Scream 6 review: A better, bloodier sequel | digital trends

Contrary to what its reputation might suggest, the Scream franchise has never been more interested in reinventing the wheel than polishing it up a bit and rolling it down the hill. That’s been true since the first installment of the franchise hit theaters in 1996 and introduced the concept of the meta-slasher horror movie, and it’s still true today. scream 6. The new film comes a year after last year’s. Shoutwhich saw the horror franchise go from the death of original director Wes Craven to passing the directing reins to Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of production company Radio Silence.

In its stellar opening minutes, scream 6 feints at reinvention. After opening with the death of another unsuspecting blonde (played by an underutilized Samara Weaving, the star of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s 2019 horror-comedy Ready or Not), scream 6 does what no other Shout film has before: Reveals the face of the murderer of his first victim. For a few shocking moments, it looks like the movie is going to do away with the usual franchise structure in favor of a Colombo-esque “howcatchem” plot where viewers, for the first time in Shout history, knowing who the murderer is all the time.

It’s not a huge spoiler to say that’s not what ultimately happens. Instead, scream 6 it subverts its viewers’ expectations once again just minutes later with a double murder that sets the film back on a familiar narrative track. Fortunately, although it is easy to imagine a world in which scream 6 followed more directly from the promise of its opening minutes, what emerges is a horror-comedy that’s as intense, brutal, and genuinely exciting as any Scream movie released this century.

scream 6 picks up a year after the events of its 2022 predecessor. As the film begins, scream 5The survivors of Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) have made the wise decision to leave their hometown of Woodsboro. California, in favor of college life in New York City. Unfortunately for them, it isn’t long before the already fragile tranquility of their lives is shattered by the appearance of a new Ghostface assassin, one who sees it as his mission to make the world believe that it was Barrera’s Sam who really committed the heinous murders. of scream 5.

To do so, Ghostface relentlessly hunts down and attacks Sam, Tara, Mindy, Chad (referred to in the film as the “main four”), and the rest of their loved ones. While scream 6 introduces a handful of new characters, it also brings back two more familiar faces in the form of recurring Scream reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and scream 4 Featured Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere). After the first of the film’s Ghostface murders, Kirby arrives in New York City with an FBI badge, a gun, and an offer to help Sam, Tara, and the rest of the main four take down their last possible kill. killer.

scream 6In other words, it follows the same basic formula as the previous five installments in the franchise. Even the film’s loose college setting creates an unlikely link between it and 1997. scream 2. In fact, the only iconic item missing from the new movie is Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). The original Shout final girl noticeably does not appear in scream 6 as a result of some behind-the-scenes contract disputes between Campbell and the film’s producers. While scream 6The attempt to explain Sidney’s absence rings inevitably hollow, surprisingly not affecting the film much one way or another.

scream 6The success of Sin Campbell is due in part to how well his ensemble works on screen. As Sam Carpenter, the potential stand-in for Sidney from the franchise, Barrera seems to have much better control of his character here than in scream 5. Opposite her, Ortega and Gooding make the biggest impressions of the film’s four main cast members, with performances that feel grounded despite the inherently lofty nature of the material they’re dealing with. scream 6. Savoy Brown doesn’t fare as well as Mindy, who seems even flatter here than she does in scream 5. Elsewhere, both Panettiere and Cox put in comfortable, confident performances as their respective Scream veterans.

Cox, in particular, has a real chance to shine in scream 6. The actress is at the center of one of the best sequences in the film, which follows Cox’s Gale as she is forced to try and fend off a violent home invasion by Ghostface. While the film makes the most of the cast members, ultimately it is Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett who make scream 6 sing for real The directing duo bring out the violence and tension in their second Shout outing, delivering a thrilling slasher ride that’s not only bloodier and gorier than its predecessor, but more aggressively intense and piece-focused.

The duo’s intensified approach to scream 6 results in some of the most memorable set pieces in horror franchise history, in fact. From a harrowing escape sequence that makes great use of space between New York City apartment complexes to a violent warehouse shooting and a tense Halloween subway ride, Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin demonstrate repeatedly his understanding of how tight spaces can make certain scenes. much scarier. The same goes for the duo’s clever use of sound design throughout the film. One particularly memorable sequence uses the sound of a relentlessly slamming door to gradually build the film’s tension until it reaches unbearable heights.

Between these moments of tension, the script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick includes moments of metahumor that, in the typical Shout fashion, land and miss with almost the same amount of frequency. For example, a monologue from Savoy Brown’s Mindy about the rules of Hollywood “requels” doesn’t have the same amount of acidity as, say, a moment in which Ghostface grills Gale on the phone about what it’s been like to play “the second fiddle”. ” to Campbell’s Sidney over the years. As was the case in its 2022 predecessor, scream 6The climactic reveal of also doesn’t work nearly as well as some of the franchise’s previous third-act twists.

The actor responsible for delivering scream 6However, the final twist of it does so with a deranged camp level of intensity that is, frankly, commendable. While the film occasionally struggles to make its larger narrative beats come through as smoothly as intended, there’s never a sense that scream 6 you don’t know exactly what kind of experience you are meant to provide. Like many of the Scream outings before it, the movie is a reminder of just how exciting slasher movies done right can be. Even if it never changes for anything more than that, scream 6 still manages to cut deep.

scream 6 it is now playing in theaters.

Editors’ Recommendations