The Scream franchise has always had an interest in horror movie rules and history. At the same time, the movies have embedded themselves as irrefutable slasher classics. When a "requel" arrived in 2022, it still played by mostly the same rules as the movies that preceded it. Now, with Scream VI (stylized, like a Rocky movie, with a fancy Roman numeral), the series may have finally found a way to reinvent itself.
Scream VI still possesses many of the same aspects that have made previous Scream movies such fan favorites, but what returning directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick manage to do with a franchise that is closer to 30 years old than 20 is remarkable. In changing so much of what has made Scream what it is, Scream VI both feels like a fresh start and a logical continuation from where the story left off.
This time around, the action moves away from Woodsboro and to New York City (though the movie was shot in Montreal). Returning Carpenter sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (currently reigning scream queen Jenna Ortega) have relocated to the Big Apple. Tara is there to attend university, and Sam is there to watch over her. Both of them are dealing with the trauma of their previous Ghostface experience in different ways: Sam is going to therapy and taking medication, while Tara is choosing not to deal with it at all.
The character choice here is a smart one: rarely do slasher movies really dive into the mental toll of being a final girl, and Scream VI smartly shows how both living in the trauma and ignoring it entirely present their own sets of problems. Barrera's performance is much more assured here, and Sam becomes more of a fleshed-out and fully realized character. Ortega is still great as Tara, and it benefits the movie that she is given far more screen time.
Of course, anyone who has ever had to deal with Ghostface knows it never stops at just one event, and soon Sam and Tara (along with friends old and new) are set upon by a new, even more ruthless killer. Luckily, the sisters get some help from their roommate's father, an NYPD detective (played by Dermot Mulroney). Complicating things further is online discourse emerging that paints Sam as the villain and Richie (Jack Quaid, who actually was the killer) as the poor victim. Much like the previous movie's commentary on toxic fandom, the focus on internet vilifying is smartly played and plays a large part in how the story unfolds.
A few more familiar faces populate the cast, including the Meeks-Martin twins Mindy and Chad (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, respectively). Mindy fills the role previously held by Jamie Kennedy's Randy, explaining just how the rules of this movie are going to work, while Chad emerges as a potential love interest for Tara. Courteney Cox is also back as Gale Weathers, now the only cast member to have appeared in every Scream movie, and Hayden Panettiere's Kirby Reed makes a return to the franchise in a surprising capacity. Both of them slip right back into their roles comfortably, and while Gale isn't quite as prominent in this movie as she has been in the past, Cox still imbues her with feisty energy.
The performers and their characters benefit from a major behind-the-scenes development. When Neve Campbell announced that she would not be returning as Sidney Prescott, the production had to pivot. While there was some worry about whether it would still be Scream without Sidney, the good news is that Campbell's absence actually works really well. Where Scream (2022) sometimes felt burdened by the presence of returning characters, Scream VI allows the franchise's new characters to really shine and gives them plenty of time to develop (even if some characters are given more to work with than others).
What helps this entry stand out the most is the strong shift in style, thanks to Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett's direction. The pair cut their teeth on horror segments for V/H/S and Southbound and made an even bigger splash with their brutal horror comedy Ready or Not. There's a real shift in style that wasn't quite there in the previous entry. While Scream (2022) still felt indebted to Wes Craven, Kevin Williamson, and everything that came before it, Scream VI really seems like a personal project for the directors. The stylistic choices, from more brutal kills to shot compositions, help this movie stand out from the pack.
Similarly, the script is smart and focused, keeping the story well-paced and moving along smoothly. There's far more humor in Scream VI than there has been in previous entries, and the jokes land very well among all of the terror. What doesn't quite work this time around is figuring out what this Scream is really about. While its predecessor was focused on requels and how that would affect the plot, this one doesn't quite make its proclamation that everything is about franchises stick. To be fair, Scream 4 struggled with this as well in trying to transition from the horror movies of the past to the infant stages of Web 2.0
Scream VI is very different from what came before, and it's for the better. It's not quite fully reinventing the franchise, but it is making the smart choice to move forward and look to the future rather than dredging up the past. While not all of the creative decisions work (there's one particularly unpopular story decision that rears its head here as well), there are enough novel choices, humor, and tension to make this one of the best entries in the long-running franchise. For anyone who is asked, "what's your favorite scary movie?" this would be a perfectly fine choice.
Scream VI premieres in theaters on March 10th.
Scream VI