With Scream 6 less than a year away, fans of the slasher franchise are wondering what characters, plotlines, kill scenes, and surprises are in store for this new film. While it's exciting to imagine coming back to Woodsboro for another movie, fans have some thoughts about what they want to see and what they think might be a mistake to include. It's hard not to have strong opinions about where the franchise should go since audiences have been enjoying the story of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) fighting Ghostface for such a long time.
Fans always welcome the chance to see Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Sidney come back. Scream 6 remains a mystery and there are a few things that the new movie should avoid doing.
Taking The Characters Away From Woodsboro
According to Bloody Disgusting, the press release for Scream 6 says, “The Scream saga continues with the four survivors of the Ghostface killings as they leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.” This brings up the question of how Scream 6 will get everyone back home and how it will work with a new setting.
Scream's best location is Woodsboro as the small California town is cute, idyllic, and full of charm. It's not the kind of people where "bad things happen." That's why it works perfectly. Fans didn't all love it when the franchise moved to a film set for Scream 3 and didn't take place in Woodsboro, so how will the new movie do this?
Adding Too Many New Characters
With Hayden Panettiere coming back to Scream 6 as Kirby Reed, and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrerra), Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) returning as well, the cast is pretty packed. This begs the question: how many new characters will be added?
Scream 6 is smart to bring back these four young character as they are solid, well-crafted, smart and funny people who have a lot of strength and fight in them. Scream 6 has room for a few minor characters, which is typical of the horror franchise. But too many will be confusing and cluttered and these newcomers might only draw attention to how excellent Tara, Sam, Chad, and Mindy are. With David Arquette's character Dewey Riley sadly gone, it makes sense for the movie to add a new adult character who can help Gale and Sidney, but they have to be compelling and worth including.
Cheesy Callbacks
Scream (2022) isn't perfect and it's a problem that Billy Loomis is sympathetic. Skeet Ulrich's character stalked and murdered people and hurt his own girlfriend, so watching his spirit appear to Sam and give her advice is tricky to like.
De-aging Ulrich and making Billy's ghost a major part of the film was a bit of a misstep for Scream (2022). While the desire to want to include a few callbacks and throwbacks for loyal fans makes sense, it would be better if Scream 6 would focus on new, original, inventive content instead. A new Scream movie always feels nostalgic enough.
An Opening Scene That Has Been Done Before
Scream 3 has the worst opening scene, but Scream (2022) does a good job of including a familiar yet fresh opening sequence. Tara is in her kitchen when Ghostface phones her, a nod to Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) in the first film. This time around, Tara talks about her love of elevated horror movies and shows off her smarts.
Now that there have been five Scream films, audiences want to see a brand new opening scene that hasn't been done before. Scream 2 has a surprising scene in a movie theater and Scream 4 has some interesting fake-outs where fans aren't sure who Stab or Scream franchise. Scream 6 should definitely surprise fans with a creative opening scene.
The Motive Of Being A Fan And Wanting Fame
The Scream franchise has talked about fandom in some intelligent and significant ways. Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) wants to go viral in Scream 4 and Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) and Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison) are lovers of the Stab franchise in Scream (2022). But several Ghostfaces have wanted to become famous as a result of their killing sprees, including Timothy Olyphant's Scream 2 character Mickey Alteri. If the Ghostface killer (or killers) in Scream 6 says the same thing, it's definitely going to feel tired.
It's hard to imagine why someone would don the mask and costume and kill again in Scream 6 since this story has been going on for so long. But fans of the franchise want to be shocked by the new Ghostface and they want a new, fresh motive.