Scream VI (2023) review: Ghostface has never been more brutal as he takes New York

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Few franchises in the grand scheme of things get to the point of part 6, and if they are to do so, the results are interestingly varied. From the unexpectedly successful (Rocky Balboa, Curse of Chucky) to the downright abysmal (The Curse of Michael Myers, Hellraiser: Hellseeker), but even rarer is those that deliver a sixth instalment that stands as the greatest film in the series (or at least close), let’s call it the Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives achievement (it’s a classic, I’ll hear no arguments here). So, did Ghostface’s sixth outing manage to attain that rare crown? Bloody nearly.
Like Jason before him, the masked horror icon in this case heads to the big apple (a fact clearly not lost on the makers who insert a number of Jason Takes Manhattan easter eggs in there), as the last film’s survivors Samantha (Melissa Barrera) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) have relocated to New York, alongside their sibling pals Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown). But when a spate of violent Ghostface (voiced once more by the ever excellent Roger L. Jackson) killings start occurring, they realise that this time something is considerably different.
From the rug-pullingly cracking opening act, you are left with the impression that this one might be a bit different, and not just because of Neve Campbell’s franchise first absence (though Sidney’s non-appearance is explained rather sensibly). No doubt about it, after helming last year’s tremendous legacy sequel lampooning franchise restarter, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence) have done the late great Wes Craven proud, and with this sequel they keep the energy up, as well as the gore!
The setting change gives the film a whole new vibe to work with, and the film makes great use of it, with undoubtedly some of Scream’s best ever set pieces. From the horror icon-filled subway, to the high wire ladder act, to the theatre of reverence, to (best of all) a thrilling long-overdue proper face-off between Ghostface and Gail Weathers (a returning Courtenay Cox).
To that last point, the legacy material is largely quite well used here, with some fun uses of literal and teased character returns, franchise lore, and toying with past conventions. While the plot itself keeps you guessing, and (this more weathered) Ghostface has never been so unrelentingly brutal.
In fact Scream VI was well onto its way for being one of the best of the series, until an undeniably wonky final act, which certainly does not undo all the fine work to that point but gets a bit tangled and tied up narratively and thematically, and the Ghostface reveal felt decidedly less earth-shaking than it should have done, considering some of the stakes and story aspects this film had building up to it.
Meanwhile, the actual themes the film is dissecting, are less impactful than other films in the series like the last film, or Scream 4’s remake/reboot discussion, or of course the original’s genre-shaking discourse, as this film only really lightly touches on its chosen topics of horror franchise sequels going for broke, wild fan fiction and audience expectations, in favour of ultimately a quite straight forward revenge-driven whodunnit.
Still, this was fantastically delivered slasher entertainment, awash in horror movie references for fans of the genre, and which excelled thanks to its chosen “core four”. Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Jenna Ortega, as the new survivors of Woodsboro, present a great dynamic. Likeable, funny and with their own unique depths and ties to the past to deal with, here they really carve out there own path in this series. While some of the faces of the franchise’s history make a mark themselves (Cox is still the MVP in that area for me).
It seems there is still plenty of life in ‘ol Ghostface yet, and in the survivors old and especially (in this case) new. So, see you all next time for Scream VII…in space (probably not, but who knows?!), after all its what Jason did, albeit after a telekinesis battle and deadite soul-jumping!
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