Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Courtey Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Hayden Panettiere, Mason Gooding, Roger Jackson, Dermot Mulroney, Jack Champion, Josh Segarra, Liana Liberato, Devyn Nekoda, Skeet Ulrich, Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving.

Just when you think that the Scream franchise cannot go any bigger, cannot pull you in anymore, Scream VI comes along and blows your mind.

The formula doesn’t exactly alter, the sense of psychological breakdown and titillation of the gruesome and the maniacal senses of the human condition are fully developed, the drama of the false accusation and the mislead are forever enshrined in the progressive plot; and yet the brilliance of the machinery at work makes the peril seem fresh, conclusive, and damning of our insistence that the story ever ends.

Franchises always reach a natural conclusion if they want to stay treasured in the minds of the cinephile. Some manage to go on beyond their sell by date kicking and screaming, and some pass away quietly in the night, a case of self-sabotage making the headlines as the knife cuts all ties to reason and sensibility.

For Scream though, now its sixth encounter with the public, the rare case of improving with age seems to be presented as concrete evidence of a thrill that the fans cannot contain, a self-perpetuating continual chapter from the same book rather than distinct separation that many fall foul to.

The beauty of this surely stems from moving the action from the almost close-knit community afforded in Woodsboro and transplanting the fear to the anonymity of New York City. The premise may stay the same, the deep connections of the characters remains, but by relocating, by uprooting the heart of darkness to a place where death never sleeps, the film lover and the horror devotee is placed within the shroud of the unseen voyeur.

With the excellent Hayden Panettiere gloriously returning to the franchise as Kirby Reed, and with the subtle nods to the past murders and victims, Scream VI is for the fan a sense of regaling in the wider appreciation of understanding that once an idea takes hold, it cannot be restricted to just one place; it grows and mutates, it becomes bigger, bolder, and more willing to defy those who see it as a senseless mockery of grandstanding slasher films.

Scream VI brings the franchise back to its very best interpretation of the cinematic ghoul and heroism in facing down human evil.

Ian D. Hall