YMMV / Scream VI

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • There are some pretty serious debates online regarding Jason and Greg's sexuality. After Jason kills Laura in the opening act, he comes home and calls Greg, with the two using clearly romantic language with each other. But they're also clearly parodying traditional husband-and-wife talk, and they're bonding over being the wannabe Ghostfaces, so some people believe they're merely joking with each other and not dating at all. On the other hand, some people believe this is genuinely queer-coding and the two were dating, making them the first canonically queer Ghostfaces. And then, some people say that because Jason and Greg both die before the titles, and we don't even see Greg do anything onscreen except be dead meat stuffed into a literal fridge, it doesn't matter if they were queer or not.
  • Sam's decision to leave Danny out of the shrine area where Kirby planned to trap Ghostface may not have been as callous as it seemed. She may have distrusted Kirby, or was Genre Savvy enough to know that if the plan backfired and Danny was innocent, he would be trapped in the theater which had the only easily accessible way out locked. While she and Tara had to be there to draw out Ghostface, Danny was a less important target, so Sam may have believed that Danny was safer not being in the theater during the final showdown.
  • When Sam leaves the mask behind at the end, what is her intention behind it? Leaving it to once again try to rid herself of that part of her life or as both a calling card and warning to future Ghostfaces that attempts to try this again won't end well for them? Since it's at the scene of two Ghostfaces she killed while dressed as Ghostface for one of them, it could in a way be embracing that part of herself while also not being a Ghostface like the others moving forward at the same time too.
  • How drunk is Tara supposed to be, and how aware of the bad decision she's making by following "Date Rape Frankie" up to his room is she? On the one hand, she clearly pauses when he first makes the offer, sensing something off or weighing the risks, then throws caution to the wind and decides to go. She digs in her heels and says she wants to go when her friends try and stop her, and later rants to Sam that if she wants to hook up with a random sleazeball at a party that's her call, not Sam's. Later, she thanks Chad for stopping her, claiming she was "more messed up than I realized." Was she really too drunk to understand she was making a mistake, or covering up her knowingly making a bad decision?
  • How much of an effect did Liv's death a year prior have on Chad? While his romance with Tara despite evolving from A Shared Suffering is probably legit, his acting like it never happened lends itself to his seemingly not caring (see Angst? What Angst? below). That said, that it's briefly implied that her death is too painful for him to actually discuss would indicate that the effect it has had actually runs way deeper than perceived.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Chad doesn't seem affected by his girlfriend Liv being killed in the previous movie or the fact he nearly died himself, being the same upbeat jock he was in 5, shrugging off his injuries, and even starting a romance with fellow Woodsboro native Tara. The one time he alludes to the tragedy, he doesn't invoke Liv by name—even though he does kind of indirectly admit it still hurts though.
  • Mindy suffers greatly from this as well, particularly in regard to her girlfriend Anika's death. While her reaction during the actual event is heartbreaking, she never so much as mentions Anika again. Her acting dodgy—especially towards Ethan—for the rest of the film does speak to her clearly being effected though.
  • Gale barely reacts to the death of her new boyfriend Brooks, even agreeing with the killer's assessment that his "muscles didn't help much."
• Applicability: Ethan is at first portrayed as a soft-spoken, socially awkward dork who isn't very good at getting laid, admitting that he is a virgin. He is revealed later as one of the killers, complemented by him calling Chad a "conceited, condescending alpha" after stabbing him. He even points out that Chad is "literally named Chad" — in right-wing memes, "strong" men, often depicted as "strong-jawed, beefy and well-endowed" ideal men, are called Chad. Plus, he makes more than one crude sexual remark towards Tara, who is simply repulsed by him. Because of that, many see Ethan as a jab at the involuntary celibate (or "incel") movement and the terrorist attacks associated with it.
