SCREAM VI ****

 

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.
Starring Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Courtney Cox.
Horror, US, 122 minutes, certificate 18.

Released in cinemas in the UK 10th March by Paramount

 

Barely a year has passed since we last checked in at Woodsboro, a small town that surely counts as one of the deadliest places on the planet, especially if you are teenage horror fan. Small wonder then that the survivors of last year’s meta-slasher shenanigans have decided to up sticks to the safety of New York. When a long running franchise makes such a decision it usually signifies an act of creative or budgetary desperation and with the no-show of Neve Campbell due to a pay disagreement, SCREAM VI, with its rapid production seemed at first like nothing more than a cynical cash grab.

 

However, this is a franchise that is no stranger to striking when the iron is hot with SCREAM 2 being released in cinemas in 1998, just under one year after the original film made its debut. That quick turnaround in production is just one of a number of similarities with that first sequel. Again, our surviving heroes have relocated for college, and let’s not forget trauma recovery, purposes. Again, our heroes are partaking in a film studies class and again they are under threat once more from a maniac feeling the need to don a Ghostface mask, voice modulator and a sharp knife once more.

 

Directors Bettinelli and Olpin hit the ground running with a smartly executed opening sequence that completely goes against our expectations and sets up this entry in a more intriguing fashion than the previous film. The self-referential nature is still present but more space is given to the characters of sisters Sam and Tara, the former especially when struggling with her own parental issues and the online notoriety and suspicion that now follows her everywhere she goes. These developments are just as enticing as the whodunnit aspect where it seems that everyone is a suspect and/or would be victim, especially in such a late entry in a long running franchise as this.

 

The end result is perhaps the most satisfying and entertaining film since that first sequel. Again, all credibility is strained to breaking point in keeping everything interlinked and it never feels strictly necessary but it always manages to entertain and amuse with one set piece located in a convenience store being a franchise high point whilst breaking a cardinal slasher movie rule. Already SCREAM VII has been announced and whilst we may have a little more faith this time, surely, we must be reaching the end of this self-referential road soon. Hopefully I will be proved wrong in just as entertaining a fashion as this time.

 

Iain MacLeod.