Scream VI review

The Scream franchise was brought back to life in a big way with last year's terrific 5th installment, a great legacy sequel that did just about everything right, and set the franchise up for a kind of second renaissance.

And just a little over a year later, we have Scream VI, which moves the setting to New York City. And for the first time, Neve Campbell is not involved.

The "core four" survivors from the last movie (Melissa Barrera's Sam, Jenna Ortega's Tara, Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy, and Mason Gooding's Chad) are now in NYC, with the latter 2 in college, when a new Ghostface strikes. 

The franchise is known for their big opening scenes, and this one finds a creative twist on it.

Ghostface killings start again, and a lot of people blame Sam, because a bunch of conspiracy theorists have popped up (on Reddit of course) accusing her of being behind the killings in 5.

We of course get a fresh new crop of characters, largely cannon (or knife) fodder. There's a cop (Demot Mulroney) and a handful of other college students played by actors I was unfamiliar with. Although it turns out one also played that insufferable Spider in the last Avatar. So he can fucking die. 

The lone of the original main stars to return is Courtney Cox (with less freakish plastic surgery this time), whose Gale is a little bit of a superfluous figure this time, but who does get the centerpiece of one of the film's best sequences.

Also returning from a previous film is Hayden Panettiere's Kirby, who was probably the best thing in 4, and who until a little Easter egg in 5 I assumed had died. But, stabs to the gut I guess tend to not get it done in these movies. Anyway, she's back and is an FBI agent now, and Hayden is starting to look like Ellen Barkin.

Once a lot of the exposition is out of the way the middle act of Scream VI is really terrific, with some really well choreographed chase scenes. 

This film really ups the level of brutality in the killings. It isn't just a couple stabs and move on. Ghostface is fucking savage in this. It kind of fits the tone of the movie, which to me was notably less funny than other Screams.

I think that lesser level of comedy is why I didn't like this as much as 5. After 1 viewing I would probably put it last among the good Screams (3 being the unquestioned worst). Mindy delivered a lot of the great meta jokes in 5 and she does get a couple here too, but I also didn't think her big "rules" scene this time was as good.

I also think this entry is a step down as a whodunit, which has always been the most underrated aspect of the franchise. I didn't guess who the killers were, but I also wasn't as into the mystery either. I think overall this movie is a lot more into callbacks and references to the franchise. There's multiple scenes taking place inside an abandoned movie theater that the killer uses as a shrine to past Ghostface killings. So we get lots of artifacts from the franchise. It's sort of explained how the killers could have acquired all this stuff. 

I think the killers identities were less compelling this time cause the new characters are not that good, and there is never much doubt that Ghostface is among their ranks.

But hey, that core four works, primarily Sam and Tara. I didn't even know who Ortega was prior to 5 but she has blown up into a huge star, and she is terrific in this. But c'mon, Barrera is a fucking dynamo here. I guess some people don't like her, but I think she is following the same path as Campbell in being an absurdly gorgeous woman giving legitimately great performances in a genre that usually doesn't have or require them.