I have been a very loving fan since Scream took the world by storm. I will never forget the time I finally watched the first film and its impact on me. I watched the movie two times in the theater and many more times at home. While I have various feelings about the franchise, I remain a dedicated fan and enjoy last year’s latest entry. So, I went into this sixth chapter with much anticipation and hope. Well, I certainly am not disappointed, as the newest Scream movie delivers multiple levels of entertainment.
Since the events of the previous movie, Billy Loomis’ daughter Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her half-sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) have moved to New York City, where Tara attends college with high school friends Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy-Brown), and her twin brother Chad (Mason Gooding). While their stay in the “Big Apple” has been mostly uneventful, this changes drastically when a new Ghostface killer begins targeting people associated with them. As the protagonists attempt to deal with this latest development, Sam, her sister, and her friends must also face an online backlash for the events that affected them in the previous installment. A nasty conspiracy theory currently circulates the internet, painting an ugly scenario where Sam is responsible for the carnage in Woodsboro.
Written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, and directed by Matt Bertinelli-Opin, and Tyler Gillett, Scream VI offers the powerful audience suspense, thrills, and great kills in this latest installment. While there is definite predictability to all that happens, the filmmakers still deliver plenty of excitement when unraveling this newest mystery. The movie also amusingly utilizes the franchise’s humor in slasher movie tropes.
Like the previous installment, the actors know their characters well and wonderfully take them to new places in this new film. After watching and enjoying Jenna Ortega in Tim Burton’s Netflix series, Wednesday, I was pleased to see the actor have a more prominent presence in this movie. Melissa Barrera shines, once again, as the psychologically troubled daughter of one of the original Ghostface killers. It is also a big treat to see Hayden Panettiere reprise her role as Kirby Reed, a survivor of Scream 4.
I don’t know what the future holds for this movie franchise, but the outlook is mostly positive if filmmakers who love this saga continue to enrich what could be an ongoing story. Fans of this series will surely enjoy this latest chapter and will leave this movie wanting to return to the theater for further adventures.