• Ass Pull:
  • The revelation of the killers' true identities as Richie's family; it's a bit hard to believe that Richie's family remained completely unknown to anyone else in the film, especially an investigative reporter, who wrote a book about Richie, an FBI agent who prides herself on studying the Ghostface killers, and Sam, who dated Richie for six months before finding out he was a killer but had apparently never even seen a Facebook photo of his family. Richie's family would have been sought out and identified almost immediately by both journalists and savvy social media users especially if one was a police detective. Detective Ken Bailey cranks this up significantly, with the NYPD apparently failing to run an actual background check into their own officer, something which should have immediately established that he's Richie's father and the last person suited to taking the case. It's also never explained why Richie and the rest of his family have different surnames.
  • Quinn's faked death. Somehow, her father was able to swap her corpse with that of another, completely unseen woman, and none of the other officers on the scene or any of the employees at the coroner's office realized that this dead woman was not the daughter of their publicly grieving colleague. The Fridge Logic around the circumstances makes it even worse — while killers have faked their deaths, it was often in the last act when all the witnesses were intended to die, allowing them to return to their normal lives after (in theory). In contrast, Quinn faked it the night before and was deemed legally dead that day, making a return-to-life after near-impossible.
  • Chad's survival. We watch as two Ghostfaces stab him damn near a dozen times right in the chest, complete with a dramatic final word. Then, at the end of the movie, he suddenly ends up on a stretcher, conscious enough to kiss Tara. While it is Truth in Television to an extent, it comes after four fakeout deaths in the movie alone, making it seem cheap.
  • Mindy's survival serves as this for a sizable chunk of the audience as well - specifically because Ethan, a killer who wants her dead, saves her for no apparent reason other than to lower audience suspicion of him. While it's theoretically possible that Ethan is using this to establish some sort of alibi to throw the other characters off, the motivation behind it seems unclear when he vanishes from the rest of the movie and isn't seen again until his reveal, eliminating any benefit to lowering their suspicions.
• Award Snub: While the film won both Best Movie and Best Fight at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, categories it was notably excluded from were Movie Performance (Melissa Barrera), Best Frightened Performance, Best Kiss (Jenna Ortega & Mason Gooding), Best Hero (Barrera again) and Best Villain (Roger L. Jackson/Ghostface).
• Awesome Music:
  • The film's end credits theme "Still Alive" by Demi Lovato, a high-energy anthem to the power of the Final Girl.
  • The film's title song, "In My Head" by Mike Shinoda and Kailee Morgan, is an energetic beat to kick off the film proper after a lengthy and tense opening sequence.
• Base-Breaking Character: The film's killers are easily the most divisive in the series. Some think they're perfectly fine, others hate them for failing to kill any of the protagonists and their motive being an underwhelming rehash of Nancy Loomis' from Scream 2. It's worth noting that this mostly applies to their performance post-reveal, as their feats in-costume are considered among the best in the series, particularly the bodega scene, Anika's death, and Gale's apartment chase.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • Given the film's tributes to Scream 2 while the fifth film was paying tribute to the first—in which the second had a relative of the killer in the first wanting revenge, the moment Quinn says she and her father have had a hard time since losing her brother, it's definitely not hard to imagine that revealing the theory of them being Richie's family early on, to the point that Quinn also "dying" in the apartment could harken back to Roman Faking the Dead in the third movie, too. It being background for two characters that's meant as a throwaway line with no further information given ultimately means it's there for no reason other than not-so-subtle Foreshadowing.
  • This film also follows in the Scream tradition of casting the biggest newbie name at the time in the role of the killer (in this case, Dermot Mulroney) — notable other inclusions include Laurie Metcalf at the time of Scream 2 and Jack Quaid at the time of 5.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • With how utterly evil Ethan, Quinn, and Detective Bailey all are, ruining Sam's life by spreading conspiracy theories and psychotically stalking her, Tara, and their friends, it's probably the biggest catharsis in the series to watch as they all meet their own gruesome and painful ends.
