Scream VI

Sam and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) have left Woodsboro behind for New York City but it seems that the murderous Ghostface killer has followed them there. 

Scream VI has arrived hot on the heels of Scream (2022) with only 14 months between release dates and it is messing around with the way it represents the numeral at the end of the title once again! Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet have returned and this time they have brought along their star from Ready Or Not, Samara Weaving for the opening scene which is possibly the longest and most brutal yet. 

At this point in the series Scream feels like it is in a transitional phase. The only remaining cast member to have appeared in every film is Courtney Cox’s Gale Weathers and it’s focus now is on a new set of protagonists being led by a new set of writers and directors. Whilst I felt that this was managed well in the fifth outing it feels fumbled here. Without Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) the film feels hamstrung. The previous worse entry in the series for me was Scream 3 which sidelined Sydney in favour of Dewey and Gale as the main characters. Here her absence is really felt. 

Our characters brand themselves as “the new core four”, discuss the fact that this is now a franchise and the fact that means upping the ante on kills and gore and that legacy characters are no longer safe. As this is the second film with our new cast, writers and directors they make reference to the fact that the second film in the series was set in college, as is this one and they even give us a history lesson on the entire series. All of this sounds good on paper and definitely could have worked but I found the pacing of the film quite poor. It sputters out every time there is not a sequence featuring Ghostface and even then the final reveal is less than thrilling. 

Very much a lesser entry in a usually fun and interesting series. It will be interesting where they take it next. 

Scream – Ranked – check out my Scream ranking here