I think one of the things that is so embedded in all of Wes Craven’s work, that kind of allowed us to do our own thing, and kind of hopefully push the franchise forward, is that his movies always take risks,” Bettinelli-Olpin told Polygon earlier this year. “So I think we would have been disappointed in ourselves and feel like we let down Wes, if we made a movie that was 100 percent homage and just about the past.”

Scream is out now on Paramount Plus. The service is currently offering a subscription deal for three months at $1 a month.