Twenty-seven years ago, Drew Barrymore answered the phone to perhaps the greatest opening sequence in horror movie history. Both a meta-commentary on the slasher genre and a respectable addition to the collection, Wes Craven’s original (though “so 90s”) Scream continues to thrill and delight audiences nearly three decades later. The movie codified “The Rules” and broke with the traditional final girl by giving us a quartet — and then a trio — of heroes to root for.
After Wes Craven passed away in 2015, the keys to this kingdom were handed over to horror up-and-comers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. With a script by their Ready or Not teammates James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, they launched a legasequel in last year’s Scream, reuniting fans with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette). They introduced a new generation of heroes and villains. And they added a layer to the franchise’s grand tradition of meta-commentary. This time it was fandom itself, with a bit of mockery of the franchise’s own fans poking at those who thought the fifth installment, creatively titled Scream, should be called 5cream instead.
5cream — er Scream (2022) — was successful enough to get its own sequel, Scream VI. This time we follow Woodsboro survivors Sam and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega), and twins Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy-Brown and Mason Gooding) to the Big Apple. Sam works two jobs to keep a roof over Tara’s head while the younger Carpenter sister and the twins attend fictional Blackmore University.
Scream VI begins the way almost all of them do, with a murder. In their first outing last year, the directing duo opted to let the first girl live. They break with tradition this time by revealing the murderer’s face immediately after the first kill. Except, of course, there’s a twist and this Ghostface isn’t THE Ghostface. Someone else has been watching. Someone who wants the Carpenter sisters all to him/her/themselves.
L-r, Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”) , Jenna Ortega (“Tara Carpenter”), Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy Meeks-Martin”) and Mason Gooding (“Chad Meeks-Martin”) star in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s “Scream VI.”
The new installment has its entertaining moments and is, in many ways, more thrilling than last year’s flick. Horror movie buff Mindy lays out the new round of rules, the Franchise Rules, and starts ticking off who could and should be the suspects. She points out the similarities to Stab 2/Scream 2, which saw the murder of her uncle Randy. One of Mindy’s rules is that the kill scenes are extended, drawing out the suspense. That is true of Scream VI and lends to some fun and frightening, though inevitable, sequences in the NY subway, a bodega, and even balancing on a ladder between two neighboring buildings.
The body count is higher. The murders are more brutal. And this time around, anyone can die. Anyone. Or can they?
Where the Bettinelli-Olpin/Gillett/Vanderbilt/Busick collaboration misses the mark is in the structure of the story itself. One of the things that has always set the Scream franchise apart from others in the slasher genre is that it also blends a fun whodunnit mystery into the carnage. Though the identities of the various Ghostfaces have often been guessable, the mysteries themselves avoided being too predictable.
That changes with Scream VI. You see, there are certain rules to surviving horror movies and also franchise horror movies. There are also certain rules to surviving the Scream movies. And rules for identifying the killer(s). Each film has something to say, some social critique to share. Some motive for going after the central characters. Here, the critique itself is nonexistent, and the killer(s) practically have a flashing neon sign overhead. Within the first 20 minutes the entire plot, identity and motive are all blindingly obvious. And the social commentary is left by the wayside as the focus shifts to Franchise Film.
Returning legacy characters Gail Weathers and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) join other newcomers, Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), “Cute Boy” Danny (Josh Segarra), and new roommates and love interests. The cast is good and manages to make Sidney’s absence less palpable. This is especially helped by the return of Panettiere’s Kirby, last seen in Scream 4. Kirby was always a fan favorite for her blend of intelligence, calm demeanor, and perfect hair. She brings all of that with her, along with a dose of PTSD and a badge.
Despite decent tension, improved acting, and an overall good cast, Scream VI feels like a letdown. You can real feel the diminishing returns in Wes Craven’s absence. What once was a series of movies with something to say has become fan fiction with a $35 million budget. Neve Campbell was right when she walked away saying she deserved more. So do the rest of us.