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Scream VI Movie Review

Scream VI is a 2023 slasher film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and starring Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. It’s a solid improvement upon its predecessor.

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“I got it wrong again.

Fuck this franchise!“

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Four survivors of the Ghostface murders leave Woodsboro behind for a fresh start in New York City. However, they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when a new killer embarks on a bloody rampage. I didn’t quite care for the fifth movie, which I found to be the weakest one after the third entry. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised with this sixth flick that landed firmly in the middle of the pack when it comes to Scream movies.

There is very little comedy here once again, which was frustrating to me. I am a believer that Scream films should be first and foremost a witty commentary on the genre and then a horror film itself, but these last couple of flicks went in the opposite direction. Of the commentary that we got here, it was all about franchises and how they have the tendency to kill off legacy characters in a huge bid for nostalgia. This was a clever wink at this franchise itself, which made this movie pleasingly self-parodic.

But other than that, this is pretty much a slasher flick, especially in its action-oriented second half. I liked the reveal that there were multiple Ghostface killers and this family of villains really worked. They were silly and they monologued a lot, but at least that final confrontation between them and the heroines was so much fun. But the horror elements were weaker. Just because a film is violent doesn’t mean it’s scary. It was never scary, but yes, it was incredibly violent with a staggering body count and a ridiculous amount of gore present.

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Scream VI is the first Scream film without Sidney, but at least Gale was here and Courteney Cox was wonderful in the role. Her big fight scene was superbly executed and so epic. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega are memorable protagonists while Mason Gooding and Hayden Panettiere were quite memorable in supporting roles. I liked all of these characters, but there were too many of them, which rendered their development almost impotent. The film’s change of location was refreshing and so was its emphasis on very elaborate set pieces, but it had an overlong runtime, overly gory kills and not enough humor at the end of the day.