Scream VI Movie review – Ghostface takes Manhattan in standout slasher sequel

 

In the unusually good slasher sequel Scream VI, Hayden Panettiere's returning fan favorite character says she died for four minutes after being stabbed in the fourth installment in 2011. That film, now considered a rather underappreciated entry, killed the franchise for far longer, positioned as the beginning of a new trilogy but instead halting the series for over a decade, its wounding box office proving far more difficult to heal.

Last year's simply titled Scream became a surprise hit, re-engaging the OG 90s kids while also inspiring a legion of new bloodthirsty fans, thanks to easy access to the series via streaming and an increased appetite for the horror genre. It was only half-successful as a legacy sequel, juggling the old and new with shaky hands, but it was good enough in a landscape where that's more than enough, and cautious intrigue awaited wherever the franchise might go next.

As with 1997's Scream 2, we didn't have to wait long for Scream VI, which arrived just over a year later, with survivors reuniting for more meta mayhem. While there are plenty of unexpected twists in store for them and us, perhaps the biggest surprise is just how impressive the whole thing is, given both the frantic cram of production and the muddle of what came before. There are so many plates spinning now - two generations grappling with one absurdly convoluted timeline - but returning screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick have mastered a tonal balance that they struggled with last time around.

Tone has always been important in the Scream films, which are an odd mix of self-referential snark, Scooby Doo mystery-solving, gory horror, and far-fetched family soap. Unlike many slasher sequels, which focus on the primal basics of watching someone in a mask do horrible things to anonymous young people, a new Scream is tasked not only with tackling an almost 30-year-long melodrama involving multiple families and multiple grudges, but also with the need to reinvent the wheel, with each sequel having to say or do something we haven't seen before. While Scream VI is far less focused on a thesis than its predecessor, it is still astute enough to comment on franchise fatigue and the monotonous grind of trauma without feeling didactic or smug.

For the third time in the franchise (the second film took us to a leafy college campus, the third to Hollywood), Ghostface is taking Manhattan, or more accurately Montreal posing as Manhattan, as Jason Voorhees did before him/her/them. Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), aka the daughter of Billy Loomis (still returning in visions, still a heinous idea), has insisted on living with her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega), an understandably smothering presence after the two nearly died months before. But, before you can say the classic slasher sequel line, "It's starting again," bodies pile up around them, at the bodega, in an apartment building, and, of course, on the subway.

What's notable this time is that it's not Neve Campbell's tortured Final Girl Sidney Prescott delivering that line resignedly because, for the first time, she isn't in this chapter. The star spoke out about a perceived low salary, which she felt was unfair given her prominence in the franchise and the amount of money the previous film made, and decided not to return (a strategy that will surely, hopefully, pay off with a healthy paycheck for the inevitable Scream VII). Instead, it's up to Courteney Cox, reprising her role as the opportunistic yet haunted journalist Gale Weathers (and thankfully given more to do this time, which she does predictably well), and Panettiere's film geek turned FBI agent to represent the old guard, while Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown's characters represent the new.

After a genuinely surprising and horrifyingly effective cold open, by which every Scream is judged, directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett instantly find their groove, freed from the shackles of both the previous film's scene-setting and a need to be as tiresomely meta. Barrera also feels more liberated, having overcome some of her soapier acting impulses and developing a strong sibling dynamic with Ortega, who is once again a standout. While we might have left the fifth film wondering if the newer generation could ever match their predecessors' long-running chemistry, there's little doubt here, with the "core four," as they call themselves, proving both charming and heartfelt.

It's the second film in the new rebooted universe, so bigger is better with a number of brash and bloody setpieces, most of which are suspenseful but never truly frightening (has a Scream film needed to be truly terrifying since the first?). It's the goriest film in the series so far, but it never descends into grimness, with the tonal balance perfectly modulated. The final act reveal is as ridiculous as one would expect, but satisfying for reasons that are impossible to explain without revealing spoilers. What can be said is that there is so much affection for what has gone before that it makes us even more excited for what is to come next. If additional Screams can provide this much