Scream VI (2023) | Plot, Cast & Horror Facts

Scream VI (2023) is a slasher film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the filmmaking group Radio Silence, and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. It is the sixth film in the Scream series and a sequel to Scream (2022). A year after the latest Woodsboro killings, a new Ghostface follows the survivors to New York City. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega return as sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter, with Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Courteney Cox. Hayden Panettiere returns as Kirby Reed from Scream 4 (2011). Neve Campbell sat out over a pay dispute, making it the only Scream film without Sidney Prescott. Paramount released it on March 10, 2023. Reviews were generally positive, and it grossed about $167 million worldwide. It was the first film in the series since Scream 2 to pass $100 million in the US.

At a glance

Release date	March 6, 2023 (premiere, AMC Lincoln Square, Manhattan); March 10, 2023 (US)
Directors	Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Writers	James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick
Based on	Characters created by Kevin Williamson
Starring	Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Dermot Mulroney, Samara Weaving, Hayden Panettiere, Courteney Cox
Music	Brian Tyler and Sven Faulconer
Runtime	122 minutes
Rating	R (US): strong bloody violence, language throughout and brief drug use
Budget	$33â€“35 million
Box office	$166.6 million worldwide (often rounded to $167 million)
Franchise	Scream: sequel to Scream (2022); followed by Scream 7 (2026)

Plot summary

A year after the Woodsboro killings, Blackmore University professor Laura Crane (Samara Weaving) is lured and murdered by her student Jason, who is wearing a Ghostface costume. He and his roommate plan to kill the Carpenter sisters. But a different Ghostface kills them both first. Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) now live in New York, where Tara attends Blackmore University with fellow survivors Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding). An online conspiracy theory has painted Sam as the real mastermind of the earlier killings, and her ID turns up at the new crime scene.

The new Ghostface leaves a mask from a past massacre at each attack and stages an assault in a crowded bodega. FBI agent Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) and reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) join the investigation, with Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), whose daughter Quinn rooms with the sisters. Mindy concludes that the killer is following the rules of a franchise, where anyone can die. Gale finds an abandoned theater turned into a shrine to every Ghostface killing, full of evidence displayed like film props. Ghostface attacks Gale in her apartment, and later Mindy is stabbed on a subway train.

Spoiler section: the shrine

At the theater, Sam picks up the knife of her father, Billy Loomis, from the original murders. Detective Bailey shoots Kirby and reveals he is the mastermind. His accomplices are his children, Chad’s roommate Ethan and Quinn, who faked her death. They want revenge on Sam for killing Richie, Bailey’s eldest son. The sisters fight back. Sam shoots Quinn, then puts on her father’s Ghostface costume, taunts Bailey with a phone call and stabs him to death. Kirby kills Ethan with the television that killed Stu Macher in the first film. Sam looks at her father’s mask, drops it and walks away into the city.

Production and behind the scenes

Spyglass Media Group green-lit the film on February 3, 2022, weeks after Scream opened. Radio Silence and the writers came back. In May the core cast returned, with Panettiere back as Kirby. On June 6, Campbell announced she would not return. She said, “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.” She later said she couldn’t bear “walking on set and feeling undervalued.” David Arquette called a Scream film without Sidney “kind of unfortunate” but said he understood her decision.

Filming began in Montreal, standing in for New York, on June 9, 2022, and ended in late August. The subway sequence was shot without a green screen. Cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz said the effects team towed a real train car into and out of the station set. He had questioned the flickering lights as unrealistic, but the directors loved them. Brian Tyler returned to score the film with Sven Faulconer, and Demi Lovato released “Still Alive” as the lead single.

Release and reception

The film premiered at AMC Lincoln Square in Manhattan on March 6, 2023, and opened on March 10, three weeks earlier than planned, including the series’ first 3D release. As a marketing stunt, people in Ghostface costumes stood silently in public in several cities, prompting 911 calls. It opened to $44.4 million, then the series’ biggest opening. It earned $108.4 million in the US and Canada and $58.2 million elsewhere. Deadline estimated its net profit at $60 million. It won Best Movie at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards.

Rotten Tomatoes lists 77% of 316 reviews as positive. Its consensus says a “change of setting and some inventive set pieces help keep Scream VI reasonably sharp.” Metacritic scores it 61, and CinemaScore audiences gave it a B+. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it “wickedly funny and at times cleverly staged.” He praised Barrera, Ortega and Brown and said the ending was “the most outlandish and spectacularly brutal ending of all.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety found it “too long” but “clever in all the right ways.”

Legacy and influence

The Hollywood Reporter ranked Scream VI third on its list of the best slasher movies of the decade. Its sequel was badly disrupted. Christopher Landon was hired to direct in August 2023. Then Spyglass fired Barrera that November over social media posts about the Gaza war, which the producers called antisemitic. Ortega left, and Landon exited, calling it “a dream job that turned into a nightmare.” The retooled Scream 7 (2026) brought back Campbell, with Kevin Williamson directing, and dropped the Carpenter sisters.

Trivia

Jack Quaid appears uncredited as Richie Kirsch in a video cameo.
Tim Robinson voices Quinn’s off-screen boyfriend, “Paul 2.0.”
The directors appear in the subway scene.
A post-credits scene has Mindy saying that “not every movie needs a post-credit scene.”
Williamson once pitched a Scream 6 centered on Gale and her relationship with Dewey.

Scream VI