Scream VI Review: Cinema Dies but Its Icons Become Immortal | Scream 6
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Courteney Cox
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Well, one of the most loved franchises Scream released its sixth installment Scream VI in theaters. Rule number one: Scream is a saga now, so everything needs to be thought bigger. Rule number two: historical figures are cannon fodder. Rule number three: even new characters are expendable because what matters is the narrative universe. If in 1996 the first Scream notoriously codified a series of rules of the horror genre, Scream VI now aims to do the same in the era of sagas, franchises, sequels, remakes, reboots, spin-offs, prequels, requels, and so on. put more. This sixth chapter, directed like the previous one by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and in theaters from March 10, therefore carries forward the terror evoked by Ghostface and the meta-cinematographic discourses of the slasher series.
Carrying forward yes, but with just enough new elements that allow the saga to evolve, an indispensable condition for survival in the continuous evolution of the US film industry. The first and most important change is therefore the farewell to historic Woodsboro as the location of history. Instead, we find ourselves now in New York, the city that never sleeps, where sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), together with twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks (Jasmine Savoy Brown) try to have a peaceful life after the horrors experienced in the previous film. But once again they will be joined by the madness of a new Ghostface, who will immediately make it clear that the new city also includes new rules.
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 Review: 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 Review and Analysis
“Someone is making the sequel to the requel”. As soon as it’s clear that a new killer, mask and knife, is back in action, Tara and her friends, especially the shrewd and cinephile Mindy, begin to theorize. Yes, because Stab 1 (the film based on the events of Scream) took place in Woodsboro, and Stab 2 was in college. But it’s not just a sequel. This has now become a saga, and Mindy warns us that a saga has its own rules. Everything is bigger, and we have to expect the opposite of what we thought. And above all, no one is safe: in the sagas, historical characters are cannon fodder, as we said. Even the protagonists are expendable: it happened to Tony Stark and Luke Skywalker, eliminated so that the sagas could go on. Here we are warned: anyone can die. Also, Sam and Tara are the protagonists. Beyond the fact that the “theoretical” moment” in every Scream for a cinephile is always very funny, this theory gives an extra thrill to the film. We follow with apprehension as if anything could happen.
And it is. But it has been like this in every Scream, since the first one, in which the killer was an unsuspected character. And this Scream VI often calls into question that first killer, Billy Loomis. The new assassin, with his crimes, seems to give life to a sort of a countdown that should somehow reach his figure. To give us a signal is the mask that the new assassin wears: it looks old, dirty, overcooked, and full of cracks. Just as decrepit is that old, abandoned cinema, which has become a museum, where some of the key scenes of the film take place. And this is a subtext that crops up often throughout Scream VI. The cinema that appears outdated, something obsolete, becomes a museum. It is today’s cinema which, understood as a theatre, seems to no longer function, it is abandoned.
The cinema empties die but the figures created by cinema last, become immortal and iconic, and they are exhibited and revered. Cinema is dead, but cinema will never die, Scream VI seems to tell us, which often plays on this theme. We frequently hear phrases like “who cares about movies”, and “leave the movies alone”. And, when Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who hasn’t passed up an opportunity to write another book about the events of the fifth Scream, is asked if she has sold the rights to the film, the answer is “series are all the rage today”. In short, the Scream saga manages to renew itself again, to theorize again about cinema, and the discourse on sagas and seriality, and on the moment that films and theaters are experiencing, is more topical than ever and treated with the usual irony. Scream VI, of course, isn’t just that: it keeps us on edge, scares us, and often shocks us.
Speaking of Gale Weathers, she is the only one left of the historical characters, and in this sixth chapter, she will have a hard time. Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is absent this time, because she “has the right to her happy ending”, as we hear in the film, it is now the two young protagonists, Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera who hold the scene. The two actresses are so confident, tough, charming, and charismatic, that they can continue alone (this Scream VI could be a final chapter, but also a new beginning). Jenna Ortega, whom we had seen in the fifth Scream, but who then exploded with the Netflix series Wednesday, is here very far from the character that made her famous: we see her laughing, flirting, loving, kissing, getting scared, and even fighting like the tiger cub, a sweet feline who knows how to pull out his claws. Melissa Barrera, playing the older sister, is sultry, aching, and feisty, and can bring a surprising array of facets to her character. Look when she’s holding that mask. A mask that has become iconic, and never disappoints. And something tells us that we will see her again. And it will be on the big screen.
However, the change of location is not the only novelty. The fifth chapter, released last year, anticipated it and this sixth is its even more vigorous manifestation: Scream is ready for a generational change. A new generation of characters was introduced in the previous film and this new one is even the first to not boast the historical heroine of the series or Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. The passing of the baton, therefore, seems to have been completed, now offering viewers a new phase of the saga which indeed maintains ties with its past, but at the same time, as already mentioned, is ready for new rules, even at the cost of betraying those previously in force.
Also in this regard, how Scream VI reflects on all the past Ghostfaces, up to the iconic Billy Loomis, father of Sam and Tara, is indicative. The film cannot help but consider its origins, presenting them concretely in a cinema/museum that becomes a highly symbolic place. Outside of it, what is offered to spectators is therefore both a continuous meta-cinematographic reflection on the Scream saga itself and a going against the expectations of the viewer. The film is therefore ironic about itself, about the current film industry, and about the habits of the public, decidedly different from the one that welcomed the first chapter in 1996.
“The whole series falls apart from the fifth film onwards”, says one of the protagonists of Scream V, judging yet another Stab, the film series within the film. Now that the fifth chapter of Scream has been passed and this sixth is ready to arrive in theaters, you can breathe a sigh of relief: the series hasn’t gone down the drain… for now. This is because Bettelli-Olpin and Gillett once again prove to be profound connoisseurs of the subject and capable of shaping it to satisfy both those in search of violence and blood and those who are more interested in the detective story, in an attempt to identify the murderer before of the protagonists.
Scream VI, therefore, proves to be a film full of good tension, and humor and which, even if it cannot give up the classic jumps care, at least finds a way to make them more pleasant and less forced. There is no shortage of certain ingenuity in the writing, compensated however by sequences capable of making the viewer hold their breath. The two directors are therefore decisive in the success of this new chapter. Will it be the last? Considering the innovations introduced, it is difficult to believe, but at least the directions mentioned seem to presage an increasingly gloomy, violent, and, above all, unpredictable future.
Scream VI Review: The Last Words
In the review of Scream VI, we told you about 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. The sixth chapter of the Scream saga looks closely at its predecessors, however introducing a series of innovations, both in the setting and in its rules, which give it a certain charm. It is a film that completes a real generational change and that in doing so is free to open up to new possibilities and future perspectives. Finally, as for the previous chapter, also for Scream VI the two directors prove to be decisive in the construction and success of the film.
