‘Scream VI’ takes another stab at extending slasher franchise
It’s hard to believe we are at our sixth “Scream” film with those Edvard Munchlike “ghostface” masks. But enough people have enjoyed the films (and worn the masks) to keep them coming, including a TV series. The most recent film based on the series created by Kevin Williamson arrived only last year, and two actors from that film, Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, return in “Scream VI” under somewhat different circumstances. Barrera, a breakout actor in the 20021 release “In the Heights,” deserves better than two “Scream” films as her reward for her fine work in the musical. For her part, Ortega plays the title role in the Netflix smash “Wednesday” and has become a household name.
In “Scream VI,” a metamovie that juggles the terms “sequel,” “prequel” and “requel,” we hear a lot about the fictional film series “Stab” based on the (fictional) book “The Woodsboro Murders” by (fictional) TV news reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox in her sixth “Scream” appearance).
Half sisters Sam Carpenter (Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Ortega) are in New York City for this outing, where an associate professor of film (Samara Weaving), who delivers a minlecture on how slasher films are a sign of the times, has just been knifed to death in an alley on the eve of Halloween. Tara is a student at a fictional university downtown. Sam is in New York City to protect her little sister, and I mean little. The statuesque Barrera towers over diminutive Ortega.
Also in the mix are fellow students Mindy (an effervescent Jasmin Savoy Brown, “The Leftovers”), Ethan (Jack Champion, “Avatar: The Way of Water”), Chad (Mason Gooding, “Ballers”), the notably sexually-active Quinn (Liana Liberato, “Novitiate”). Living down the hall from the students is “cute guy” Danny (Josh Segarra). Veteran Dermot Mulroney shows up as New York Police Detective Bailey, Quinn’s father. In one of the most clever scenes in the film, the students and Danny retreat to the subway to get across town and run into several Halloween celebrants in ghostface costumes (also present are multiple Jason Voorhees, Pinheads and Michael Myers).
In scenes that seem tacked on, Sam goes to a home in New York City where she gets therapy from an obvious weirdo (and beardo) shrink played by Canadian actor Henry Czerny (“The Boys of St. Vincent”). More murders occur. The murderer leaves a ghostface mask at every murder location. Suddenly appearing on the blood-splattered scene are reporter Weathers, whom Sam hates for betraying family secrets, and Atlanta FBI Agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere, making her second “Scream” appearance). Social media has made Sam a pariah and the subject of conspiracy theories. The original “Scream” actor Skeet Ulrich makes brief appearances as the “memory” of Sam’s father. The action will conclude in a small movie theater transformed into a “Scream,” uhh, I mean “Stab” museum, something that would cost a small fortune to buy and set up in New York City.
Barrera, Ortega and Brown are the standouts in the cast, and Cox is game in the scene in which Weathers is attacked. The action scenes are wellstaged, bloody and gruesome. Once again directed by the duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (“Scream”), this “Scream VI” is in essence just another slasher film about nubile young people getting stabbed to death because they dare to desire or actually engage in sexual activity. The genre exists to point a cautionary finger (or in this case a knife) at young people anxious about the looming nexus of sex and death. This is why “Scream” films have served as a rite of passage for adolescent audiences for 27 years.
(“Scream VI” contains profanity and extreme, bloody violence)