Scream VI Ending Explained: Who is Ghostface? Who is the Killer? Who Defeats Ghostface?
Scream VI has just arrived at the cinema (it has been in theaters since March 9), and it is already causing discussion. Some appreciated the film for how it was able to renew the saga and those who regret the first Screams, those signed by Wes Craven. The new story, set in New York, works in our opinion and maintains the characteristics of Scream that we have seen so far. There is suspense, fear, and blood. There are metafiction games about cinema and horror cinema. There are two new “scream queens”, who have nothing to envy the protagonists of the original films, Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, aka Tara and Samantha “Sam” Carpenter. But how does Scream 6 end? If you want to know, here’s our explanation of the Scream VI ending, which, of course, contains spoilers. Read after watching the movie if you like.
Yes, because in the new course of the saga, launched two years ago with the fifth film, simply called Scream, people continue to die, to be quartered, if possible, in an even more bloody and violent way. But this sentence, in light of the new film, has above all a metaphorical meaning. Because, after Scream has addressed a precise aspect of cinema in each chapter (the fifth was the requel or legacy sequel), now we are talking about sagas, very long stories which, to go on and make sensational shots, can also sacrifice protagonists. In the sagas, there are no rules, and even the most beloved characters can die. As usual, Scream VI, like all its predecessors, confirms itself as a horror capable of keeping the tension high, giving us chills and intriguing us with its quotations and meta-cinematographic games. Letting go, or almost, of the historical actresses, he has found two great protagonists: Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.
Scream VI: The Story Plot
Fans of the Scream saga know how important the context of Woodsboro is within this one. The transition from the iconic town to the New York metropolis was therefore undoubtedly the element that more than others aroused a certain curiosity towards Scream VI. A change that is not only indicative of the need for renewal of the saga, ready to go beyond the boundaries in which it has always lived up to now, but which also heralds new possibilities for future paths. A novelty therefore consistent with today’s requests that the industry addresses this type of saga. New York, therefore, becomes the new theater of horrors perpetrated by Ghostface, here free to move through dark alleys, shops, subways, and any other sort of crowded place.
The scenes set in these contexts are therefore particularly strong, including the one in the subway, of which we have already had a taste with the trailer. Between close-ups, flashing lights, flickering shots, and the crowd in which one can cleverly hide, this moment undoubtedly becomes one of the most iconic in the film, in which the New York environment is well exploited to generate that sense of tension given from being in a place where danger can arrive at any time and from any direction. The city is not always adequately exploited in the film, but if there should be other Scream films and they should always be set in New York, there will certainly be a way to explore it better.
With the screen still black, we hear a phone ring. It is that of a trendy restaurant. At the counter, waiting for a blind date is a professor of film history (Samara Weaving). Between dating chats and phone calls, she is lured into an alley, where Ghostface shows up. Immediately after he goes into action, we see him take off his mask: but we know that this doesn’t mean anything. Another Ghostface, armed with a knife, goes into action shortly after. We are in New York, on a university campus, where Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) started classes a few months ago, and where her sister Samantha (Melissa Barrera) is close to her to protect her. But she, meanwhile, goes to therapy, to accept what happened in Woodsboro the year before. And to fight his father’s ghost, Billy Loomis, the first Ghostface, which still seems deceased, to condition his life. Meanwhile, a new Ghostface is claiming victims, and his target seems to be Sam.
Scream VI Ending Explained: Who is Ghostface? Who is the Killer?
Tara and Sam Carpenter have arrived in the abandoned New York cinema that has become a sort of mausoleum, a museum full of memorabilia, collected by someone who is a true fan of the saga. Here the two girls, together with FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), come face to face with the killer, Ghostface, and find out who he is. Warning, those who have been following the saga since Wes Craven’s first Scream in 1986 know that there is not necessarily just one Ghostface. Indeed, he knows that they often work in pairs. So, this time the killers are three, and all in the family. The deus ex machina is Wayne Bailey the father of Richie, Samantha’s boyfriend who became the killer and lost his life, in the fifth Scream.
Next to him are Quinn (Liana Liberato) and Ethan (Jack Champion), his children, Richie’s sister, and his brother. Quinn had deliberately arranged to become Tara’s roommate, and also to stage her murder by Ghostface, so as not to be among her suspects. Ethan, to tell the truth, always rather detached among the boys of Tara’s company, had been immediately suspected: the shrewd Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) already called him Ghostface. Ethan, therefore, was so much blamed as not to be suspected. Quinn wasn’t a suspect because she was…dead. And Wayne, their father, was unsuspected: because he is a policeman, and what’s more we had seen him destroyed by the death of his daughter. And then he had that reassuring face that Dermot Mulroney’s characters have, who, even at 60.
What is the Killer’s Motive?
The motive is clear: it is to avenge the son and punish who, according to them, is the murderer of Richie, his son, that is Sam. The father, like the whole family, was very close to Richie and also to his favorite films, those of the Stab saga, which, we know, is the film transposition of what happens in the Scream stories. “I find them a bit dark, but he liked them a lot,” says the father of those films. The avid collector, who gathered all the memorabilia of history in an old, abandoned cinema at the time, was Richie himself. And Wayne and his sons kill in his name and his memory.
Who Defeats Ghostface?
And so, in Scream VI, the circle comes full circle. Yes, because Tara and Sam, the two sisters who are the killer’s target, must defend themselves from his stabbings, in turn, become stabbers. Once you get to challenge the killer in a position of strength, they end up hitting him with the knife, hitting him hard. The point is that, as Sam had told the psychologist at the beginning of the film, already at the moment when (in the previous film, the fifth in the saga, simply entitled Scream) Sam liked this thing. So is Sam really like his father, like Billy Loomis, the killer of the first Scream? Is he really a killer?
You Either Die A Hero Or Live Long Enough To Become The Villain
Much of the film, ever since Sam makes that confession to his psychologist, plays on this: the new killer, in his phone calls, says that she is just like her father, she is a killer. A series of posts on social networks (but, we’ll see, even these were artfully piloted) convinces public opinion that, in the case of the Woodsboro events of the fifth Scream, Sam was the villain. It is that mechanism that is often established and that The Dark Knight told us very well. “Either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.” And so, in the finale that follows the sub-finale we told you about above, we discover that the fabulous 4 (i.e. Tara, Sam, Mindy, and Mason, the 4 friends who have sworn to survive and give Ghostface a hard time) have all remained in life, while everything seems calm to us.
Ghostface Mask and The Dark Side of Sam?
It’s just a moment, sure. But Sam took the Ghostface mask with him, after killing him. He holds it in his hands, touches it, and looks at it. It seems to her that it is something familiar. Her face takes on a momentary scowl. And it seems that strange ideas are about to return to her, ghosts of the past, the legacy of her father, Billy Loomis, the first assassin. But it’s only for a moment. Her sister Tara calls her and distracts her. Somehow, he awakens her from her bad thoughts of her. But the doubt is now instilled. And, if ever there will be a Scream 7, it could be about Sam’s transition to the dark side.
