New York, New Rules: In The Creepy 'Scream VI' Teaser, Ghostface Is Out To Wreak Havoc On NYC
We've gotten plenty of the West Coast in Woodsboro to date in the Scream franchise, and even ventured to the Midwest to fictional Windsor College in Ohio for the OG sequel. Plopping the Ghostface slasher in New York City!? Now that's a fun new twist on the subversive horror series.
I had to feature the tag line as the headline to this blog, because my lord, that is one of the coolest ones I've ever seen.
The whole angle from Paramount and Spyglass Media Group in this teaser is, "In a city of millions, no one can hear you scream." That is a direct callback to Alien's legendary tag: "In space no one can hear you scream."
How cool is that, not to mention — dare I go punny — gutsy? That's what I love about the Scream movies. They take big swings all the time and aren't afraid to fuck up. Even if Sidney Prescott has managed to stay alive through it all, you never know whodunnit or who's gonna drop next.
Back to the teaser's contents: I think any of us who've been around the NYC area has heard of altercations going down on the subways. That claustrophobic setting is ideal to build suspense. Adding to the tension is it seems to be Halloween, so all sorts of folks are dressed up, with seemingly multiple costumed people donning the Ghostface rags and mask. Co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett appear to have done an excellent job crafting that scene based on what we see in the sliced-up footage.
The innate grittiness and grounded nature of a New York City-based story should make for a compelling narrative. I'd love to see some kind of cat-and-mouse set piece in Central Park if they could swing that.
One rich source of thematic substance should be the notion of moving far, far away from where you're from, only to have the same demons haunt you. And also the notion of packing up your things, living in an entirely new place and seeing if that will change you or bring peace. As someone who's moved a lot, I can attest to how a change of scenery can shock you into some exciting new directions in your life, but the real catalyst comes intrinsically from within. A character in particular who should explore this is Melissa Barerra's Sam Carpenter for reasons I won't spoil here. All that explored through the heightened reality and lens of a horror movie? Sign me up!
Much of the young core cast from this year's requel is back for this one, too. Wanna know what I mean by "requel"? Take it away, Jasmin Savoy Brown!
Shout out to Jenna Ortega as well. She SLAYED the opening scene of the last film and set the tone for the reinvigoration of an IP that hadn't reached the silver screen in over a decade. Ortega is one of those young actors where you're like, "How is it even possible that you're this good?" Mad respect. Hope she don't die.
Sidney isn't on the scene for Scream VI due to a pay dispute between the producers and the iconic, inimitable Neve Campbell. I don't blame her. Give that woman the bag next time! COME ON. What is cool is Hayden Panettiere on the comeback trail, reprising her role from Scream 4 — although we don't see her in this quick trailer.
Scream is such a fun way in if you're not a fan of the horror genre, because it upends a lot of tropes and features plenty of fun meta humor and commentary. The first 1996 classic inspired me to see the merits of horror in a way I wouldn't have otherwise. It helped that it was a twisty, excellent plot. If I had to rank every Scream, they'd go as follows:
- Scream (1996)
- Scream 2
- Scream (2022)
- Scream 4
- Scream 3
They're all pretty damn good, though. The only one that isn't so awesome is Scream 3 but that had more to do with screenwriter Kevin Williamson not being involved and a watered-down flick because of the prevailing societal notion at the time that movies and video games were causing rampant real-life violence.
Not to end this joint on a downer. Scream VI is about to be awesome. I was a little wary when they gave this pic the green light so freaking fast after the success of the newest one. Even with only about a minute of movie featured here, I'm already totally digging the new direction they're going. Shout out Wes Craven, and long live Scream!!
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok