No Surrender Cinema: Scream VI
I have a deep affection for the year 1996. While a lot of is based in sentimentality and major life events, it’s also the year that I’ve long said is arguably the most consistent year for pop culture. I listen to songs from the Lost Boyz debut album Legal Drug Money on a near-daily basis. The final episode of California Dreams still brings a tear to my eye to this day (don’t hate). Pro wrestling peaked with the formation of the New World Order, the rise of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and the insanity of ECW. Then, there was the output from Hollywood. I mean, just look at all of the films that came out in ’96. We were BOMBARDED by blockbusters like Independence Day, Twister, and The Rock. Cult favorites like The Substitute and Original Gangstas debuted at the box office among the major releases. And then, just 11 days before that amazing year came to a close, a movie hit theaters that blew me away. A movie that I latched onto as an all time favorite and followed its metamorphosis into one of the most successful horror franchises of all time. I’m talking, of course, about Scream.
So, now you’re probably asking yourself “what’s with the long-winded intro, Chris?”, and there is a good reason for it. Because I’ve just returned from the theater where I watched Scream VI, and I knew I had to come home and cover it here in No Surrender Cinema, because I had a sense of deja vu tonight as I walked out of the theater. But let me stop there before I get ahead of myself, because we’ve got a movie to talk about. There are some spoilers lurking down below, so if you don’t want to risk it, I understand. For those of you still here, let’s do this!
Sticking to tradition, Scream VI opens with a kill scene where a woman named Laura Crane is lured into an alley by who she thinks is her online date. Poor Laura should have swiped left (that’s what the kids do these days, right?), because next thing you know she’s being stabbed by Ghostface, who seems overjoyed by the kill and unmasks to reveal…nobody that we’ve ever seen before.
It turns out that this nobody just so happens to be enrolled at the same college as Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), who has come to live in New York with her sister Samantha (Melissa Barrera) and Chad and Mindy, the Meeks-Martin twins (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown) after the events of the previous film. Unfortunately for them, instead of enjoying a life of solitude a la Sidney Prescott in Scream 3, Samantha, who we learned in the last film is the daughter of original Ghostface Billy Loomis, is persona non grata both online and in real life. Scream VI runs with a very modern take on social media and how character assassination is easier than ever since some people will blindly believe anything, and so Sam finds herself dealing with a swarm of haters and conspiracy theorists who persistently trash her online and believe that she was the real killer in the last Woodsboro massacre and framed her boyfriend (Jack Quaid from The Boys) and his secret lover Amber to avoid taking the fall. The poor girl can’t even get through a therapy session or walk along the college campus without being side-eyed or taunted! Sam tries her best to remain resilient, and the combination of trauma and torment makes her extremely overprotective of Tara, who has begun to resent the life she’s being forced to live.
People shit-posting conspiracies on Reddit are about to be the least of her troubles, because word gets around that there’s a new Ghostface in town, and he’s already hitting close to home. However, we were dealt a red herring right in the first act, because remember that random guy who committed the first murder? It turns out that he’s not the real Ghostface, he’s just some psycho fan looking for a little knife practice! This draws the ire of the real Ghostface, who slaughters Jason (the random) and his roommate in one of the more gory scenes in the series. I also have to give props to the producers of Scream VI, who threw a nice little inside joke in the film in relation to the new setting. With Ghostface on the prowl in the Big Apple, it’s only fitting that Fake Ghostface Jason was watching Jason Takes Manhattan, the 8th movie in the Friday The 13th franchise, before he wound up on the wrong end of a knife.
So we’ve got a heroine who is seen as anything but, fake Ghostfaces, and a new location…what else could Scream VI do to freshen things up? How about having the killer throw in some nods to the past, like leaving the masks worn by previous Scream villains at the scene of each attack? Yes, it appears that this Ghostface is quite nostalgic, and the film takes us for a walk down memory lane with mentions of all of the previous people to don the Ghostface mask, and a little fourth wall breaking dialogue such as a mention of Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard’s character from the first film) potentially still being alive, which is something that has been discussed frequently over the years since Lillard said he was supposed to return to the series, but creator Kevin Williamson stated that was never the case).
Ghostface isn’t the only one harkening back to the past, since the new crew are reunited with veteran Ghostface victim Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox, thankfully wearing better outfits that the nightgown she had on at the end of Masters of the Universe. Just Google it.) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), who it turns out recovered from near death in Scream 4 to become an FBI agent with a vested interest in these new murders. I have always loved the way that this franchise retains such strong continuity by keeping characters alive (around), but as Mindy later states when explaining the new set of “rules” they need to abide by, there’s no guarantee for anyone’s survival anymore. Legacy characters and main characters alike could meet their end, and no one on the fringes of the Carpetner/Meeks-Martin “Core Four” group should be trusted. That means Mindy’s girlfriend Anika, Tara and Sam’s promiscuous roommate Quinn, Chad’s roommate Ethan, and Sam’s friend with benefits neighbor Danny should all be seen as potential wearers of the black and white mask.
Kill-wise, this was by far the goriest of all of the Scream films. While the series still gives off that meta charm and has retained its wit, we get bodies stuff in fridges, bathrooms covered in blood, and more than one knife to the face. One of the most fun sequences in the film is one that was given away in the trailer, where Ghostface follows the Carpenter girls into a bodega and stabs several people before picking up the owner’s shotgun and trying to blow them away. Ghostface with a gun might seem awkward to some, but hey, I don’t make the rules, and even if I did, the game has changed.
Scream fans were up in arms when it was revealed that negotiations to bring Neve Campbell back for the sixth film didn’t go well, but I’ll be honest, her presence wasn’t missed nor was it really necessary. Gale does make mention that the return of Ghostface has sent Sidney and her family into hiding, and that’s really it. Other than Gale and Kirby, the only other Scream OG is Billy Loomis…or rather Sam’s visions of him. It seems that Samantha can’t shake the sight of dear old dad being the devil on her shoulder, and he’s still around acting as her serial killer spirit guide. Aside from that, the spotlight shines bright on the “Core Four” and the select few in their orbit, showing that the torch has officially been passed and that this latest killing spree wasn’t necessarily spawned from something 27 years ago. This makes the new Ghostface’s motives a little less clear, which kept me intrigued to see where it went. I do feel that there’s one part of the revelation that was incredibly obvious, but I also think it was intentional as to throw us off the scent of what was yet to come. Then again, maybe I’ve just seen too many scary movies.
Scream VI did not disappoint, and if anything gave even more life to the franchise after the strong performance of last year’s Scream. I mentioned the sense of deja vu I felt earlier, and what I saw tonight truly impressed me. This felt like the Top Gun: Maverick of horror films; a fresh take on an old favorite, embraced by both the current generation and people like me who have spent the past three decades watching Ghostface grow into one of the most iconic characters in horror history. While this film could easily serve as closure to the story of the Core Four and acts as a love letter to all of the killers who donned the mask in prior films, it could just as easily bring Ghostface back stronger than ever in a seventh installment. I know that the directors of the 2 most recent films are eager to continue the franchise, and since Scream VI kept my “no such thing as a bad Scream movie” streak intact, I hope they get their wish.
Scream VI is now in theaters.
