Latest installment falls flat
PHOTO CREDIT: screammovie.com
With 2022’s “Scream” being an unsurprising success both financially and critically, no one was surprised to hear that a sequel was in the works. Just as I am sure that no one is surprised to hear that “Scream 7” has already been confirmed.
But where do you take a series that has already commented on sequels, trilogies, remakes and re-quels, a sequel that also functions as a remake?
Well, you move to the next big thing, franchises. Moving to the next big thing is something “Scream 6” tries to do in every capacity, from its location to its chase scenes to its kills. The movie succeeds in certain areas more than others but the end product ends up being nothing particularly special.
The premise of the movie is thankfully brief and clear. After the events of the last film, our four main characters, the “Core Four” as they are dubbed, move to New York to start a fresh chapter. Which only lasts for six months before a new Ghostface dawns the mask with the intent of punishing them and anyone who gets in the way.
The change of setting to New York is a nice change of pace from the small town suburbia “Scream” has been set in, since the original and the film utilizes the new location properly. I’ll only mention scenes that have been in the trailer, but while you never see Ghostface running around Times Square sadly, you do see him in a bodega and a subway and a particularly engaging sequence in an apartment.
Many people have mentioned this and I feel it is worth repeating because I found it to be a highlight as well. The brutality of this film is the most intense of the series and makes for the scariest Ghostface yet. The physicality of the performance brought to life by Max Leferriere is very aggressive and blunt. If you are in his way, he will dispatch you as soon as possible, but he can also take his time if he finds it necessary. There is nothing absurdly grotesque in the film but there is a certain emphasis on the anger in this Ghostface that I found to be effective and understandable given the motivation of the person under the mask.
Unfortunately, while “Scream 6” works well as a slasher movie, it fumbles a bit more as a “Scream” movie. Not only because the meta aspect of the “Scream” movies has become very stale in the time between 1996, when the first film came out, and 2023, but also because this film has very little to say about the rules of a franchise. Nothing new is said that hadn’t already been said about sequels in “Scream 2”. Anyone can die at any time and the stakes are bigger, that’s about it. And the continuous reincorporation of unneeded characters is getting a little absurd. The inclusion of Kirby Reed from “Scream 4”, while a nice way of honoring a fan favorite character, ends up being almost completely unnecessary.
Additionally, movies and franchises are only discussed in one scene, which makes the meta commentary feel all the more weak and unneeded. But again, movies have become very self-aware in the past few decades, mostly due to the popularity of the original “Scream”, so less meta cleverness is almost refreshing at this point.
Where the movie fumbles the most for me is unfortunately the aspect of the “Scream” movies that should always be given priority; the reveal of the killer. On one hand, the motivations for this new Ghostface make more sense than the motivations of the killers in the last film but again, either the writers or directors seem to forget that the killer needs to be intimidating. And once the mask came off and the monologuing began, any unsettling feeling I may have had was gone. There were a little too much goofy laughing and comically evil grins for me to take any of it seriously.
What makes it even harder to take things seriously is how many people get stabbed and survive. No spoilers of course, but I counted four characters who were attacked and wounded who should have died and ended up surviving. One of which was so absurd that it was laughable. It seems like the movie is working against its own positive attributes. I want to be scared of this Ghostface but it’s hard to feel that way when he succeeds in killing his victims about half of the time. “Scream” has always been a little too protective over its characters but now it has officially gone too far, which I hope they remedy in the next film.
Overall, “Scream 6” does have its bright spots of entertainment and engagement but it is quickly becoming a franchise that desperately needs to pack a harder punch before it peters out and loses its edge.