Scream VI

While still a far cry from the elegance of Wes Craven’s original, Scream VI is the best installment in the series since the second film. It’s tart and suspenseful and has reignited my faith in a once cherished, then tarnished brand.

With Scream VI, Scream (2022) filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are so interested in reinventing Wes Craven’s saga and keeping audiences guessing and grossed out that they’ve made a film that makes no impact at all.

Don’t be shocked if there are more laughs and whoops in the cinema than there are shrieks and gasps – but Scream has never tried to take itself too seriously which has always been part of the charm.

Too cliche-riddled and irony-poisoned to avoid collapsing into exactly the sort of artificial franchise extension Craven would have slashed to ribbons.

You’re gonna get your classic killings, the violence of which is three looking-through-my-hands worthy.

There just isn’t enough juice behind the stagecraft. The Scream movies have thrived because they’ve always stayed one step ahead of their source material -- but as the franchise grows more bloated, they risk becoming their own punch line.

Only when it stops the story cold to throw a bravura setpiece our way does it actually become exciting and propulsive.

Looks like a Scream sequel written by ChatGPT. All mandatory ingredients are in, everything any Scream entry should have, but you can't help noticing its artificial flavor. Hardcore fans might be amused, but there is nothing new to offer here.

It’s just pausing on its way to becoming content on Paramount+, where it will submerge into the back catalog and seldom be heard from again.

It’s another exercise in ouroborosian indulgence, with the usual third-act whiplash twists and Scooby-Doo mask-removals revealing that the movie is about nothing but itself.