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MINIONS & MONSTERS

Scream VI (2023)

It's a year after the last Ghostface rampage in Woodsboro and the "Core Four" - Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) and the twins, Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) - now find themselves in New York.

While the latter three are in college, at Blackmore University, Sam is doing menial jobs to cover the rent while she keeps an eye on her sister.

The film kicks off with an extended cold open, featuring cameos from Ready or Not's Samara Weaving and Tony Revolori, from the recent Spider-Man movies, again subverting the classic Scream opening with what is just the beginning of a trail of obfuscation and misdirection.

Ghostface has come to New York and states - on the phone - upfront that he's targeting Sam "for what she did" and anyone, such as her sister and friends, who gets in the way.

Sam is already persona non grata because of internet conspiracy theories that she in fact orchestrated the attacks in Woodsboro - because of her heritage - and then framed the actual killers.

This is all part of Scream VI's evolution of the central theme that it's now no longer 'enough' to 'simply' kill a person, you also have to kill their reputation as well.

As bodies start to inevitably mount up, Mindy declares to the group that they are not in a sequel, they're now part of a franchise and thus the rules have changed again, meaning everyone is fair game. 

As with the previous film, Scream VI presents us with a broad collection of potential murderers and victims, including legacy characters such as Hayden Panettiere's Kirby Reed, from Scream 4 (now an FBI agent) and fresh meat, including Sam's "secret" boyfriend, Danny Brackett (Josh Segarra, who you might recognise from playing the excellent Pug in She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, or Adrian Chase in Arrow).

Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) returns, of course, and even the ghost of Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) pops up a couple of times.

Thankfully, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are back as directors, working with a script, again, by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, which really helps ensure that Scream VI feels like an organic continuation of the previous instalment in the horrific murder-mystery franchise.

Whereas I posited the idea that 2022's Scream would have provided a satisfying conclusion to the overarching story, Scream VI now leaves the door well and truly open for a continuation of the saga of the Ghostface killings.

I would hope though that should another entry be made it would be under the auspices of the same team responsible for these last two Scream movies.

But now it's officially a franchise, who knows what direction the story will go in? 

And I must add the point that Marvel movies have broken me: I now scroll through the credits of every film I watch to see if there's a post-credit scene, and I have to say the one snuck on the end of Scream VI is perfect.

Scream (2022)

Kicking off with an inventive reworking of the classic Scream opening (girl home alone, answers phone, ends up talking to stranger etc). the fifth entry in the franchise proclaims its creativity loudly but not smugly.

Full of meta-commentary on the nature of "requels" (films that aren't straight-forward sequels, but aren't complete reboots either, mixing in legacy characters with a crop of core characters), the self-awareness of the Scream franchise, and toxic fandom, 2022's Scream is a knowing thrill ride from start to finish (even its bland name gets a ribbing).

After Tara Carpenter (Jenna 'Wednesday' Ortega) is attacked by a new Ghostface, her estranged sister, Sam (Melissa Barrera) races back to Woodsboro with boyfriend Richie (The Boys' Jack Quaid).

It turns out most of Tara's friends have some kind of connection to the original attacks - as orchestrated by Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) - making them all potential suspects and potential victims.

As bodies start to mount up in a new wave of ultraviolence, Sam and Richie turn to retired deputy Dewey Riley (David Arquette) for assistance.

Initially reluctant, it ultimately doesn't take much to persuade Dewey that his job is to protect the imperilled next generation of Woodsboro.

The murders continue, attracting the attention of Dewey's ex-lover news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and eventually even drawing professional 'final girl' Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) back home, reuniting the original surviving protagonists of the franchise.

Taking place 25 years after the original murders, it's not just technology that's moved on (and this certainly plays a role in the story) but so have special effects: several of the attacks are far more graphic and squirm-inducing than anything we've witnessed before in these films.

Scream is not a film for the squeamish or hemophobics.

Usually, I like a monster in my horror flicks, or some kind of supernatural aspect, but quality human antagonists - such as the ever-changing Ghostface - are able to pique my interest thanks to the elegance of James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick's screenplay, blending Scooby-Doo mystery with adrenaline-hyped action.

I thought I'd sussed out who the killer was early on, but the smart script continually wrong-footed me, proving my guess totally wrong as the film entered its blood-soaked final act, and making the eventual revelation of Ghostface's identity - and motivations - all the more satisfying.

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who gave us the wonderful Ready or Not, Scream is laden with Easter Eggs - including tributes to the late Wes Craven - and references to other horror movies and franchises, smartly woven into the metatextual observations about these films and the people who watch them, while still being a full-on shocking slasher picture.

