Scream VI

Four survivors of the most recent spate of “Ghostface” murders leave the small town of Woodsboro behind for a fresh start in New York City. Unfortunately for them… the Ghostface killer has decided to do the same thing.

In a nutshell, Scream VI is the latest in the long-running Scream franchise, and it does all of the stuff that you go to a Scream film to see, but this time, they not only bring back the old characters who are still alive, they also introduce some new ones to the story too… again.

This is the type of horror movie that my wife calls “just the right amount of scary” which means… it’s not actually scary at all, other than a well-timed jump scare or two. There’s some blood and some running and some screaming, but it’s light gore only, just a bunch of splashed ketchup, nothing too gruesome. Also, it’s got that new Wednesday Addams lady in it, so I’m sure it’s fine for the young kids, trust me.

The kids love Wednesday. Especially that dance. Have you seen that dance? The kids love that dance. They love to do it on the TikTok.

Anyway, Scream VI does heavily reference the past Scream films--VERY heavily actually, like... constantly--most of which I had no idea what they were talking about, because most of the references were to Scream numbers 3 through 5, which I might not have seen, and all I can really remember about 2 is that it took place at a college, I think, but whatever, I bring this up to say… don’t let that be the scariest thing about watching this film for you. I just rolled with it, and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

It’s not lost on me, however, that so many film nerds these days now make it their whole personality to get pissed at Marvel movies for doing not even half the amount of past film continuity references that this film’s plot absolutely relies on…

Anyway, for the most part, watching this film is like being Matt Damon as he becomes a Grandpa in Saving Private Ryan, because the main cast are all literal babies in diapers, walking around in bonnets, all talking around the pacifiers in their mouths and claiming to be college kids. Meanwhile Dermot Mulroney (Dylan McDermott?) is standing there next to them, crumbling to old man dust on screen like the bad guy in Last Crusade.

I will say, however, that one of the characters is wearing a costume at a Frat House Halloween party, and it’s a reference to Jeremy Saulnier’s 2007 film Murder Party, so that was pretty cool to see.

Overall, this film is fine.