‘Scream VI’ Movie Review

Scream VI is brought to us by the same team who revived the franchise last year with Scream (2022). It’s been a year since the events of the previous film. Sam and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega) are at Blackmore University in New York City, along with their friends Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding). But a new Ghostface starts killing other people around them, and the “Core Four”, as Chad dubs them, will need to enlist the help of old acquaintance Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), local lawman Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), and newly-returned final girl-turned-FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere).

2022’s Scream was more divisive than I realized when I first saw it, but I really enjoyed it. I know some people didn’t connect with the new characters as much as they did with the OG cast, but I found them likable enough. I also thought the commentary was solid, as were the scares. As it turns out, Scream VI is pretty good, too! I’ll definitely address its flaws, but it’s thoroughly entertaining, and if a seventh film is in the cards, I’m down. The Scream franchise is that rare one in which every film is solid, some are just better than others. The writing team of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick are great at constructing an intriguing story with plenty of tension and humor. I will say that the meta elements of the franchise felt a little bit more forced in this film. With last year’s film satirizing “requels”, as they call them, this one is naturally commenting on sequels to requels. I was kind of hoping they might go after a different horror zeitgeist in this one and maybe take a few more chances, but this was still fine. There’s a moment in the beginning where it seems like they are about to take a major risk with their story and characters, but the misdirection is quickly redirected back to normalcy. While I’m sure people would have thrown a fit over the very idea of them trying something slightly different (does The Last Jedi ring any bells?), I would have been interested in seeing what they did with it. This isn’t to say the film is uninteresting, just nothing especially bold.

There was a bit of controversy with the casting of Scream VI, but I’ll get to that in a bit. We get to delve a bit more into the warped psyche of Sam Carpenter, once again played marvelously by Melissa Barrera. Tara Carpenter, her younger sister, is just yet another awesome feather in Jenna Ortega’s scream queen cap, and I’m really enjoying seeing her flourish. Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, who play Mindy and Chad, respectively, are more layered and engaging this time around. I didn’t find them to be as bland or unlikeable in the previous film as some did, but it was great to get some more depth and texture from them. Dermot Mulroney might be the best part of this movie, because he gives a powerhouse performance here, and I’m so glad he’s a part of this franchise. We also see the return of the cold open cameo with a contemporary scream queen, and that bit of fun familiarity was quite welcome.

Now for the legacy characters, and this is where said controversy comes in. The studio rather infamously wouldn’t pay Neve Campbell what she’s worth, so this marks the first Scream movie not to feature Sidney Prescott. She deserves to be paid fairly, and if there’s a seventh film, I hope she is included. That said, the film does still have a couple of legacy characters in its cast: Gale Weathers and Kirby Reed (and one other surprise one I won’t reveal, but if you saw the fifth movie, you can probably guess). Courtney Cox is now the only actor to appear on-screen in every Scream movie, since the indispensable Roger Jackson is only ever heard, never seen. This is probably the least obnoxious that Gale has been thus far, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still do some shady things. Cox continues to excel in the role, even when we aren’t supposed to like her. Kirby was a fan favorite in Scream 4, so viewers were pretty excited when it was revealed she would be returning. She’s basically filling Sidney’s role here, but she’s as fiesty and lovable as ever, and we get to explore her character a bit more than we had previously.

The Scream series has never revolved around gore like some other franchises have, but Scream VI does have a few truly nasty moments, and they all pack their intended punches. We also get some great set pieces that steep the film even more firmly in the established lore. Not only are they cool, they provide a great location for some awesome chase scenes, a Scream hallmark that the fifth film was sadly lacking. And of course, the mystery element is still top notch.

Scream VI is another victory for the franchise that continues to flesh out its newer characters while still adding more dimension to a couple of old ones. It plays it a bit safe this time, but that doesn’t keep it from being a highly entertaining ride.

SCORE: 4/5