Movie Review: Scream VI Calls Out Horror Fandoms
When it comes to the Scream sequels, it has been a rollercoaster. Some are beloved, some are trashed, and some became beloved after they were trashed. Yet, Scream V brilliantly caught the pulse of Gen Z. It was melodramatic, funny, and colorfully violent enough to make Ghostface appear simply uncancelled. Even Paramount was surprised by its success, and for Scream VI, it repeats it.
I, personally, would like to know who gave Ghostface an unlimited metro card because that man was riding those subway carts with economic ease. The boroughs were quaking because no bodega was safe from Mr. Ghostface… so much so that his old victims wondered whom amongst them was actually him. After all, just because you are the victim of a monster does not, necessarily, mean you cannot become him.
Scream VI thrives because it is gory, bloody fun, full of twists, and even hails to its previous films classic tropes and fave characters like, Hayden Panetierre´s Kirby Reed or Courtney Cox as money making reporter: Gale. The woman can snatch a bag. They unite with an overarching theme…. trauma really does change you. Your mind becomes literally different, and they have all lived their lives chased by Ghostface, even after they survived him. Their lives were altered by a serial killer, and for characters like Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega), it left a bloodlust in her that she could not shake, as if revenge is a dish best served with a stabbing knife.
As the gang of beloved characters like, the twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) try to figure out college life and the return of the serial killer they thought stayed behind in their memory/ buried in their hometown, they face off with one of the most dangerous groups to potentially destroy someone: fandoms. Yes like the Dahmerites backed Netflix, it seems New York has a love for Ghostface, and is even holding a convention for him. This type of fanaticism leads to some brutal deaths that, ironically, real life fans will enjoy, and new characters like Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) and Jason Carvey (Tony Revolori) will be affected by. Yet, the typical ¨kill em¨ mentality of horror violence is nuanced by the spectacular cast´s charm and genuine struggle to want to move on from this evil´s pain without becoming so transformed by it that they become evil, as well.
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-OlpinTyler Gillett and written by James Vanderbilt , Scream VI feels like a slasher film mutually conscientious of its iconic status and also viewers´ obsession with gore. Let’s not act like true crime has not dominated the metaverse because we, humanity, do have a darkness to us. We are attracted to ¨car crashes¨ like moths to a flame, and no matter how we try to argue the symbolism, traumas, and meaning behind our attraction, we cannot avoid that it is DARK of us. In some ways, that is what the film discusses; we want Ghostface to kill, and we want the person behind the mask to be someone everybody trusted betraying them all to death.
