Movie
The Scream movie franchise is back for another meta horror movie. Scream 6 is an entertaining movie that playfully critiques social media, true crime fandom, and it even contains some timely social commentary.
I’m not the biggest fan of franchise horror movies. Having reoccurring characters in franchise horror movies can defeat many of the potential thrills that a stand alone horror movie can provide. In stand alone horror movies any character can in theory die (or get hurt) at anytime. In franchise horror movies only certain characters can die. The Scream movie series has come up with a few ideas to try to overcome these limitations. The scream movies go meta, and point out the various horror movie tropes. The Scream movies also make the identity of the killer Ghostface to be a mystery in each installment. Unfortunately, this meta formula has become a trope onto itself.
To get new audiences up to speed, the movie contains several exposition dumps. They also include some nostalgia to entertain and reward the faithful. It does a decent job of balancing the two until it doesn’t, and it falls apart in the final act.
I bet before the end of the second act you can figure out who the antagonist is. The mystery felt like any of the characters could have been inserted into the antagonist role, and nothing would have drastically changed. Scream 6 is an okay horror movie, with some decent PG-13+ kills, and several F-bombs to secure the R MPAA rating.
What are some good aspects of Scream 6 ? The humor was actually funny and well done. There were a few genuinely scary scenes, specifically the scenes in the bodega and the ladder sequence. With the character of Sidney being absent, other legacy characters got more screen time, and were actually more than a “red shirt” or a red herring.
Scream 6 is just more of the same Scream formula, and if that didn’t bother you in the past, it shouldn’t bother you this time either. Overall I had fun with Scream 6, but it could have been better.
Final Verdict: 7/10