Since it’s release in 1996, Scream has been at the top of my list of best horror movies. I think the writers of Scream 5 say it best with Richie’s line about the Stab movies being “classic slasher who dunnit” films. And while the sequels couldn’t fully recreate the magic of the original, the writers always found a way to keep the viewers guessing on who the killer really was. But in my opinion, this isn’t what keeps the franchise at the top of my list.
The first thing that the Scream franchise does right is that they show the audience the inexperience of the killer(s). In each film the killer struggles to initially get their kill. Whenever the victims are face to face with Ghostface, they are usually able to put up a fight, even if just for a few minutes. It seems like the only kills that Ghostface doesn’t struggle to get are the surprise attacks. This gives the audience working theories that the killer is a peer of the victims and not some supernatural being who just wants to kill teens. In my opinion, this made the films seem more plausible than any other slasher film that came before.
Second, the writers idea to make the the films aware of themselves with Randy introducing the “rules to survive a horror movie”. Each film in the series would give the audience some kind of callback to Randy’s rules, and even gave us his rules for sequels after his death. Another win for me was the in universe film franchise based on the events of the first movie and finding a way to keep that franchise relevant throughout the sequels by making the killers obsessed with either the story behind the franchise or the films themselves. Scream 5 gave us something that felt even more real with the fan backlashes that we’ve seen develop on social media for other film franchises.
Another thing that the Scream franchise does right in my book has been the music. Music has the ability to make or break films and the Scream franchise has always delivered for me. There are songs from each film that give me goosebumps when I hear them, but the biggest one is always “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Besides the “Various Artists” soundtracks, Marco Beltrami’s orchestral soundtracks have always added the right amount of suspense to keep the audience at the edge of their seats.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about Scream VI. The four survivors of the Woodsboro attacks (Samantha [Melissa Barrera], Tara [Jenna Ortega], Mindy [Jasmin Savoy Brown], and Chad [Mason Gooding]) have moved on from their small California town to the big apple, in hopes of escaping the horrors they experienced a year prior and a fresh start. However, their past has no intention of letting them go, no matter how hard they try.
Scream VI delivers more twists and turns than any other Scream film in the series. Scream VI doesn’t pull any punches with an ever growing suspect list and what seems to be a higher body count than past film. The audience is left questioning everything they know about Randy and Mindy’s survival rules.
Scream VI definitely has some callbacks to Scream 2, however it is not the almost carbon copy feel horror fans are used to from some reboot/requels. It feels like the gore dial was turned up a smidge for Scream VI so I would highly recommend second guessing that hot dog while watching the film.
Just as in Scream 5 we are treated to some legacy characters that play a big role in the happenings of New York’s Ghostface. This however leads to a question that should be on our minds, and that is if Scream VI is going to be the final film for the franchise. When you think back to the re-quel conversation in Scream 5, it’s mentioned that Sydney Prescott is in every Stab movie except for “the last one”. So with the fact that Sydney is absent in New York, could Scream VI be our last Ghostface encounter?
Scream VI has the longest runtime of all the films in the franchise at 2 hours and 3 minutes and is rated R by the MPAA for strong bloody violence, language, and brief drug use.
PS there is also a little Ferris Bueller-esque post credit scene.
Nerdy at Home Dad 