It’s easy to know why ‘Scream’ succeeds, but not to make a good movie in the saga: the mix of horror, slasher, comedy and meta commentary has to be measured well enough so as not to escape to one side or the other. We have so internalized what a film in this saga is that the greatest terror of those responsible is that someone leaves the room saying “Okay, but it’s not ‘Scream'”. Its new principals, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, they have known how to respect the legacy of Wes Craven… to a perhaps excessive limit of continuity which is especially noticeable in its sixth part.
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‘Scream VI’ is, without a doubt, a movie worthy of its name. And he had a hard time after playing his particular trick: neither takes place in Woodsboro nor does Sidney Prescott make an appearance for the first time. But, despite everything, New York feels like a natural place to continue with the classic Ghostface saja-raja and opens up new possibilities for the saga, which adds new typically New York elements such as alleys, dwarf apartments, universities and public transport to give the feeling of changing everything… without really changing anything.
Go ahead I love ‘Scream’. If the name with which I identify myself on the Internet is Randy Meeks since the days of Windows 98, it is for a reason: at a time when terror was in the doldrums, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson knew how to build a saga that built on what had already been built, smiled at the fan without making fun of him and anticipated a conversation about the obsession with cinema that is even more current today than then. Times have changed but Ghostface’s look, his knife and his intricate unions with the rest of the movies they still work like a shot… at least for the fans.
Can you watch ‘Scream VI’ without having seen the previous five? In the same way as ‘Scream (2022)’. I mean, yes… but being aware that, at heart, it is still a meta commentary on the previous quintuple that never stops looking at the past as a way to build the present. Said in Christian: you are not going to find out too much about how or why, but the murders are still very funny and the visual proposal of the directors is striking enough enough to overlook its (many) script issues.
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It is difficult to talk about this film without emphasizing two statements that seem antagonistic but live in it at the same time: It has some of the best scenes in the saga, but its final cowardice leads to being overlooked in the face of disappointment. But, thinking cold and overlooking plot holes that we would not forgive another saga, the truth is that ‘Scream VI’ is a festival of blood and gore (without going as far as offal) that lives by its own rules.
The rules that Randy used in the first two parts were perverted in strange ways (especially in the third, where the already murdered character appeared on a videotape) until it became a mandatory scene. The problem is that Ghostface has already become a franchiseand that means a series of things, according to Mindy, Randy’s cousin… that never come to pass. This sixth part knows how to manage your expectations very well, but fails to see them fulfilled, like a magician who makes a perfect paraphernalia to get a rabbit out of a hat and ends up pulling out a mouse. Alright? Clear. Is it what we have been promised? Not even remotely.
That does not blur sequences directed a thousand wonders: the terrifying and close presence of dozens of Ghostfaces in the subway, the chase in Gale Weathers’ flat, the sanctuary, the staircase between buildings… Conceptually, ‘Scream VI’ makes the most of its new paradigm without being obvious. Don’t expect a fight at the Statue of Liberty or a walk like the one Jason Voorhees took through Times Square in ‘Friday the 13th Part 8’: Right from the start, Gillett and Bettinelli make it clear that they are not interested in making a tourist video of New York, but to show a day-to-day of garbage cans, dark places, gigantic buildings where no one knows each other and universities full of potential psychopaths.
We are now a franchise
Although ‘Scream VI’ is as fun as ever and is not ashamed to be part of the saga, the truth is that the strings are a little more visible than usualthe cinematographic references are not so well included (watch out for that conversation about ‘Candyman’ and other films between Kirby and Mindy, a very grateful sticky that is still sticky after all) and his fabulous game ends up being somewhat muddy by a third act full of problems and inconsistencies.
But most of those little stones in the road can be missed by admiring the care and respect he continues to have, film after film, for the Ghostface legacy. Yes, Sidney doesn’t appear here, but that doesn’t mean the movie has forgotten about her: Kirby’s star presence after ‘Scream 4’ recontextualizes who the legacy characters of the saga are and shows that Telling new stories is not at odds with continuing to count on the characters that gave it meaning. Unlike in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ or ‘Halloween’, the murderer is not the central protagonist, and the victims have everything to say, achieving something unusual in a slasher: that we worry about who lives and who dies.
It is also true, it must be said, that although some of the new characters live up to the mythical ones, like Mindy or Tara (a fabulous Jenna Ortega), Sam is not Sidney and Chad is not Dewey: The lack of charisma of both is frustrating, especially since if there is something that these two new continuations exude, it is their own personality. ‘Scream VI’ has its problems and its script lacks a bit of polishbut as long as it maintains this level of quality, there we will follow the sequels that are necessary by answering the phone.