  • Smaller example: even though Richie’s family was psychotic, it was satisfying to see them cut Jason’s killing spree short in the cold open.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Ghostface revealing their identity and how easy it was to be grouped with the main cast is utterly skin-crawling. But then they suddenly delve into a rant about how Chad was a "conceited, condescending alpha" and exclaims about how good it felt to kill him, and suddenly the scene becomes darkly funny.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Ethan has gotten some sympathy from people who genuinely liked the Adorkable personality he was first introduced as and thus, wish he was actually innocent. Some even going as far as to wish he was going to be the first Ghostface to pull a Heel–Face Turn. The fact that the reveal of him being one of the Ghostface comes off as an Ass Pull surely contributes to this sentiment. The good looks of his actor Jack Champion doesn't hurt either.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Anika, in tradition with Scream's past post-opening victims such as Cici or Wes. She's quickly become beloved for being a sweet and caring girlfriend towards Mindy and a good friend to Tara, putting up a brief fight against the killer, and dying a tragic and gruesome death in one of the film's most tense set-pieces.
  • Laura Crane. She's only on-screen for about five minutes, but is well-liked for being a film studies professor who comes off as a kindhearted woman and dies a totally undeserved death at the hands of one of her own students. Being played by scream queen royalty Samara Weaving helps, too.
  • Despite only appearing in one scene, the bodega clerk who helps Sam and Tara is surprisingly popular for being a Badass Bystander who wields a shotgun against the killer.
• Epileptic Trees: Fans are already pegging Danny as a potential Sequel Hook killer due to him being a seemingly nice and supportive boyfriend who survives without ever being directly attacked by Ghostface.
• Even Better Sequel: While not without its criticisms, the film has generally been seen as an improvement over the already well-received fifth installment. Main points of praise include the fresh and exciting New York setting, a faster-paced story, the far more gruesome deaths, the return of fan favorite Kirby Reed, Sam being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, stronger performances and increased character depth and, most notably, the presence of chase sequences and suspenseful set pieces that fans had come to expect after they'd been noticeably toned down for 5.
• Evil Is Cool: The Bailey family: Wayne, Quinn and Ethan, especially the former being the badass Ghostface with a shotgun.
• Fan Nickname: "Ghostface Takes Manhattan."
• Franchise Original Sin: The reveal of the killers being Richie's family was widely considered an Ass Pull due to how unlikely it was that nobody in the film would have known what a notorious killer's family looked like, especially Gale, who wrote a book about the murders. Scream 2 pulls a very similar twist with Mrs. Loomis; the reason this was considered more believable is mainly due to Technology Marches On. In The '90s, it was much more likely that Mrs. Loomis wouldn't be recognised due to the lack of social media and the fact that she very deliberately avoids interacting with Sidney, who obviously would have recognised her immediately. The reveal was also foreshadowed by some hints that Gale actually did recognise her, but couldn't remember where from, and there's a Hand Wave that Mrs. Loomis had recently had plastic surgery and lost a lot of weight, explaining why Gale couldn't place her. This film, on the other hand, offers no justification for how Gale, Sam and Kirby, three people who would have had a vested interest in finding out as much about Richie's life as possible, and who spend the entire film interacting with the Baileys, had never even seen a photo of them on Richie's social media pages which would have instantly told them that they were related to him.
• Friendly Fandoms: Fans of this film in particular and Sick tend to get along due to both properties being tied to Kevin Williamson, having a fair share of gore, and for focusing on The Family That Slays Together as a main twist.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • In the movie, it is mentioned that Sam telling Tara about Billy in the previous movie has shattered the relationship with her mother, Christina, completely which lead to her being disowned and Tara deciding to disown Christina in the process. In November 2023, Melissa Barrera would make a pro-Palestine post which lead to the studios firing her and Jenna Ortega asking to end her contract with them shortly afterwards.
  • Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy branding themselves the "Core Four" turned sour after production on Scream VI resulted in Sam and Tara's actresses parting with the studio and essentially rendered the "Core Four" group of characters a very short-lived team who would not be able to live up to that name in the story going forward.
