From a distance, Tyler's take on the concept follows the same basic horror techniques that Beltrami would have employed for Scream, and in terms of the music's basic juggling of melodic ideas and stock slasher chaos, this work stands on par with Beltrami's Scream 4. The score credits only a moderate string section of an orchestra, though it does feature (possibly virtual) brass and percussion along with the requisite guitar, piano, synthesizers, and solo female voice that have come to define Beltrami's scores. Tyler himself is not directly credited with performances, though it wouldn't be surprising if he was responsible for fleshing out the depth of the recording on his own. (Oddly, Beltrami is not credited at all on the album, either.) The Western twang that carried over to Beltrami's music from the popular use of Hans Zimmer's material in Scream 2 isn't particularly prevalent here. The work is defined by strings for the suspense, electronic dissonance for the fright, and stabbing brass explosions for the killing, none of which fresh. The lyrical passages are, as usual, the highlights, but they are rare and not as impressively rendered as one would hope from Tyler. The solo female voice is especially important to the sound of this music, and while Tyler does match Beltrami's tone well here, the usage is infrequent and often buried in the ambience. Thematically, Tyler expends the most effort on establishing a main new theme that shares some of the same basic structures as Sidney's famous theme from the prior films but strives to be different. The conclusive suite-like cue, "New Horizons," contains the best representations of this theme, heard at 0:42 on soft piano and meandering on strings and further piano in that cue before building at 2:23 with the female voice and slight dissonance. It achieves its pinnacle at 3:20 in "New Horizons," this fullest ensemble and solo voice version eventually adopting the rhythmic foundation and suggestions of major key resolution that made the end of Beltrami's Scream 3 so memorable. For most casual listeners, the "New Horizons" track will be the only enduring highlight of this score, and Tyler, as per usual, moves it to the front of the album presentation.

The new main theme by Tyler for Scream extends into the remainder of the score with minimally effective development, blending anonymously into conversational or transitional scenes and doing little to establish itself as this film's top new identity. It's very slow on piano at 0:05 into "Rules to Survive," shifts to acoustic guitar at 0:11 into "Apparitions," and returns to piano over eerie electronic atmosphere at 1:50 into "Amends." The theme enjoys a bit more prominent light keyboarding at 0:44 and 1:41 into "Not My Story," closes "Passing the Torch" in tortured drama, and offers a slight suggestion at 1:03 into "Ghostface." Tyler seemingly explores a few other new motifs in his work for Scream, but none of these identities is impactful. A new suspense motif of generically descending figures is presented late in "Rules to Survive," the middle of "Ring Ring," and throughout "Welcome to Act Three." More interesting is the seemingly intentional tribute to the John Carpenter Halloween scores in how Tyler handles the "Stab" movie concept within this Scream story, going so far as to emulate the heartbeat effect on synths and even toying around with the opening measures of Carpenter's iconic main theme. Most of this material is concentrated in "Chromeface," but it also persists in vague allusions during "Apparitions" and in a lighter relief mode to open "New Horizons." Most enthusiasts of the Scream franchise will be interested in hearing Tyler's interpolations of the existing Beltrami themes into this fifth score, and he does provide decent but not particularly memorable treatment of both the Sidney and Dewey identities. The latter remains a quirky identity, hinted in fragments in "Amends" in original guitar tones and a very slight guitar reference persisting in the middle of "Diversions." The character's unsatisfactory handling in the middle act of this picture is afforded slightly better treatment by Tyler, however, the idea translated into a dramatic, full-ensemble variant at 4:00 into "Hospital Visitor." It closes out "Sacrifice" in its original guitar tones, though the remainder of that cue offers generic thoughtfulness without any meaningful development of the theme. The character ultimately deserved better musical handling in these scenes.

The heart and soul of the Scream franchise will be Sidney's theme as long as Neve Campbell continues to feature in the movies, and some fans may argue that the lament of Woodsboro and the legacy of all these killings should immortalize that theme as the general representation of the entire concept. Tyler handles the idea with care in this installment, but his replacement of it by the end makes it clear that he intends leave Beltrami's themes further behind in future sequels. In this regard, the composer's approach is much like that he took towards 2008's Rambo, supplying fairly adept connections to Jerry Goldsmith but following with a score for Rambo: Last Blood that really replaced the Goldsmith legacy with the new material from the 2008 work. Look for the same to happen with Sidney's theme in Scream, deserved or not. Here, the iconic melody returns with female voice but in truncated, obscured performances at 0:36 into "History Repeats." It opens "I Started All This" on slightly urgent strings without the theme's initial note, and it's hinted briefly on synthetic choir to close "Welcome to Act Three." One nice, ghostly phrase on female voice occurs at 0:12 into "Where It All Began," and the theme is distorted in chaotic action at 0:41 into "Passing the Torch." Tyler literally replaces the theme with his own at the 2:58 climax of "New Horizons," the first three notes on solo voice applied as an introduction to the new main theme. While these applications of Sidney's theme are welcome, nothing here can beat the vocal and symphonic presentations of this idea heard in Scream 3, which remains the most impressive of all the franchise's scores through the first five. Everything about Tyler's music for 2022's Scream sounds proficient but absolutely none of it truly excels. The composer supplies the minimum necessary for a coherent continuation of the franchise's music, but the performances are stale and the dramatic passages fail to adequately emote. One of the original heroes dies in this film, and many others of the younger generation do as well, and yet Tyler supplies the conversational scenes of dread or lamentation with very little weight. An excessively long album presentation with cues out of chronological order doesn't help, the listening experience dragging significantly at several points. Tyler continues to prove himself a safe choice in these franchise takeovers, but he yet again leaves you wanting for the previous compositions.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download