Jonah Naplan   March 15, 2023

The best parts of “Scream VI” remind me of why many people don’t like slasher movies, but also why I can personally get a kick out of them. This sixth film in the fan-favorite slasher franchise is bigger, gorier, relentless, and thereby much more unfocused than its predecessor—last year’s “Scream”—yet it’s still a movie equally as enjoyable as the aforementioned. Such is probably the doing of director duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, known in the horror world as Radio Silence, who craft a gorefest that actually ends up being more suspenseful, smart, and layered than most other modern slashers who sacrifice substance for style, characters for gore, and variety for instant gratification. That’s saying a lot. We’ve been here since 1996.

This movie opens with the slaughtering of a young film professor (Samara Weaving) in an alleyway. The Ghostface killer responsible is then followed home to his apartment, and then too gets butchered by another darkened figure in a Ghostface mask. Boom! The words “Scream VI” slash across the screen. We meet up with the modern day Scream “core four” who have fled the dangerous confines of Woodsboro for New York City, yet they still cannot somehow manage to escape Ghostface. “Scream VI” is one slasher set piece after another as our heroes flee Ghostface again and again, so narrowly that we wonder if Samantha (Melissa Barrera), Tara (Jenna Ortega), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Chad (Mason Gooding) are actually superheroes. Our leads are working closely with an FBI agent named Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and also a police detective (Dermot Mulroney). Detective Bailey’s children, Quinn (Liana Liberato) and Ethan (Jack Champion) are involved in the plot too, as are Anika (Devyn Nekoda) and a love interest for Sam—Danny (Josh Segarra). And, of course, Courteney Cox returns too as Gale Weathers. Gosh, so many characters!

“Scream VI” takes place in New York City, an interesting but welcome change of scenery from the same city corners we’ve become so accustomed to exploring in the last few movies. However, all of the Big Apple scenes don’t feel like the real New York. The setting feels manufactured, and doesn’t seem to represent the personality that makes Manhattan so notable. Important landmarks seem to be missing, and that might be because all of the New York scenes were actually filmed in Montreal. But I won’t pay too much mind to this, as the setting isn’t what much matters, rather it’s what happens within that is most crucial.

There are two particular setpieces that I admired very much: a violent shootout in a bodega (not the first time Melissa Barrera has been in one of those), and also a tense, claustrophobia-inducing scene on a subway. The latter of which is the best representation of New York City as shown in the film. Some people will go to a horror movie and then walk out furious because of the irreverent violence portrayed onscreen. Luckily, “Scream VI” is a movie, if subtle about it, that does have art behind its bloodshed. On the surface, it is admittedly difficult to see how relentless violence can be viewed as craftsmanship. “Scream VI” is very violent, yes, but it also uses that to be smart, only if the viewer cares enough to look past the carnage and recognize the details.

Olpin and Gillett are working at their finest when they put our characters, namely Sam and Tara, in sticky situations that seem at first impossible to get out of. The directors are expert at ratcheting up tension in pivotal moments, thereby leading to a final Ghostface reveal that ends up falling quite far out of left field. As the core four discuss the ropes and tropes of their favorite horror movies, “Scream VI” plays with those same plot threads—using some, pretending to use some, half using some and then discarding the rest, and taking some, flipping them on their head, and then pulling the rug out from underneath us once we’re upside down. Call it Olpin and Gillett’s nifty toy box of gadgets they’re keen to pull out at any time.

It was a skill set utilized before in 2022’s “Scream,” and makes “Scream VI” so much more of a direct sequel that is intertwined nicely with what made its predecessor succeed. And one of those things is the adamancy of character beats. In “Scream,” Tara was confined almost exclusively to a wheelchair or hospital bed; injured the entire movie. In “Scream VI” she is given so much more to do, as is her sister. Sam and Tara form the powerful backbone of these modern Scream movies, and remain developed here. Not so lucky are the new slew of side characters introduced, particularly FBI agent Kirby and Detective Bailey, characters that are reasonably important, but aren’t given much to walk around with. It’s not until secondary characters start getting killed off that we realize they’ve been there this whole time. 

As far as Gale goes, she’s fairly compensated for. She receives her first call from Ghostface in the movie, and gets to use a knife and gun and all that stuff, but she doesn’t entirely meet her desired justice in the end. “Scream VI” is a movie with so many characters, that it eventually devolves into unfocused territory. With a noticeable absence of both Neve Campbell and David Arquette, the movie is a very entertaining, but strangely rendered “Scream” movie. As a slasher, it works, but as a franchise piece, it’s odd.

The script by Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt is witty, but doesn’t allow for much growth in plot structure. “Scream VI” doesn’t come off as tired, but we’ve definitely seen all this before. There is, however, a well made slasher setpiece in a warehouse, with a final reveal that I found to be quite enthralling. The directors are smart in how they pick the beats of their narrative, not stopping too long for exposition, and jumping straight into the action. Sometimes that works towards the advantage of “Scream VI,” but sometimes, with all the buckets of blood, the movie needs more time to stimulate the foundation of what makes these films great. But I don’t regret playing this game once more.

Now playing in theaters.