• Ho Yay:
  • At first, it might seem like Ethan is going to be revealed as gay. In his first scene with Chad, Chad is trying to get him to meet some girls and Ethan seems to not want to do it. When Chad compliments him, Ethan seems to be over the moon, as if his crush was Chad, not any of the girls. However, he's later revealed to be a creep who crudely says he's wanted to "stick something inside" Tara for a long time.
  • The way Jason talks with his roommate Greg, outright calling him "honey" when he enters their dorm, apologising for "getting blue balls" and that he had to "practice", though he's talking about murdering Laura in context, sounds a lot like how two domestic partners talk.
• Improved Second Attempt: After the criticism that Scream (2022) barely had any memorable set-pieces (apart from the climax at the Macher house), this film ups the ante by having the bodega chase scene, the apartment/ladder attack, Gale's high-rise condo chase, the tense moment on the subway with multiple people in Ghostface costumes, and the theater chase before the climax. All of the scenes were lauded in reviews as some of the best parts of the movie.
• Incest Yay Shipping: Some fans feel that the relationship between Sam and Tara is borderline romantic, particularly as Sam becomes overprotective towards her.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: One of the main criticisms of the killers following The Reveal is that their motive is just a rip-off of 2's mastermind: family trying to avenge a fallen Ghostface.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Even fans disappointed about Sidney not being in the film tuned in for Hayden Panettiere's return as Ensemble Dark Horse Kirby from Scream 4.
  • Some showed up just for Jenna Ortega after the massive surge in popularity she got from her role as Wednesday Addams. The fact that Tara isn't handicapped from being brutally attacked like in Scream (2022) upped the factor, granting her even more badass moments as part of a Sibling Team with Sam than in the fifth film.
• Memetic Badass: Chad quickly became notorious for being stabbed multiple times by Ghostface for two movies in a row and still surviving. Fans have taken to branding him the "new Dewey" of the franchise and joking about how his injuries will escalate with each sequel only to reveal he inevitably pulled through at the end.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Detective Bailey will always be remembered as the killer who charged at an unarmed Sam with a loaded gun and didn't fire, even though she just shot his daughter in the head and his other son (as far as he knows) has been killed by Tara. This is to the point that it often overshadows Bailey's other feats as a killer, such as the well-regarded bodega scene and being the first Ghostface to wield a shotgun in-costume.
  • The film's trio of killers in general, for being the first Ghostfaces to fail at killing any of the characters during the third act and being dispatched without much of a fight following The Reveal.
  • Jason Carvey murders Laura Crane in the opening of the film as part of his plan to begin a new series of Ghostface killings in Richie's name—along with his roommate and friend Greg Brockner—and has even integrated himself into Tara's social circle as part of the plan too. His scheme proves incredibly short-lived though as one of the film's true Ghostfaces tricks Jason into falling for the schtick himself, revealing to him that Greg has been brutally murdered and then slicing up Jason himself too in a similar way to how he killed Laura earlier as well. To call either an actual Ghostface is ultimately pretty embarrassing for both of them.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Ghostface Takes A Boat."^ExplanationAfter the film was announced to be taking place in New York, many horror fans joked that the film would follow in the footsteps of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, with Ghostface spending most of their time on a cruise ship rather than in the Big Apple.
  • "Who gives a fuck about movies?"^ExplanationGhostface's Pre-Mortem One-Liner towards Jason in the opening kill has already been picked up by the fanbase for its mixture of hilarity and how well it establishes the killer's aims this time around.
• Older Than They Think: The novel opening scene where a pair of wannabe Ghostfaces are killed by the movie's "real" Ghostface is actually a scenario that was depicted in the first Scary Movie, parodying the original Scream. In it, the Billy and Stu analogues, Bobby and Ray, have their reveal scene before the duo is finished off by the real Ghostface of the movie who had actually been responsible for the previous crimes.
