“Scream VI” (2023) is the sixth installment in the horror franchise, the first without Neve Campbell reprising her role as Sydney Prescott and the first set outside of Woodsboro, California. All the survivors of the fifth film, “Scream” (2022), moved to New York to go to college with big sis, Samantha “Sam” Carpenter (Melissa Barrera, “In the Heights”), tagging along as the self-appointed bodyguard to her little sister Tara (Jenna Ortega, who has skyrocketed since the last movie in hits such as “X” (2022) and “Wednesday” (2022)). When Ghostface starts killing people that they know, the sisters and twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) team up to survive and figure out the killer’s identity. Familiar faces from prior films drop in to help.
2023 may be the year of solid sequels. I left the fifth film disappointed because the new cast lacked chemistry, and the writers held the protagonist, Sam, back. I despise the phrase requel, and in this film, Mindy tries to sell the concept of “sequel to the requel,” but such meta commentary is limited or ridiculed. Ghostface announces, “Who gives a fuck about movies.” The movie recognizes that the jargon is not what makes the film work, it is the slasher sequences. This film feels fresher than prior sequels because it commits to the new characters and location. When franchise regulars Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere in her first acting appearance in five years and felt as if she was pulling an Olivia Benson with her physicality) return, they are strong supporting characters who do not divert focus from the “core four” but further develop their story.
Setting “Scream VI” in New York City (shot in Montreal, Canada) was a terrific move. The gritty city is a horror delight without Ghostface. There is a reason that the bystander effect mythology was born there. Even though the city is packed, you really could die in a hospital waiting room or on the street, and no one may notice because they are so busy, but when New Yorkers do notice, it adds to the body count. Some great killing sequences unfold in bodegas (without cats), sleek high-rise apartments overlooking the city and the subway on Halloween night with a plethora of possible suspects. The city is terrifying without any West Coast imports. Every Ghostface sequence is better in Manhattan because of the inherent obstacles within the city.
“Scream VI” embraces Sam as a dangerous woman from the beginning though not as dangerous as I would like. Sam is just pissed and done, not homicidal per se, which is fine though the movie tries to stoke suspicion. She has a sex positive roommate Quinn (Liana Liberato), whose dad is in the NYPD, Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney). Tara is sick of her overprotective sister Sam and wants to live a normal life, but Ortega is playing her so of course she is going to be a bad ass without the pesky Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) genes. Because the twins are established characters, Mindy, the lesbian film nerd, and Chad, the affable, pincushion jock, other protector of the group, they settled into the role and acted as anchor characters to link the story to newer characters such as Anika (Devyn Nekoda), Mindy’s girlfriend, or Ethan (Jack Champion), Chad’s forgettable virgin roommate. The core four were credible as friends who would be willing to put their lives on the line for each other.
“Scream VI” still requires suspension of disbelief. When victims survive, it is unbelievable. Behind the mask, Ghostface seems supernatural: impervious to injury and vanishes into thin air even when there is a single exit, and people are outside the door. Ghostface defies gravity and seems stronger than the average person. Wiping blood off the knife becomes this stylistic, intimidating signature gesture. Because it serves for a gorier, more brutal fight scenes, it is worth it. In one crowded scene with good Samaritans, Ghostface just mows people down without hesitation. There is not safety in numbers. This Ghostface has a mean streak. If Ghostface cannot stab you, Ghostface will use whatever is more convenient and enjoys turning the tables when a victim finds a way to outsmart the slasher. I have forgotten more than I remember about this franchise, which I have watched since the beginning, but this incarnation was the scariest.
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Gale gets the best fighting sequence against masked Ghostface notwithstanding the fact that it took a long time for the sisters and first responders to get to her house once the threat emerged. I loved that Gale was living her best life in her expensive, high-rise apartment with her new boyfriend (Dewey, who) thanks to book sales. While she did not stick the landing, she has some great moves from hitting the killer’s head with a cast iron pan to putting the killer on hold.
The bodega scene rocks because it is so New York in spirit. At first, the burliest guys try to help, but when that does not work, all the natives peeled out the door while the transplants ran deeper inside. Yes, we are kind, but not stupid. We will try to help, but if we cannot, good luck.
There is a nice shoutout to “Rear Window” (1954) when a neighbor, Sam’s latest love interest, Danny (Josh Segarra, “Arrow”), sees the killer and tries to warn them. I love Danny. I knew that he was not the killer because I wanted to marry him. How are you dating a man, miss the fact that he owns a ladder, which he keeps on hand to rescue you from killers?!? He is simultaneously not putting himself in danger and protecting you. Husband material! Also when he encouraged her not to trust him and respected her boundaries instead of being offended when she took his advice, he was at his hottest. Danny needs to do TED Talks. I am happy that the franchise appears to be departing from the evil boyfriend model.
The opening sequence was audacious because who casts Samara Weaving as the first victim. Instead of redoing the zealous film students turned killers storyline, “Scream VI” literally kills it by having Ghostface kill the latest wannabe Ghostface killers. The filmmakers signaled to the audience that we were in for something new.
Sam is unhinged because she hallucinates, but she does not kill because she enjoys it. She kills because she is sick of people messing with her when she is not the one. Once she has permission to fight, she cares more about hurting the other person than being hurt such as when she hurls herself in a screaming rage at the mastermind behind the latest attacks then turns the tables. “Scream VI” tries to tease her family tree and suggests that her paternal grandmother, Nancy Loomis, is also a killer so at least three generations. The franchise is saving that storyline for future installments. Tara acts as her breaks from embracing her darkest impulses, but her personification of brakes falls from balconies and stabs Ghostface in the mouth so let Sam be great!
No judgment! Billy the hallucination, Kirby and Gale have oddly smooth faces either because of the makeup, plastic surgery or CGI. While the acting was still great, it was distracting because it felt as if Ulrich, Panettiere and Cox had to emote extra hard to overcome their motionless, tighter, rigid faces. They are great actors and overcame it. I do not understand the pressures of working in an industry that punishes people for being human and changing in appearance, but their body, their choice.
The “Core Four” are all people of color. In a horror franchise, that is special. It is hard to miss that the bad guys or morally ambiguous ones are not, including a member of the NYPD messing with evidence. I do not think that anyone is going to notice because a slasher sequel will probably allude people scrolling the media looking to clutch their pearls over reverse discrimination, which does not exist. Unfortunately “Scream VI” continues the tradition of “Burying your gays” by killing off Mindy’s lesbian love interest.
