Scream VI

Perhaps no horror franchise has made it to a sixth installment without material fatigue, but here the fatigue is so minimal and hardly noticeable that it still feels fresh, fun and exciting. The horror sequences are a treat, the whole is laughable, but intentionally so. No Scream has ever really disappointed, not even this one. (03/15/2023)

It's true that you can't expect miracles from a slasher movie, but this one is ultimately a mess. The young and restless, binary-diverse and bipolarly unbalanced characters must confront a villain who effortlessly cooks one after another in front of the public (no, I don't notice that the girl next to me in the subway has a 10inch knife in her belly), while the law enforcement authorities are completely incompetent. Since this is already the sixth vol, the screenplay feels noticeably recycled, and any element of surprise is nonexistent - after the first five minutes, viewers have already explored the 78,000 possibilities of who the villain might be, and at the end, it's one of them. What really bothered me was the superhuman agility of the main eviscerator, who dodges bullets and wakes up from unconsciousness at the exact moment that is supposed to be the coolest and creepiest. But the most puzzling fact is, that after six movies, nobody has explained to them, that when you take someone down and they're lying there, you're supposed to finish them off and not to run away! The repetitive scenario of endless escapes has become tiresome. As a whole, the movie simply doesn't work, and they should give up on it, just like with the 58th Fast and Furious. Please, enough is enough. (05/15/2023)

It’s still good horror entertainment between three and four stars. In the end, I’m giving it the lower rating to make clear that the fourth and fifth instalments were much better for me. Plot-wise, it is a compilation of familiar stuff, with similar twists and turns and denouements to what we have already seen in the series, maybe just a bit more absurd. I'm a bit disappointed that the creators didn't take it to another level and offer something more ambitious. For example, to show the cards so that the viewer knows from the beginning who is hiding under the mask (and only guesses the motive), or to make the villain directly out of the main character, especially since both options are implied in this new sequel. Unfortunately, this promise never comes to fruition, so the final form ends up looking rather familiar. But the more significant problem for me is the downright dead meta plane. In the year since the premiere of the previous installment, logically "nothing fundamental has happened" in the horror genre, so there is nothing to respond to, nothing to comment on, nothing to paraphrase (on the contrary, the fourth and fifth installments benefited mightily from longer delays). And "franchise" as the referent to which the latest installment refers is too elusive to base any meaningful meta-games on. I wouldn’t be against another sequel, but I would wait at least five years. (03/23/2023)

Ghostface takes Manhattan. The final revelation is again pulled out of the filmmaker’s ass and this time it’s also a bit ridiculous. But the setting in New York City is nicely refreshing. There are a few surprising scenes, e.g. the store (the killer brazenly carries out his attacks in the public space), scenes with great but insufficiently exploited potential (the subway) and more multiple stabs to the gut after which the characters continue to function as if nothing had happened. The successfully revitalized franchise is becoming a strong but not very clever ditto machine for teenage audiences that could run forever. Scream VI is half a star weaker than the preceding instalment. The coolest scene is after the closing credits. (03/19/2023)

"Liposuction for everyone!", or looking at Courteney Cox here, I wonder if this wasn't originally made as a sequel to The Mummy. Man, why can’t Hollywood actresses age naturally? And the film itself? Well, it actually it needs a heavy dose of botox, a dose of botox of invention, because this is nothing but a compilation of what we've seen many times before and even breaking the fourth wall in one scene doesn't help. (05/06/2023)