• Paranoia Fuel: You can be in a densely populated area like New York City, around plenty of people and the police, and yet it's still not enough to keep you safe from a demented serial killer. Mindy learns this the hard way, winding up literally surrounded by people on the subway and still being attacked by Ghostface.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: "Chara" for Chad and Tara.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Prior to this movie, Sam Carpenter was easily one of the series' most divisive characters to date. While she had fans who loved her ruthless takedown of Richie and cute relationship with Tara, she also had a lot of criticism leveled at her by fans comparing her unfavorably to Sidney, her connection to Billy and the base-breaking hallucinations that came with it, and what many felt was a lackluster performance from Melissa Barrera. With Sidney Put on a Bus in this film, however, Sam gets to take center stage and direct her own story. She becomes a more complex character who is allowed to stand apart from Sidney as a darker, more morally flexible, yet still loving counterpart who gets a ton of badass moments and plenty of depth, with the in-universe backlash towards Sam making her extremely sympathetic. It's also agreed that Barrera's performance was much stronger this time around. As a result, the hate turned to adoration overnight and Sam was warmly embraced by the fandom, with even some of her former detractors finding Sam to be their favorite character in the movie.
• Salvaged Story:
  • Many fans expressed annoyance at how the sequels only ever mentioned the original killers Billy and Stu by name, and never any of the Ghostfaces from subsequent films. Even references to the sequels, besides the return of some supporting characters such as Martha and Judy Hicks, were very fleeting. This film has all of the previous killers explicitly talked about — in particular, Kirby is still reeling from being stabbed by Charlie, Roman gets a nod when Kirby acknowledges him as having been the only single Ghostface, Nancy Loomis is identified as Sam's grandmother after the previous film conspicuously left it out, and the killer's motive this time is to avenge Richie, the Big Bad of Scream 5. A shrine with memorabilia from all five of the previous movies is prominently featured and ends up being the setting for this film's final act, proving once and for all that the sequels have not been forgotten.
  • After complaints about Gale never having a conversation with the killer on the phone in the previous movies, she gets to do just that in this one, which is even lampshaded by Ghostface himself.
  • After being put out of commission just before the final showdown in Scream 4, Kirby gets to take an active part in the climax this time around, even finishing off one of the killers, Ethan. Chad also puts up more of a fight before getting taken down, in contrast to being the first of the group to be wounded at the start of the previous film's third act.
• Shocking Moments: Ghostface is depicted using a gun for the first time in costume, hunting Sam and Tara with a sawed-off shotgun in a bodega like a deranged Elmer Fudd.
• Signature Scene: The ladder sequence is easily the most well-remembered scene due to how unique it is, the heavy suspense, and the end result of Anika's gruesome death.
• Strangled by the Red String: Chad and Tara go from having no interactions with one another at all in 5 to nearly kissing one another in their first real conversation in VI in a romance that has little in the way of buildup. While not unbelievable (they're attractive young adults who have been friends for years and are bonding through their shared trauma), it's still very abrupt.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Gale stands out as a particularly egregious offender. As the only returning trio member and coming off of Dewey's death in Scream 5 (where she swore off writing books to exploit the murders once and for all), there's a lot of potential to give Gale a strong, movie-driving arc and taking Gale into new directions she's never gone as a character. Instead, she's barely in the movie, having a total of three scenes (albeit fairly lengthy ones), and her characterization is simply a rehash of past storylines and dialogue, with Gale seemingly forgetting her character development and deciding to write a book based on the murders anyways. To add insult to injury, despite surviving her encounter with Ghostface, she's never seen again and simply vanishes from the film before the last act, with only a brief mention by Danny in the closing minutes to clarify she's doing alright.
  • Dr. Stone is played by the accomplished Henry Czerny (who previously worked with Radio Silence on Ready or Not (2019)) and is seemingly set up to have some connection to Billy Loomis, grimacing when Sam brings up the Stab movies. But instead, he's a Jerkass therapist who is killed in his second scene.
