Scream VI Review

Scream VI review.

The creative team behind Scream (2022) returns with a direct sequel that honors the past while building a new future. Bigger isn’t necessarily better…but it is very good.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers

Scream VI

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet

Written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick

Starring Courtney Cox, Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Hayden Panettiere

Scream VI Review

Scream VI might be the sixth installment of an ongoing franchise…but it is also the second chapter of a new story.  Serving as a direct, immediate, sequel to last year’s Scream (2022)…it faces the same obstacles that Scream 2 did upon its release in 1997.  Time simply hasn’t lapsed enough to allow for cultural, technological or media changes.  Part 2’s answer was to deepen its surviving characters and up the spectacle.  Scream VI makes the same choice.

One year after the latest Ghostface killings the surviving young cast finds themselves under assault once again.  This time, in New York City.  Billy Loomis’s daughter Sam finds herself at the center of conspiracy theories that she was behind the last Woodsboro murders.  The new Ghostface aims to make her, and those closest to her, pay for it.

Scream VI begins with an incredibly bold move during its take on the infamous opening scene.  Unfortunately, it runs away from it as quickly as it can.  You’re left thinking about what could have been had it carried down the interesting path that it opened up.  Doing so would have made this the least Scream like entry in the series…but the time is coming for the franchise to take that risk and present something entirely unexpected.

That’s not what Scream VI is.  This is a movie caught between honoring its legacy (as last year’s movie did so well) and pushing towards a new path.  It feels very much like the middle entry in a trilogy.  It feels very much like Scream 2.  The characters, as knowledgeable about their situation as always, even call this out.  Like that film, it feels bigger than the last one.  Also like that film…bigger isn’t better…but it is still very good.

There are some incredibly effective set pieces here.  Elaborate death scenes that build tension before paying off.  It’s all very fun to look at.  A sequence set onboard subway cars is a highlight…as is one that features characters crawling across a ladder between buildings.  Scream VI is very much about the spectacle. 

It’s also a lot about Scream (2022).  The motive this time around is seemingly tied to Sam’s part in last year’s bloodbath.  Parts of the world believing that she is a killer who carried out the murders…framing Richie and Amber for them.  Being the daughter of a serial killer isn’t about the perks.  What makes this path interesting is that it positions Richie and Amber’s plan as having, at least in part, worked.  They intended to make a movie where Sam was the killer.  With some believing that she is…someone is out to finish their movie.

Scream VI finds a lot of mileage in its new “core four” characters.  Their relationships with each other are explored in greater depth.  Jenna Ortega has a lot more to do this time, no longer confined to hospital beds and wheelchairs.  Mindy is still obsessed with solving these things and beats herself up over getting it wrong last time.  Though I would point out that she did accurately predict the killers’ plan.  Chad has more on his plate as well and Mason Gooding finds a new level of depth with the character…his fear of being hurt again at odds with his need to protect the people he cares about.  Emotions can run high when our new core characters find themselves in danger.  That’s the proof the new creative team has been successful.

Back too are Courtney Cox and Hayden Panettiere as Gale Weathers and Kirby Reed, respectively.  Kirby still has enough of what we love about the character despite being older and heavily affected by her Ghostface encounter.  Gale has, for the sixth time, slipped back into the same place she always does at the start of these movies.  She’s called out for it, again…but at this point it just must be accepted as who she is.  The weight of losing Dewey hangs over her…but the need for the spotlight is still there too.  Both are great here…but one of the things I took from watching the movie is that the need for legacy characters may be over.  The future of the franchise perhaps best served looking to the future instead of the past.

What the movie doesn’t do well is make the new characters interesting.  All new friends and lovers are the most obvious suspects and potential victims.  Scream VI is a little too on the nose calling this fact our over and over.  This pretty much becomes most of the new faces’ entire identity.  They may as well be wearing a sign around their necks to remind you not to trust them or a ticking clock over their head until they become fodder. 

As always, this is a slasher whodunnit.  We’ve talked before about how hard it is for whodunnits to have satisfying reveals.  The original was a masterclass on how to do it…by upping the fun and insanity after the masks are off.  Part 4 did a good job playing those notes…and 2 and 5 did enough to win you over.  VI is a mixed bag.  It’s better than 3…but that’s not saying much.  Some of it works and some of it just feels like we’ve seen this before.  Which, of course, we have.  Five times.  That’s the uphill battle of a franchise.  Scream VI makes the choice that’s right for the story it’s telling…but it can’t reach the highs of previous entries.

In 1997 Scream 2 gave us more of what we liked on a bigger scale with more elaborate deaths.  26 years later Scream VI followed suit.  Assuming we get a third film from this creative team…they have the chance, and have set themselves up, to do what the original trilogy failed to do with its third chapter.  Stick the landing.

Scare Value

Scream VI finds itself in the interesting position of being both the sixth installment of a long running franchise and the second chapter of a new one. The past isn’t forgotten even as the series starts to look ahead. Great set pieces and added character depth highlight the latest Ghostface mayhem. You can’t shake the feeling, however, that the series needs to fully leave the past behind to reach new heights. Scream VI may end up being that turning point.

4/5

Scream VI Link

Buy tickets on Fandango

Scream VI Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of Scream VI, check out our instant reaction podcast and the full series rankings.