It’s interesting how not only are we getting a new Scream movie just 15 months after the last one but it’s coming out just one week after Creed III. What I mean by that is that both of these movies serve as sequels to long-awaited franchises that could’ve been laid to rest many years ago but are somehow still going. However, both now have to figure out how to keep their respective franchises going without their main face of the franchise carrying it forward due to their sudden absences involving feuds with producers. While the circumstances surrounding Sylvester Stallone and Neve Campbell is deeply unfortunate, it might just work for the better for the Rocky and Scream franchises as they continue to grow and evolve. Especially in the sense that the previous installments left their stories off on a pretty favorable note and made for the right stopping point for their characters.
Now, that the main character of Sidney Prescott out of the picture (at least for now), it’s time to see what the new kids can do on their own without the parents. While we do see a few familiar faces returning such as Courtney Cox’s Gale Weathers and the welcome return of fan-favorite Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby Reed, there is now a main focus on a new group of young, energetic adults that the film describes as the “core four”. Can this core four pick up the momentum from the previous entries or is it time to laid it all to rest?
Plot Synopsis: Taking place several years since the events of Scream, the survivors of the previous film are now living on their own attending college in New York City. We have Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) still trying to process the trauma of her prior Ghostface encounter, her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) is trying to party her way through her troubles, and their friends (Jasmina Savoy-Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) are coping just fine as they focus on their own personal and love lifes.
Of course, things can’t remain too well for our new cast as there’s a new Ghostface on the loose once again. After a clever and subversive opening that does a perfect job of throwing off a potential suspect of the killer, Ghostface is back and whoever that is, plans for revenge against Sam and the ones she cares about. With the help of new police officer thrown into the mix with Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), and the return of the lone survivor of Woodsboro murders in Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiiere), Sam, Tara, and their friends must find a way to stop Ghostface before it is able to accomplish their mission of vengeance.
The big question that everyone had for this movie was how this movie would address the absence of Sidney Prescott and if the movie would suffer because of it? To answer the first question, it is handwaved in the best and most meta way possible. To answer the second question, it doesn’t suffer whatsoever. While I can’t say for certain that this new core four will be as iconic as the main core three of the other Scream movies, I did find myself engaged with this group without feeling the need to cut to a legacy character every two minutes. As much as I enjoyed Neve Campbell’s return in last year’s Scream, you really got the sense that the writers really struggled in figuring out an organic way to include Sid in the story and give here a reason to be there other than because she’s been the main character for the past four movies. While there are certainly folks that will miss Campbell’s presence, I was more than fine with following the main characters we are given.
A good reason for this has to do with the energy that the younger actors bring to their characters and are able to shine much better than they did in the last movie. Melissa Barrera is given much more to do this time around as Sam Carpenter and is able to stand out well here without the forced connection to Sidney. Mason Gooding is fun as one of the love interests in Chad Meeks-Martin who even makes for a nice subversion of being the one lone male lead in a mostly female group (and I’m certainly speaking with experience). Jasmin Savoy Brown is as much of a riot as she was in the last one, if not more so, as Mindy Meeks-Martin. Dermot Mulroney as Wayne Bailey is basically a reskin version of David Arquette’s Dewey but he’s fine. Liana Liberato and Jack Champion as Quinn and Ethan makes for entertaining new additions and do get their own individuals moments to shine. Lastly, the main standout of the entire cast is no other than Jenna Ortega.
This should come as no surprise as Ortega herself is starting to emerge as the next big actress to watch for. Whether it’s as the next Scream queen with the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis and Neva Campbell or just as the next Hollywood star such as Florence Pugh or Jennifer Lawrence, this girl no doubt has a bright career ahead of her. Her best scenes are with her co-star Melissa Barrera who have good chemistry with one another and make for an engaging sister bond ship. It’s also helps that Jenna Ortega is roughly around the same age that Neva Campbell was when she first started this franchise, showing that this is a franchise where horror women are just born in.
With the other two legacy characters returning in Courtney Cox and Hayden Panettiere, they don’t shine as well as the newer cast or as they did in their other films but they still make for nice returns. It’s hard to get too deep into their characters as that would be flirting with spoilers but just like with the way the legacy characters were handle in the previous movie, I suspect it will either leave fans delighted or pissed off with no in between. They still do play more of a role here than the legacy characters in the previous movie did but the movie makes it fairly clear throughout that this is not strictly their story but that it belongs to the young blood.
The kills here are still as satisfying and effective as ever. The biggest standouts include the opening scene with Ghostface, which makes it easily the most under predictable and twisting opening of any of the Scream sequels, along with the one that takes at the climax that helps hide the obvious storytelling flaws with that third act. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it my favorite kills in the series or even that this is the franchise as it’s most bloodiest and goriest but the ingredients for effective stabbing and killing in this series is still here and still works. All these and more is what helps Scream VI stands out as another good sequel but not quite a great sequel.
What keeps VI from being one of the better Scream sequels mostly ranging from the meta commentary that the franchise is known for. This installment claims to be about when a successful series becomes it’s own money-hungry, never-ending franchise that the studios will try to milk until the cows go home but it never goes as far with it as you might hope. If anything, it feels more of a continuation of the commentary of the last one (and to some extent Scream 4) with the way franchises handles their legacy characters rather than what happens when you have to now move on from them. I was expecting more, “Oh you can’t kill that character off because they are needed for their own Disney Plus/HBO Max series or spin-off movie” rather than more of the “It’s okay to kill legacy characters off because they are now old and we have new characters to focus on” that the last movie already did. Despite a handful of moments that display that well, it’s doesn’t feel much of service to it’s commentary rather than just for the sake of throwing in more kills.
I’m also not fond of the direction of the third act. No spoilers of course, but you got the sense that the writers had no idea how to actually end it or have a really effective Ghostface reveal. As a result, you get a climax that ultimately feels like a cop-out and don’t stick as bluntly to it’s choices that it has made up to this point. While the kills were just as good as you would expected, it’s the resolution that left a sour taste in my mouth around the time the credits roll.
I would say I enjoyed Scream VI about as much as I did the last one. While the third act is worse than the previous one, I found everything up to that point to be just as engaging, if not more so. The new cast equipped themselves admirably and don’t need the legacy characters themselves to carry it, the kills are still effective and satisfying, the returning cast are better utilized here than the last movie, and it does give you a brighter sense of the future that lies ahead for these kind of franchises that actually dare to move forward without their main lead. Next time however, I do hope the spoofs and meta commentary are more effective which can places itself up with Scream 2 and 4 as the very best sequels in the franchise. Maybe play around with the multiverse concept or something. Even so, I had fun but you probably have to break the mold even further next time so you don’t feel the fatigue.
Other comments:
- Yes, there is a post credit scene! Stay for the credits!
- The first two cameos of the movie are probably my absolute favorites in the entire franchise. If you don’t know who they are, please don’t spoil yourself! It will only make it even more entertaining when you watch it.
- I’m not even joking on relating to being the only male in an all-female group. From babysitting kids during teacher’s meetings in high school to having a Spanish class where I was the only man in class, I would fit comfortably in Chad’s shoes.
- Okay, Chad is not the only male character of the group for the whole movie but he is for the majority of it. So, I can still relate.
- Hard to believe it’s already been about 15 months since I published my first movie review on this site with Scream (2022). Time sure does fly the older you get!
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