Miss Flicks

Scream VI: Film Review

I really liked the fifth Scream movie last year so I had high hopes for the follow-up. While the final act is a bit of a letdown, Scream VI is another entertaining slasher movie.

After the events of 2022’s Scream, the survivors of the latest Woodsboro massacre – Sam (Melissa Barrera), Tara (Jenna Ortega), Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) – relocate to New York to start over. Around Halloween, a year after the previous massacre, Ghostface shows up once again and targets our Core Four.

The film starts off really strong with an opening sequence that knows the expected rules and subverts them to a thrilling effect. The sequence is refreshing, entertaining and written really well and gave me high hopes for what was to come. For a good chunk of its two-hour runtime, Scream VI maintains this standard, giving us inventive and exciting setpieces (the subway and bodega encounters stand out), hilarious meta commentary about “the rules” of the franchise and seriously brutal kills. It is quite scary at times and I was on the edge of my seat for certain parts.

However, the movie is a little bit too long and loses steam in the second half and it falls into a lot of silly traps that it worked so hard to avoid earlier on. The story really falls down with the killer reveal; I thought the killer(s) were lame and badly written. I know they have to explain their motive but the exposition felt clunky, plus, the acting was so OTT. Just because you’re now a killer, doesn’t mean you have to start hamming it up!

Also, you have to suspend your disbelief with some of the more savage stabbings – characters should not be able to survive them, let alone get up and walk away from them. This is a serial Scream offence, but I would respect the film so much more if it committed to killing off more people because the stakes would be much higher.

Due to a pay dispute, Neve Campbell declined to play Sidney Prescott in this film. It’s a shame the franchise’s favourite final girl isn’t involved but she wouldn’t have had much to do here and I feel like she would have been shoehorned in for the sake of it. Even the two remaining legacy characters – Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) – didn’t feel totally necessary, although they get some cool scenes and their presence offers that hit of nostalgia. The renewed franchise is really all about the new Core Four, with Ortega stealing the show.

Scream VI is another strong entry into the highly entertaining slasher franchise – I just wish the ending was better.

In cinemas from Wednesday 8th March