[Rating: Solid Rock Fist Up]
Isn’t it strange how even a bad Scream movie is still a pretty freaking good slasher horror pic? Except for Scream 3, that was an abomination. And guess what? Scream VI is pretty freaking good too. Sure, a lot of it is the same old, recycle, rinse, repeat formula. It’s a solid step up from the last one, which was itself a solid re-quel. It’s an impressive sequel that is all parts violent, dark, scary, gory and funny and does just about everything right, while treating all previous source material with respect from both filmmakers and cast.
After a bit of a fun little change up to start the flick, we find the core four from Scream (2022), have moved to New York for college, hoping to leave their dark past behind them. Sam (Melissa Barrera) aka the daughter or the OG Ghostface, Billy Loomis, is struggling with her dark thoughts and freaking out her therapist. She tagged along to New York to keep an eye on her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega), who just wants to try and live a normal life and not let what happened in Woodsboro define them. They’re joined by the pop culture wonder twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), who think that sticking together is the only way to survive.
Good luck with that. Because of course, Ghostface has other plans. That’s right, they have movie freak murderers in the Big Apple, too apparently. The change of location offers a refreshing take. Rather than running up and down and in and out of suburban houses, our human targets are chased through allies and abandoned warehouses and it’s a lot of fun and allows for some outlandish and violent kills from our slasher (voiced by Roger Jackson). In Woodsboro, Cali it’s easy to feel alone, to be alone, but it’s something else altogether to be in NY, surrounded by 9 million people and still feel alone, isolated an vulnerable.
The recurring characters are definitely running the show now. There’s no Sydney Prescott this time. She decided to sit this one out. Makes sense. After all, who hears people are being murdered halfway across the country and says, ‘I’ll be right there’? But Scream wouldn’t be Scream without its legacy characters. Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox) is back, as is Hayden Panettiere returns as Kirby (from Scream IV). Newcomers include Dermott Mulroney (Young Guns) as the detective investigating the recent brutal murders. Liana Liberato (Stuck in Love.) plays Tara’s roommate, while Jack Champion (he was that weird Spider kid in Avatar 2) is on board as the awkward dude who befriends a bunch of people who are unfortunately in the crosshairs of a deranged mad man.
If you’re one of those people that thinks all Scream movies are the same, you’re probably right and this movie isn’t for you. The beauty of these slasher popcorn flicks has been the whodunit mystery trying to figure out: who is the killer? How many killers are there? And what is their motivation for a sequel? This is the first time these flicks have been released in back to back years since Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997), but thankfully directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett have enough creativity and such a strong love of the slasher-horror genre that there is never a dull moment and plenty of twists and turns, even if you think you’ve got it figured out.
The only thing working against this movie is its running time. At just over two hours, there are parts where it feels like scenes could have been condensed. There’s not that much plot going on. A few snips here and there and this is a tight little package of a horror treat. It’s not dead weight, just excess. And Sam is speaking to the force ghost of her father, Billy, again. It’s less often so it’s better but it didn’t seem like they de-aged him this time so it’s a little strange to see 50 year-old Skeet Ulrich talking to his daughter.
Scream VI does not break the mold of the slasher killer horror genre the way its ancestor did way, way back in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-six. But thanks to a fresh and clever script, a couple of directors show know how their way around a horror flick, and a cast filled with actors who love being apart of the Ghostface universe, this movie hits all the right notes for fans.
Lover of movies and tacos. Ad man. Author. Member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Founder of the Terror on the Plains Horror Festival. Creator and voice of the Reel Hooligans podcast.
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