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This is what it's about

Scream VI ©2023 Paramount Pictures

The last Woodsboro massacre is still in Sam and Tara’s bones. In order to finally put the madness behind them, they decide to leave town with Mindy and Chad and find happiness in New York City. The escape seems successful and the new start perfect, until suddenly the first murders are reported in the media, in which a ghost facemask is left behind. Are these just coincidences and freeloaders or has terror also followed them here? The merciless killer terrifies the city and appears in every conceivable place. Can the friends stand up to the monster again and end his killing spree?

Review

After a long period of uncertainty as to whether there would even be a fifth and sixth instalment in the SCREAM series, things are now happening in quick succession. It’s only been a year since the Ghostface Killer started killing again. In just nine months, Matt Battinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who have now taken over the direction again after the fifth part, have managed to push a film through from the first take to completion. A rating of 18, which was previously only available for the second part, and a new location also created anticipation among die-hard fans in advance.

Scream VI ©2023 Paramount Pictures

SCREAM VI opens with a fresh and pleasant intro that takes slight satirical cues from the earlier opening scenes and yet reinvents itself. Peppered with a surprising little guest appearance, viewers are slowly introduced to the big city feel of New York City, which offers countless new possibilities. Old film patterns are broken and the many new ideas further fuel the anticipation. But what awaits us after the famous screen cut to the title screen is unfortunately anything but creative.

After the film has spent what feels like an eternity trying to put the events of the previous part into context with the new choice of setting, it takes another long time before it is even clear what is to be told. Given that it is merely a loose remake from the second part, this waste of time is quite remarkable. But as the characters discover, SCREAM VI is not just a remake or a sequel, but a way into a franchise, which in turn can offer countless new possibilities for story development. To make sure that even the last film layman in the cinema hall understands what this means, Jasmin Savoy Brown makes her grand entrance, in which she quotes down, Wikipedia-style, what the significance of a franchise is and what new rules now apply.

Scream VI ©2023 Paramount Pictures

Everything new, everything bigger, everything better?

But instead of pulling out all the stops, all we get is a completely interchangeable slasher film that takes place not in a small suburb, in the woods or in a lonely cabin, but in the middle of the big city. Screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick haven’t even bothered to explore and play with the new challenges and opportunities of this location. The only new thing is that everything looks a bit classier and more modern, thus bidding farewell to the last charm of the original films. It would have been impossible to enjoy it anyway, because again and again the plot jumps from place to place, leaving us with a cobbled-together flurry of cuts without any logic. There is a sense that the story needs breathing space, but instead it is pushed a prefabricated construct and sticks to tired old patterns. There is even talk of everything needing to be bigger, but it is not realised.

This creates many absurd scenarios in which Ghostface, who is now shown with a frayed, badly damaged mask and is supposed to be a homage to the previous 9 Killers, murders away without people noticing. This would be comparable to a green screen shoot where something completely different happens in the background than in reality and the two levels do not merge. These many small points mean that film lovers don’t get their money’s worth in SCREAM VI, because the otherwise so affectionate persiflage of the genre almost doesn’t take place anymore.

Scream VI ©2023 Paramount Pictures

Children’s horror and fan bashing

The age rating rounds off the window dressing, because the current title is in no way scarier, more brutal or more unacceptable than the previous ones. Of course, every film distributor in the horror genre gratefully accepts this rating and mercilessly exploits it for publicity purposes, but it is not justified. The assessment can only be based on the fact that the playful whodunit element has now been replaced by a somewhat more ruthless killer performance and thus any subliminal joke falls flat. The punchlines are hackneyed and seem almost pitiful as they result in total irrelevance underneath the self-congratulation.

For newcomers to the series, however, it should be added that both parts one and five should be seen beforehand in order to fully understand the film. Despite all the criticism, SCREAM VI still offers a certain level of entertainment. The slightly more than two hours of playing time pass by quite quickly and always offer something to puzzle over. Connoisseurs, however, know early on who the killer is.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, the new Ghostface disappoints all along the line and mutates into a bitter copy of the once so subtly designed genre pearls. Instead of a brutal and unrelenting persiflage, all we get is a bit of harmless slaughter in which the really drastic scenes are also faded away. Not to mention that murder scenes are detached from the surroundings, so that the new realities of the big city have no real relevance at any point. But as the zeitgeist shows, many consumers are only after trivial entertainment anyway, which they actually get with this film.

How did you like the movie?
(3 Bewertungen, Durchschnitt: 4,67 von 10)

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