Main cast: Melissa Barrera (Sam Carpenter), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy Meeks-Martin), Jack Champion (Ethan Landry), Henry Czerny (Christopher Stone), Mason Gooding (Chad Meeks-Martin), Roger L Jackson (Ghostface), Liana Liberato (Quinn Bailey), Dermot Mulroney (Detective Wayne Bailey), Devyn Nekoda (Anika Kayoko), Jenna Ortega (Tara Carpenter), Tony Revolori (Jason Carvey), Josh Segarra (Danny Brackett), Skeet Ulrich (Billy Loomis), Samara Weaving (Laura Crane), Hayden Panettiere (Kirby Reed), and Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers)
Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Wait, didn’t I just sit through this movie a few months back? Oh right, Sidney Prescott isn’t here, she’s in hiding, because Neve Campbell is confident that the people behind this show are hiding away a few extra zero’s in their offered salary to her, so I guess that makes this one different?

Basically, the survivors of the last movie are once again hounded by a passel of Ghostfaces that slash several disposable extras and new characters that are plopped in clearly to be props for the kill scenes, and…

I mean…

You know what, I don’t even know how to give the synopsis because it’s the same crap. Even the villains have the same tired old reasons, and I supposed I should be relieved that the movie at least recycles old stuff instead of coming up with some convoluted motives like some of the older movies in this franchise.

I’m warming up to Melissa Barrera as the new Sidney expy Sam, but I’m still not feeling Jenna Ortega’s annoying Tara and the whole daddy issues they are having, the latter never really doing anything for the characters or the story aside from letting Skeet Ulrich get some pocket change.

It’s nice to see Dermot Mulroney again, as he’s a DILF. Sadly, he’s also another kind of DILF these days—Dramatics I Lurch From—as he is very prone to overacting in a hammy way that is so over compared to his other cast members’ performance level that he is comical and cringe all at once, and there is no bare butt this time to make up for that.

Hayden Penettiere is alright as the what seems like the necessary “I survived a killer and now I am back as a stronger woman!” character, this time Kirby from Scream 4 being an FBI agent, while Courteney Cox is here solely for the money. Gail doesn’t have much to do here at all aside from giving the movie some brand recognition.

That’s one problem with this movie: it has some dead weights like Ms Cox that it should just put out to pasture as these dead weights are just taking up space. Let the new generation characters take the spotlight completely and all that, but I suspect this franchise won’t dare to do that as Hollywood doesn’t take even a little risk anymore.

Then again, does it matter when the franchise is content to just rehash the same tropes, formula, and story lines over and over as long as the money keeps coming in?

Scream VI is just so tired and played out that the cast members can’t elevate the material even if they wanted to. It has the feel and look of a Netflix reboot, complete with all the fresh faces that look and act the same, as if they were all manufactured and cooked in the same plastic surgeon centre and went to the same acting classes, and it’s hard for me to stay awake much throughout it.

After all, it’s basically the clone of a movie that came out just a while back, and that one is a clone of the one that came before too!