Scream VI is the latest installment of Ghostface’s bloody rampages. While this latest one is not quite up to par with previous movies, it has just enough thrills and wit to keep it together in the midst of absurdity.
There’s no Neve Campbell or David Arquette powering the franchise, but Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega are back as the sisters from the fifth movie. They attend college in New York, and Barrera’s Sam attends therapy after her encounter with Ghostface while she’s simultaneously ostracized on campus due to a rumor that she orchestrated the Woodsboro murders.
Ghostface makes his return and chooses the Big Apple as his new playground. This time around, he’s taken on the form of copycats with various motives, and some of the motives do make sense, while others are murky and don’t really add up to much.
Courtney Cox is back as reporter Gale Weathers who tells Sam and Ortega’s Tara that Campbell’s Sidney has taken her family and gone into hiding after some of Ghostface’s recent attacks. Dermot Mulroney plays a detective who wants to avenge the murder of his daughter after she’s killed by Ghostface.
The movie does have some new and interesting set pieces to stage Ghosface’s reign of terror in the Big Apple. One of his killings takes place on a subway which is perhaps unsurprising, while others take place in more conventional locations such as apartments while his victims try to escape. In this scene, it’s obvious that one of them will inevitably be slaughtered in a gruesome fashion.
Scream VI doesn’t make an entirely persuasive argument for continuing the franchise other than setting it in New York. The plot has some needless complications at times, but it does have some good stuff in it, too, such as its cast having a knowing sense of sequels. Fans will probably understand the connection The Matrix Resurrections was trying to make when being self-referential. That applies here, but it’s pretty much self-parody at this point.
I am recommending the movie for its willingness to change its tune and give us something different while managing to give us the same old same old this franchise is known for.
Maybe Scream 7 could relocate again and head for Hollywood. I’d love to see what kind of commentary that would provide.
Grade: B
(Rated R for bloody violence, language throughout, and brief drug use.)