  • Sam's new love interest Danny Brackett seems like his toughness and strong-looking demeanor would've been beneficial to the group in having someone to help with physical Ghostface altercations and his being suspected as the killer because he's the love interest is also given pathos with him willing to distance himself from Sam to not only keep her safe, but also prove she can trust him too and that he won't betray her like Richie did. While it's a good subversion of the role that Derek Feldman played for Sidney in that movie, his also wanting to get involved in helping again and then being left out until after the climax still hurts this though.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The opening of the movie seemingly forgoes the whodunnit formula by immediately unmasking Jason as the new Ghostface and continuing on from his viewpoint in which he stashes his costume away and keeps tabs on Sam and Tara. It would have been interesting to have a Perspective Flip of the typical Scream movie that shows firsthand how the standard Ghostface team infiltrates the victims' social groups and plans out their phone calls and attacks. However, the movie returns to the usual formula by revealing that Jason and Greg are actually the Decoy Antagonists who are unceremoniously killed off in the R-Rated Opening
  • The idea of two different Ghostface groups competing for the chance to kill Sam and Tara for their own reasons would make for an interesting film on its own, but sadly it's only confined to the film's opening scene.
  • The beginning also teased the possibility that the new Ghostface is a vigilante that specifically targets murderers, rapists, and other truly horrible people. This plotline could have gone down in many different ways. For one, it would be a good way to cast Sam as a viable suspect because in the previous movie, she embraced the violent part of herself while attacking Richie. It also could have been the new Ghostface's motive, especially if said Ghostface believed the conspiracy theories about Sam. Alternatively, the Ghostface could take a perverse extreme of trying to protect Sam and Tara from their haters.
  • The buildup involving a tribute to the previous Ghostfaces when it's mostly Richie in particular, as the current one could have had a bigger legacy to work off of, even honoring their fallen family member's dream for the Stab franchise.
  • Given that the previous film had Chad doubting the innocence of his girlfriend Liv before her untimely death, it would've made sense to have him express the guilt he felt not only for not trusting her, but also how losing her still had a major effect on him, especially when it's only been about a year. The movie opts instead to focus on a budding romance between him and Tara developing through their shared suffering.
  • Another potentially wasted plotline for Chad is the idea that his injuries from the previous movie didn't fully heal. Just as Dewey had a limp in Scream 2 after getting stabbed in the first movie, Chad, a football player, could have suffered a lifelong debilitating injury and thus needed to adjust to life without football as part of his story arc.
  • While Kirby gives a fair amount of attention to the impact of Charlie's betrayal, her reaction to her best friend Jill as the mastermind behind the 2011 attacks is hardly acknowledged.
  • There were some apparent hints that this film would use the scrapped storyline from Scream 3 in which the mastermind behind the new Ghostface would have been a returning Stu Macher. The Ghostface of this film often behaves in a much more efficient manner compared to past Ghostfaces as if they have experience as a killer, and it's acknowledged early on that their mask looks older and worn. This is arguably given a Shout-Out when it's confirmed that Quinn's mask belonged to Stu.
  • The film setting up Kirby as one of the killers is a very interesting idea, if nothing else, for the sheer audacity of bringing back a popular character as a new Ghostface. It would also tie in better with the film's noticeable Giallo influence, as devolving into a Serial Killer after being retraumatized is also a plot point in The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Tenebre, two of Dario Argento's most famous films.
  • At one point in the climax, Sam pauses in delivering the coup de grâce against Wayne and considers sparing him. It would have been intriguing to have a Ghostface actually survive the movie and go to prison instead to set up a Sequel Hook, but this turns out to be a Bait-and-Switch since Sam kills him anyway.
  • There is an example In-Universe while one of the Ghostface's is attacking Gale Weathers in her apartment. He mentions how her cracking under the pressure of the previous films and becoming a Ghostface herself who blames Sam for Dewey's death would've been a great franchise plot-twist. And they’re correct.

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