NOW IN THEATERS! “What’s your favorite scary movie?” The original Scream (1996) has it all: horror, humor, mystery, romance, inventive kills, memorable characters, twists and turns, and my personal favorite, meta pop culture observations that offer up gems such as the rules that horror characters must abide by in order to survive.
I enjoyed the Scream 2022 “requel” (remake/sequel), as they aptly called it in the movie. However, it still felt like it was trying too hard to duplicate legendary director Wes Craven and writer extraordinaire Kevin Williamson’s classic. With Scream VI, the team known as Radio Silence, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, with producer Chad Villella, have taken the franchise to a new setting (vibrant New York City), along with new rules to reinvigorate the series with fresh blood.
The young and talented cast has also grabbed the series by the throat, stepping out of the shadow of “Final Girl” Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). The Carpenter sisters, Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), are the latest scream queens as hardened survivors of the traumatic events of the last film, along with legacy character Randy’s (Jamie Kennedy) loquacious niece Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and charming nephew Chad (Mason Gooding).
The film kicks off with a nod to Radio Silence’s fun and underrated Ready or Not by using star Samara Weaving as the bait for Ghostface’s usual big opening kill scene. The shocker is that we see who Ghostface is under the mask right away (which has always been saved as a big final act reveal), but then another twist brings the mystery back into the fold.
“Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega…are ready to carry this franchise into the next generation.”
Sam is now in therapy after surviving the killings from Woodsboro, with the story and her rough nature being so intense that it freaks even her therapist out. Tara tries to party away her bad memories, but her friends (especially Sam) are too protective to let her, much to her chagrin. Then they hear on the television news about a new grisly murder by Ghostface, kicking off the creepy calls with the signature Voice (Roger Jackson), and the chase begins.
Seeing Ghostface wreak havoc out in public in the Big Apple at new locations, such as a liquor store or crowded subway train, adds to the tension and excitement. Some slasher purists are not happy about seeing Ghostface use a gun in the movie, but I see it as a fresh and natural evolution of the killer in his new city surroundings.
Mindy takes a page out of her late uncle’s book and explains the rules to surviving a franchise, and at this point, it’s anything goes, even for returning legacy characters such as reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Scream 4 survivor Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere). I enjoyed seeing Panettiere back in the role that didn’t quite pan out at the time to be a hit, similar to when Andrew Garfield gained redemption in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Veteran actor Dermot Mulroney as Detective Bailey is another solid addition to this stacked cast.
Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega are fantastic, and as much as I loved Neve Campbell, they are ready to carry this franchise into the next generation. They have the star power and “it” factor that is necessary while playing off of each other and the rest of the cast so well.
My favorite thing about Scream (2022) was the use of original killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), akin to a Star Wars force ghost to guide Sam, but in a twisted serial killer anti-hero way. It was so invigorating (albeit not enough to forget the unoriginality of the rest of that movie), and that’s how I feel about the New York setting, gory and exciting kills, and anything-goes storyline this time around. Radio Silence needed to make Scream their own, and they did it in a blaze of blood and guts glory.
