SCREAM VI – Review

In my reviews last week I mentioned a new installment coming soon from a big horror film franchise. Well, the time is now. It might just seem that we were in this scary “cinematic universe’ and you wouldn’t be too off the mark, since the last one filled the multiplexes a mere fourteen months ago. The timing’s also a bit quirky since this March has no Friday the 13th and we’re several months away from Halloween (also weird since that major holiday figures into both the setting and overall plot here). Oh, and unlike that last year’s entry, which reused the original’s tile, we’re back to the “digits” with the “slicin’ and dicin'” of SCREAM VI.

As with the other flicks, it all starts with a flirty phone conversation that quickly turns creepy and very deadly as the Ghostface killer claims another victim. Now there are some new twists, as he switches his “stalking ground” from Woodsboro CA to the Big Apple (insert fruit-cutting metaphor), mere steps from a bustling street filled with pre-Halloween revelers (perhaps the Saturday mere days before All Hallows). And that’s the first of many alterations to the “formula”. Oh, this is also the new locale of the Carpenter sister from the last flick. Tara (Jenna Ortega) is a college freshman, who’s making risky choices at the campus parties, and her older sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) is her hovering protector, working a couple of jobs while going to therapy sessions to deal with her haunted past. Plus they’re sharing a big off-campus apartment with the “frisky-flirty” student Quinn (Lianna Liberato). Did I mention that two more Woodsboro transplants are there, sibs Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding)? When word leaks out, the Carpenters are naturally called in for questioning. But on the way, they have their own deadly reunion. Luckily the sisters make it to the police station where they meet Quinn’s PD papa, Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), and GF survivor now FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere). But she’s not the only alum, as Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) charges in, complete with a news crew. Luckily she guides them to a shuttered movie theatre that’s been turned into a serial killer shrine complete with stolen police evidence. Despite this break, can this “united front” discover who the copycat is donning the black robes and long white mask before his (or her) blade claims the Carpenter sisters?

Aside from the masked murderer, the Carpenter sisters are the story’s main focus. Particularly Barrera’s Sam who may be having more than a twinge of survivor’s guilt. leading to her “hovering” her kid stepsister. She shows signs of exhaustion and PTSD in her near-lifeless eyes, even as Sam must deal with an online campaign saying that she “got away’ with the last Westboro bloodbath. Ortega, coming off a real “breakthrough” year culminating with her star turn as teenage Wednesday Addams, has a more prominent role in this one as she strains to break free from big sis, while also dealing with her own still healing flesh (and psyche) wounds. As for the returning “vets”, Cox treads a fine line between exploiter of tragedy and the avenger of a lost love. Her Gale is the ultimate reporter-heroine who’s always ready to throw down the mike to take down her nemesis. As for the other “grad”, Panittiere is a most welcome ally, who wears her own GF scars as a badge of honor, strengthening her resolve as she “bends” the laws to stop the legacy. Brown brings in the shark while laying down the “meta manifesto” as the cinema-savvy Mindy, while Gooding brings his beefcake nice guy charm to Chad, who’s now quite smitten with Tara. Mulroney is a sympathetic father figure as the grizzled plainclothes cop, while Liberato scores lotsa’ laughs as his “playa” daughter. Also of note, are some entertaining cameos from Samara Weaving, Tony Revolori, and Henry Czerny as Sam’s rattled therapist.

Also returning from the last outing are the “tag-team” directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet who infuse some new energy into the franchise by the big city locale and the “up-ended” opening sequence. They also appear to be having some fun with new high-tech devices while taking welcome jabs at social media “trolling”. And they ease up a bit at the “aren’t-we-clever” self-awareness this time out, although Mindy’s long “franchise rules” monologue starts spinning its wheels and dragging down the pace. Ah but soon it’s back to “slasher city” as the near-unstoppable Ghostface “did that thing” (much like Ms. Bassett) in attack/action set pieces that go on and on (it takes a long time to finally hear those sirens). A crowded subway attack has involving claustrophobic energy, but it cuts (literally) to a mind-numbing final showdown that’s dulled by a villain speech explaining everything in exact detail and a fight to the death where everyone now has rubber bones and the slashing “butcher” knives inflict scratches and pin-pricks that cause little loss of plasma, perhaps to have the option of more returning characters in a hoped-for part seven. But with the series now a teenager (sweet seventeen already), it’s feeling more than a little tired. Hardcore fans may get a kick out of the lingering shots of old props and photos in the hidden museum, but the rest of us may be longing for its final exhibit, just before the gift shop, to be the more tiresome than terrifying SCREAM VI.

1.5 Out of 4

SCREAM VI is now playing in theatres everywhere