As someone who didn’t grow up watching the “Scream” movie series, yet binged the entire franchise in two weeks, I started off confused on how they could do the same basic formula over and over again. I found myself questioning how the movies were not somewhat bland and boring, besides from the brutality aspect. As I thought about this, I realized that it was the main point of the movies in the first place; taking tropes and twisting them into a corny, gory, wonder of a movie. “Scream 6” took these ideas and wrapped them into an engaging and messy Manhattan-based sequel–though it was really shot in Montreal, and only moderately looks like certain areas of New York. You can clearly see the fake wooden newspaper stands, plastic subway entrances, and weirdly positioned yellow cabs. Negative points for realism, but it is a Scream movie, so that isn’t really the main focus. While the location changed, premises never did. 

  The story takes off with the main characters from the previous movie, Tara (Jenna Ortega), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), Chad (Mason Gooding) and Sam (Melissa Barrea), who was the daughter of the first Ghostface, Billy Loomis. The college students are trying to move on from their former lives as survivors of the Woodsboro attacks, but Sam, protective of her sister and her friends, is on edge. She predicts danger will pop up at any corner, and of course she’s right, as Ghostface(s) and friends go on a wild goose chase. 

  The movie is good for a “Scream” movie, with the same somewhat predictable killers and movie references, which the series has perfected at this point. I just wish they could have taken the sequel to the revamp of the series with a few more twists and turns, that’s not the setting of the movie, that could have made it more interesting, but still keeping the things the “Scream” franchise is known for. Yet again, the movie’s formula is still fresh enough that it’s entertaining, being a mix of ironic and spine-chilling. I give it a four out of five stars.