I was slightly underwhelmed by 2011's Scream 4, but I still can't believe it took me so long to get round to watching this 'new' offering... because it turns out that it's probably my favourite entry in the franchise since Wes Craven's peerless original.

Scream - aka Scream 5 - is the perfect wrap-up for the franchise, which makes Scream 6's impending arrival on home video in the UK all the more intriguing, especially with its non-Woodsboro setting.

Scream 4 (2011)

Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is back in Woodsboro, to promote her new self-help book, on the anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders... and surprise, surprise it all starts up again.

Our other old favourites are back as well Deputy - now Sheriff - Dewey (David Arquette) and wife Gale (Courtney Cox), who is feeling at loose end as she struggles with the life of a sedentary fiction writer.

The new 'Ghostface' killer in town is trying to 'remake' the original Scream (or in the context of the movie, Stab) and while it does have some interesting - some heavy-handed - things to say about the changing face of horror movies, celebrity culture etc there's no escaping the feeling that maybe all concerned should stop flogging this horse. I think it's long dead.

At the start of the movie there are suggestions of marital strife between Dewey and Gale, but this never really develops and while, in a roundabout way, this might be a motive for his new deputy Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton) - who has an obvious crush on him and was a student with Sidney - to be Ghostface, this emotional sub-plot kinda trails off.

There's the usual shocks and twists, celebrity cameos and hot young things for the chopping block (particularly pleasant to see Heroes' Hayden Panettiere as sexy horror fan Kirby, even with an unflattering hairdo) and at least fifty percent of the game is trying to guess the identity of the killer.

It may claim "new decade, new rules" but series creator Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven still won't take that final step and create their own rules - possibly, once and for all, killing off the indestructible Sidney.

Scream 4 is (perhaps overly) self-aware and post-modern, but also a solid, fun slasher movie in its own right, with a clever ending that doesn't quite capture the genius and originality of the first film in the franchise.

Abigail (2024)

A sextet of professional criminals are hired to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy businessman and hold her hostage while their 'go-between' sorts out the $50 million ransom demand.

The criminals are a mixed bag, all unknown to each other and chosen for their special skills: medic Joey (Melissa Barrera, from the recent Scream movies); ex-cop Frank (Dan Stevens, of Legion fame and many other works); hacker Sammy (Kathryn Newton, from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania); muscle Peter (Kevin Durand, another genre staple, most recently mo-capping as Proximus in Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes); sniper Rickles (Will Catlett, from the underrated TV series Constellation); and driver Dean (the late Angus Cloud in his last live-action performance).

When they suss out that the 12-year-old ballerina, Abigail (Alisha Weir, from Matilda: The Musical) that they've grabbed is actually the daughter of a legendary underworld bogeyman, the Keyser Söze-like Kristof Lazaar, the hardened villains start to go to pieces.

Matters get worse when they realise that the isolated mansion that their contact, Lambert (The Mandalorian's Giancarolo Esposito), has sent them to seems to be designed to keep them in... rather than keep out anyone sent to rescue Abigail.

Then the gang's problems escalate as they start getting killed off one-by-one and the survivors come to understand that their hostage is actually an extremely dangerous - and old - vampire... not a small child!

And they are her prey.

Directed by horror legends Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence), who brought us the last two Scream movies and the wonderful Ready or Not, Abigail is glorious, blood-splattered cocktail mixing Reservoir Dogs and The Usual Suspects with Dusk Till Dawn.

Crime caper meets creature feature horror, with Grand Guignol results.

Following Tarantino's Dusk Till Dawn formula, the charismatic 'bad guys' pull off their kidnapping cleanly and are then find themselves trapped in a confined space with a monster even more dangerous than their own dark sides.

Extremely violent and gory, humorous, and action-packed, this 109-minute movie is so well-paced that you don't feel its duration in the slightest.

Even with a limited cast to kill off in true 'spam in a cabin' style, and an obvious 'final girl' from the get-go, the Radio Silence duo wring every bit of brilliance out of the script by their frequent collaborator Guy Busick and Stephen Shields.

The only slight slip-up, for me, in the whole production was - during the final sequence - the directors didn't seem able to decide whether it was night or day outside (which, when you're talking vampires, can be quite key). 

However, that minor glitch aside, I absolutely loved this monster movie.

A strong contender for my "film of the year" so far, Abigail also definitely feels like it has great sequel (even maybe a franchise) potential.