It is no surprise to anyone that knows me that Scream is not only my favorite horror movie but also my favorite movie. Scream 5 was released last year to overall acclaim and I am glad and grateful to say Scream 6 is another fun killer sequel in this long-running franchise.
Plot and Setting
What makes this franchise so great is that it keeps finding a way to remain fresh. We still have the things every Scream fan looks for of course. A great opening sequence, clever meta dialogue, and some fun inventive kills. What really feels fresh in this sequel though is the setting.
Sam (Melissa Barrera), Tara (Jenna Ortega), Chad (Mason Gooding), and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) have moved from Woodsboro to New York City for a new start after surviving last year’s killings. A new Ghostface shows up though, and the core four have to try to survive once again.
The new setting really works because it gives us a glimpse of where these movies can go. We still get the tropes that we love but we get different rules, different stakes, and brand-new situations in a new city.
The Characters
One of the big complaints I saw that people had with Scream 5 was the fact that our new main character Sam was related to Billy Loomis and was able to see him from time to time. It was a major risk that did not work for everyone. The character of Sam was giving a lot of heavy dialogue in that movie and there were times that the suspension of belief was necessary for sure,
This time around though I felt like the character of Sam was truly perfected. It is very interesting to watch her battle with this inner darkness that she has and wonder if she will ever give in to it. Melissa Barrera is really strong in this movie and that goes for the rest of the cast.
The writing and character development worked well with our 4 main characters in part 5, and it is even stronger here. We see more vulnerability and even more chemistry between them and it makes the movie even more suspenseful because we don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
The Scream franchise always has excellent casting and the rest of the cast of this movie does not disappoint. We have some returning characters such as Gale and Kirby,(played by Courtney Cox and Hayden Panettiere) who are great as usual. The newcomers also have great chemistry with our main heroes. Samara Weaving, Tony Revolori, and Dermot Mulroney join our franchise and do an excellent job in their roles.
The Kills and Nostalgia
The attacks and kills in Scream 6 are fantastic and Ghostface is incredibly brutal in this film. There are so many great set pieces in this film and they all have tons of suspense and payoff. If you make a horror movie in New York City you got to have a subway scene. As we see in the trailer, we most certainly do have a train scene and it is so damn suspenseful.
There are many great scenes in the film and honestly Scream 6 might have some of my favorite kills and set pieces in the whole franchise. There is usual meta humor and some important dialogue scenes of course but Scream 6 is a bloody nasty film that does not hold back any punches.
I think what helps this movie and what will continue to help the franchise is that it doesn’t solely rely on nostalgia. We do get a good amount of callbacks in this film but none of them are eye-rolling. They are actually pretty exciting. For the most part, though, this has become Sam and Tara’s story and the blending of giving us what we love and what we haven’t seen before is done very well.
Overall
Scream 6 is another win for the franchise. Radio Silence really understands what Wes Craven was doing and it seems like this franchise is in very good hands. Scream 6 is bloody, funny, scary, and suspenseful as hell while still being able to tell a captivating story with solid fully fleshed-out characters. As a lover of this franchise, I definitely will have to take time to wonder where this new movie will go in my ranking of the franchise, but trust me, this is a good problem to have.
Scream 6 is available to see in theatres now playing.
