What We Can Expect From 'Scream 6' (That 'Scream 5' Hinted At)
Well, that was fast. The new Scream movie smashed the big screen in January, slashed its way to the top of the Box Office in February, splattered onto people’s TV screens in March, and already has a release date for its next installment which we guess would be … a requel sequel? Let’s call it a req-seq for short. Making up things is fun.
According to the calendar, Scream 6 will be coming at us by the end of March 2023. Now if you think that’s maybe rushing it a bit, well, you’d probably be correct. Then again, as we all know there’s just no time like the present and you’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot and also that’s exactly what happened after the original Scream was released in 1996. Wes Craven’s meta slasher was such a mega hit that the studio immediately approved a sequel. Scream 2 was released a year later, giving us a killer opening scene and our first look at Scream’s in-film called STAB. It also gave us one of the most unhinged killers in the entire franchise (so far).
So let’s speculate wildly as to what the new req-seq will be cooking up for the next round. For one, no one’s going to want a love interest for a while, probably.
Scream 6: Survivors Edition
What makes the new Scream strikingly different from previous chapters is the high number of main characters who were able to survive the Sidney Must Die massacre this time around. Clearly kids in horror today are just much more savvy at facing and ultimately surviving the Ghostface and his dumb trivia games. Combine the Carpenter sisters and their delightful twin friends Chad and Mindy with the iconic Kirby from Scream 4 — who seems to almost certainly be alive — along with legacy ladies Sidney and Gale, and you have a pretty wild Scooby-Doo gang ready to unmask the next nut who never got picked for third grade group projects or whatever.
Will there be a return to a college-type set up like in Scream 2? Will someone pull a Jerry O’Connell and bust out a terrible sing-and-dance number in front of actual living people? God we hope so.
The Return Of Flamethrower Ghostface
The new Scream movie features killers who were basically toxic fans of the STAB movies and wanted to give their favorite franchise some good material to work with … by exposing Billy Loomis’s lineage, and finally killing Sidney. We guess that’s a way to do it. Throughout the movie we see boyfriend Richie watching these STAB movies and commenting on them, and fans went absolutely bananas when the hilarious Flamethrower Ghostface gag popped up in what was supposed to be STAB 8.
Paramount Pictures
Flamethrower Ghostface first graced our consciousness in December 2021 when we caught a glimpse of him in the film’s TV spot. Most of us thought we were being punked. On the contrary, it was such an important gag that the filmmakers got Matthew Lillard to cameo as Flame Face and do his voice. Yes, Matthew Lillard who played the infamous Stu. Yes, we're all agreeing to call it Flame Face now.
And we won’t be surprised if Flame Face gets worked into Scream 6 somehow, even if it’s just for another rad site gag.
Scream 6 Will Feature Only One Killer (But That Will Be A Lie)
If you look at the killers across the current Scream films, we’ve got two in the first, two in the second, and one in the third. Then we had two again in the fourth, and two in the last installment. If we’re going to keep with the pattern, that would mean it’s time to have one super “It was me all along!” killer giving Sidney and her unfortunate posse a rough time. If it’s not going to be Stu this time, it’ll officially never be Stu.
But horror, just like comedy, is all about subverting expectations. In any case, fat chance of having one killer happen since the majority of critics and fans rate the third film with its sole killer as the worst of the franchise. The filmmakers might try to make us think that it’s only one killer this time around, right before they bring out the second and actual puppet master.
Kind of like Sidney’s brother — the wannabe filmmaker — supposedly was.
What Scream 6 Told Us
At one point while Richie is watching his beloved STAB movies, he says that the films were all fine up until the fifth one. After that, everything apparently went off the rails. It’s a self-aware stab (ha) at the movie itself and the horror genre in general. It’s also a fair warning because we’ve already begun moving down to Bonkerstown with the latest entry, what with Sam having daylight hallucinations of her dead dad Billy. Never a good sign.
The franchise, however, has always been clever enough to keep things tight while pushing those boundaries and diving into the pool of wacky horror. Who knows, maybe we won’t get Stu, but rather his ghost — haunting Woodsboro in search of Sidney and wondering if his mom and dad are still mad at him.
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Top Image: Paramount Pictures
