[Rating: Solid Rock Fist Up]
What do The Muppets, Jason Voorhees and Ghostface all have in common? They’ve all taken the world by storm. Oh, and they’ve all taken Manhattan by storm and blood! Maybe not the Muppets, but you know what I mean. In the sixth (which is crazy to think of!) installment in the Scream franchise, Scream VI (directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) follows a new batch of killings away from Westboro and into the big apple.
This new movie brings in the characters from the prior installment. A year after the last Woodsboro killings, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) have moved to New York City with friends Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding). Free from the threat of Ghostface, the girls try to live their new lives away from their past. Sam, still too clingy and protective of her sister, will do anything to keep her safe and keep herself from persistent online rumors she was the actual ghostface killer of 2022. However, in classic Scream fashion, a known Ghostface soon makes themselves known in the city of millions. Soon the Carpenter sisters are faced with a new threat of a killer who hits too close to home. Enter in fan favorite Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) and of course Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) to help solve once again, who the hell the killer is!
Like the previous films, this follows the same formula very well. An opening kill, young adults in peril, a blend of terrifying horror and comedy and of course, the rules of the game. I have always loved how the rules change with the ongoing times, and I commend the writers for understanding this. They tried in my opinion to change the game with the last movie and were underwhelming in execution. While that took itself too seriously and only wanted to be a legacy revival a la all those Star Wars movies, this one harkens back to Scream II. Scream II and Scream VI’s heart and soul comes from surprising its audiences the entire time. I never knew what was happening, nor could I tell you who was doing what in this. As new fan favorite Mindy would say, “everybody is a suspect.”
If anything, Scream VI is a return to form. I want the blood and guts. I want the shock and I want NEW and inventive ways to both outwit Ghostface and to introduce Ghostface to a new generation of fans. I got that in here and hope that one final installment (I hope only one more) can be bloody, BLOODY good.
Christian Ramos is a classic film fan, having had the dream to host Turner Classic Movies for years now. He also has a large amount of Oscar trivia in his head, remembers dressing as Groucho Marx one Halloween, and cherishes the moment Julianne Moore liked his tweet.
Comments on this entry are closed.