Now this is a scream, baby! Scream VI promised fans that this would be a totally different Ghostface, and they weren’t kidding. The sequel to the 2022 requel butchered all the “rules” that audiences were used to from the franchise and introduced everyone to a more vengeful game. And what better way to do that than to bring horror to the bustling city of New York through a bunch of college students? 

Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) ditch Woodsboro for a new life in the city that never sleeps along with their friends, siblings Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy-Brown). While Tara, Chad, and Mindy attend Blackmore University together, Sam lives with her younger sister to watch out for her after the slashings from 2022’s Scream. When a brutal new Ghostface follows the group to the Big Apple, they must band together with Scream 4 survivor, FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), and reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) to figure out who they’re dealing with and, more importantly, why. 

Scream VI began production with an impossible task: moving on without the franchise’s original final girl, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). Since 1996, fans have adored Sidney whenever another Ghostface came to stab her in the back. She is the one scream queen who practically invented the franchise’s satirical perspective on the horror genre. And after Campbell announced she would not star in the 2023 flick, fans weren’t sure what to expect. Hell, most of them vowed to never watch any Scream films without her. Yet, here we are, watching it without her. To make matters even more questionable, viewers cackled at the fact that Scream VI would take place in New York, with some recalling the hilarity of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

However, Scream VI stands on its own as a unique but familiar sequel. With several nods to Scream 2 and a few grappling twists in the end, the latest installment takes the audience on a fast-jerking subway ride. 

A Refreshingly Familiar Plot

Gen-Z Kirby-like horror enthusiast Mindy breaks a requel’s sequel down for us: it has to be “bigger,” with more kills and thrills than the last. 

Scream VI takes us down memory lane by introducing the “core four” friends to the college scene, just like in Scream 2. With new roommates and friends, Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy have a brand-new suspect list. Or do they? As the great late Randy Meeks once said, “Everybody is a suspect!” In this film, his niece, Mindy, follows in his footsteps by pointing out each friend’s possible motive to kill, but of course, no one can be sure who the violent slicer is until the very end. 

Similar to how Sidney went to school in Scream 2 after her boyfriend Billy Loomis and Stu Macher gutted half the town, Tara tries to move on with her life here in Scream VI, as she tells her sister. As for Sam, Tara accuses her of being stuck in the past, but she is struggling with a bloodier game than just memories. Sam is the daughter of a serial killer. Did she inherit anything from Billy? Could there be something ingrained in her that she just can’t shake off? 

When it comes to Ghostface, there is always some strange motive, whether that be revenge or the killer(s) being flat-out sociopathic murderers. Scream VI promised us that this “isn’t like any other Ghostface,” and they meant it. This really is not like any of the killers we’ve seen in the past, and that establishes the movie as a strong heavyweight competitor for the year. 

Since the entire franchise literally plays with meta all the time, fans weren’t too surprised to see the trailer reveal the Ghostface “shrine” that Gale finds in an abandoned movie theater in New York (which most people know aren’t impossible to find in this town). Pieces from the past haunt the main characters in Scream VI, and one ends up being among the most significant details in every single Scream movie. Once the gang stumbles upon each of these, the killer’s identity may be closer than they realize.