scream Vi

Chances are, if you’re a horror fan who happened to be a teenager in 1996, the Wes Craven-directed meta-slasher Scream represented a singular cinematic high. The decade, up to that point, had not been particularly kind to the genre; most of its output was still running on the raggedy leftover fumes of the 80s (it was an era of distinctly oddball offerings such as The Lawnmower Man and Dr. Giggles). Scream was the game-changer. Sexy, scary, and suspenseful - but also thumbtack-sharp and self-aware - it shrewdly deconstructed the genre, then reassembled it into something that felt thrillingly elevated and essential. In fact, when Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson gamely attempted to rekindle the franchise with 2011’s Scream 4, the film’s tepid box office was strangely comforting, in a way - it seemed to confirm that Scream truly meant something to that subsect of late stage Gen-Xers and fledgling millennials who were in high school in the mid-90s, and no one else.

Then… something funny happened. Another decade passed, and the franchise was rebooted (or “requeled,” to be more accurate) in the very capable hands of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (part of the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence). Scream 5 (or simply Scream, as it was officially titled) was a genuine hit… resulting in follow-up Scream VI being hustled into theaters a mere 14 months later, to even bigger box office numbers. Suddenly the original fans were a lot like the iconic legacy characters (Neve Campbell’s Sidney, Courteney Cox’s Gale, and David Arquette’s Dewey), caught in a tenuous alliance with the next generation of would-be Ghostface-fodder (most of whom were barely even alive when the first Scream came out) who’d taken center stage. The fact that Gen-Z had effectively appropriated the series right out from under us felt like the biggest meta-stroke to date.

Scream VI picks up one year later and shifts the action to New York City, where Tara (Jenna Ortega) is attending Blackmore University (a savvy mirroring of Scream 2’s college setting) alongside twins Chad and Mindy (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown). Big sister Sam (Melissa Barrera), meanwhile, is busy being overprotective, trying to iron out her not inconsiderable personal shit through therapy, and dealing with the fallout of social media unleashing a hate mob that venomously branded her the true culprit behind the latest round of Woodsboro slayings. Before long a new Ghostface is on the loose (as tends to happen in these movies) and the body count starts to escalate precipitously (Samara Weaving - who starred in Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s breakout hit Ready or Not - proves a welcome addition to Scream lore in yet another cunningly subversive opening). 

Scream VI does show the increased strain of trying to keep the meta-commentary fresh and relevant (Mindy’s self-referential monologuing isn’t that different from the last film, which was already mostly just articulating/reiterating Scream 4’s basic approach to begin with) - but, if we’re being honest, this has always just been the candy sprinkled on top. The Scream films (with the exception of Scream 3, which remains the franchise’s only semi-stumble) endure for a simple reason - because they’re damn fun and they’re damn good slashers. This latest iteration has its issues - the Big Apple (aside from an ingeniously staged and suspenseful subway sequence) isn’t memorably utilized, the climax is janky, some of the casting falls flat (Josh Segarra, as Sam’s new love interest, has a vibe that could best be described as… aggressively peculiar) - but the film maintains the franchise’s newfound momentum. The execution - as it were - still cuts deep where it counts.

Much of this has to do with the quality of the characters. With Dewey no longer an active piece on the board (sadly), and Sidney (still much revered but surprisingly not-all-that-missed) rendered MIA following Paramount’s reported lowballing of Neve Campbell, it’s up to Gale to shoulder the legacy side of things - with a welcome assist from Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby, who turns up very much still-alive, and an FBI agent to boot. Both do their part (“You know you’re like the tenth guy to try this, right? It never works out for the dipshit in the mask”), but the series has now firmly shifted onto Barrera and Ortega’s shoulders and the duo is more than up to the challenge (ably complemented by Gooding and Brown, who have great fraternal chemistry as the other half of the self-proclaimed “core four”). Barrera in particular feels like a star; she’s like Sidney with a pricklier edge and deeper emotional scarring (on the downside, the notion of Sam having a murderous inner darkness via the “Loomis gene” is something the filmmakers love to tease and play around with, even though it’s clear they have no desire to really go there in any meaningful sense).​

As mentioned, the film labors less-than-gracefully through its third act revelations… but short of Willa Fitzgerald and Carlson Young turning up as the disgruntled stars of a Stab TV series that got relentlessly mocked on-line, there are only so many seamlessly clever meta-payoffs one can realistically expect. Scream VI pushes the bloodletting to new heights of brutality, but it’s just as fleet and fun as its predecessors (Mindy and Kirby, comparing horror buff credentials, agree that Psycho II is underrated and somewhat dubiously put the Candyman reboot on par with the original). Few franchises - horror or otherwise - have maintained this level of consistency over a half-dozen entries. As the roman numerals creep up, creative erosion tends to quicken. But in the case of Ghostface, it still feels like he’s just getting started.