Scream VI is the sixth film in the long-running horror franchise and, following the grisly events of last year’s Scream (which was actually Scream 5), the newly elected leads of this franchise, Sam and her sister Tara, have tried to move on with their lives. But when a new Ghostface killer arrives on the scene and starts slaughtering those closest to them, they must get to the bottom of this before it’s too late.
It is hard for a sixth film in any franchise to give audiences something new. Scream VI at least treads some new ground by moving the characters out of the small, suburban town of Woodsboro, the primary location for most of these films, to the hustle and bustle of New York City, allowing for some brand new types of horror set pieces. This includes Ghostface stalking his prey through a convenience store, amidst the flickering lights of a subway train, and out of a high-rise apartment building.
Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega relax into their roles as the official new leads of this franchise, with Barrera in particular working with some intriguing material that augurs well for future instalments. Gale Weathers, played by Courteney Cox, is the primary returning legacy character and gets many awesome moments to shine, even if she goes through the same arc as she has in every other movie. Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is absent for the first time in this franchise due to an unfortunate behind-the-scenes pay dispute, but the film justifies her absence in a way that actually benefits the story more than if she did appear.
Other than that, though, Scream VI has everything you expect from this series: Ghostface kills people, albeit more gruesomely than ever before, and characters give meta-commentary on the horror genre, which feels more like window dressing at this point. Hearing characters talk about movies from our world is about the funnest aspect of Scream VI but the commentary itself is not as insightful as it was in the first Scream, feeling like it’s not commenting on anything anymore.
There is an argument to be made that Scream should have stopped after the first one, its sixth instalment hitting all the same beats but lacking the sharp meta-commentary of its predecessors. That being said, as Scream sequels go, Scream VI remains as blandly entertaining as the rest of them.
Rating: 6/10
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