The Fantasy Review‘s Spoiler-Free Review of Scream VI (2023).
Rating: 4.5/5
Scream is one of the most consistent horror franchises out now. Every film is enjoyable, and most are great, which is more than we can say about some of the others – I mean, look what happened when a Friday the 13th tried a movie based in Manhattan…
Ghostface in Manhattan, however, made for an exciting, fresh Scream movie, with enough nostalgia to keep us happy, but plenty of forward thinking too, which was just what this franchise needed.
Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) return as legacy characters, but it’s the new final girls, Tara and Sam Carpenter (Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera) who take the main stage, absolutely stealing the spotlight and making this a movie about them, not the old guard.
The heart of this movie is the “core four” who benefit from the focus being on them, their relationships, and development far more than we saw in the fifth movie. Their chemistry is fantastic and had me desperately on edge during the myriad of tense moments. It will certainly be interesting to see more of the “core four” in the seventh installment, hopefully in 2024!
Talking of tense moments, Scream 6 is bigger, more brutal, and has more tense and exciting scenes than any of the previous five movies. Sure, bigger doesn’t always mean better, but in this case it worked well in the new location of Manhattan where everything needs to be upscaled.
There is still an intimacy of sorts, despite the location and larger cast. From the Apartment building some of our main characters share, to little corner shops and the final showdown location (no spoilers here!), the atmosphere was claustrophobic, making us feel trapped right in the moments the movie wanted us too.
Final Thoughts
This franchise continues to excel in producing tense plots filled with heartfelt moments through a cast of loveable and highly engaging characters.
