As evidenced by its title, Scream VI is the sixth installment in the slasher horror series and acts as the direct sequel to 2022’s ‘Scream’. It revisits the survivors of the Woodsboro legacy murders as a new Ghostface killer emerges aiming to slay each of them while faithfully retracing the M.O of the previous Ghostface killers.
Slashers have mostly been retired from cinema for their banality and downright overplayed tropes; “murderer’s proclivity for sexually active teens”, “murderous psychopaths lurking in alleyways” and so on. Scream VI is no exception to the rule but instead of being studiously obedient, it humourously calls out its absurdity creating a meta narrative based on horror fandom serving as a genre refresh without deviating too far from its slasher DNA.
Scream VI Trailer
Scream VI humourously calls out its absurdity creating a meta narrative based on horror fandom serving as a genre refresh without deviating too far from its slasher DNA.
Deliberate thought and effort was made into crafting a fourth-wall breaking comedy like setting the events of the film around a film school interweaving characters, their motives and how it all plays into the fictional “franchise.” Traditionally, plot development in slasher films (or what passes for it, at least), are literally designed to hold over audiences between bloodbaths during which the most expendable character in the moment meets their gruesome end, this film inversely is character driven making it conspicuous who we should root for by outrightly telling us who. Analyzing the overarching plot makes the reason apparent, Scream VI is almost like a greatest hits version making call-backs to previous entries with nearly every character returning to reprise their role from a previous installment including Hayden Panettiere as ‘Kirby Reed’ first appearing in 2011’s Scream 4 , Courtney Cox who has been a series staple since its first release in 1996, returning as ‘Gale Weathers’ and newcomers from last year’s film, Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega who play siblings Samantha and Tara Carpenter and double as the film’s leads which the film emphasizes by being part of what they referred to as the “core four” survivors of Woodsboro.
The new killer behind the mask on the other hand isn’t treated with the same respect, as the subject of a whodunit style investigation (whose secondary function is being a framing device through which to look back at the series), he/she/they [select the least spoilery pronoun] are spun as a copy-cat imbuing the Ghostfaces of old but if you choose to view Ghostface as an entity all its own, there’s still the same frighteningly loveable, stabby persona synonymous with the character. The death scenes have been lauded for their shock value but to me for a character that habitually stabs people, it quickly loses its novelty but this is offset by the memorably quirky exchanges that precede a kill.
Self aware about today’s insufferable franchise driven movie industry, Scream VI attempts to revive a cult-classic while poking fun at its very existence. It may not be thought-provoking but is the result of careful thought from its creative team paired with an endearing cast, its denouement encourages a binge of the series while alluding to a slightly unorthodox spin for the series’ future.
