Film / Scream VI

Try to cut it in the Big Apple.

Jason Carvey: But we have to finish the movie...
Ghostface: Who gives a fuck about movies!?

Scream VI (also known as Scream 6 and stylized as SCREA/VI) is a 2023 Meta Slasher Movie directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, from the filmmaking collective known as Radio Silence, and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. It is the sixth film in the Scream franchise, directly following Scream (2022), and the first not to star Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott nor feature David Arquette as Dewey Riley. It was released on March 10, 2023.

Set in New York City, the film follows the surviving characters from the prior films as they attempt to rebuild their lives far away from Woodsboro. However, a new string of Ghostface murders puts their ability to do that to the test.

Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Hayden Panettiere all reprise their roles. New to the cast are Dermot Mulroney, Liana Liberato, Jack Champion, Devyn Nekoda, Josh Segarra, Henry Czerny, Tony Revolori, and Samara Weaving.

A sequel is currently in development. Barrera was initially expected to return as Sam Carpenter, but was ejected from the film in November 2023 after she made social media comments on the Israel-Hamas war condemning the genocidal actions in Gaza. The following day, it was announced that Ortega would not be returning as Tara Carpenter. Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) was originally announced to be taking over as director from Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett. However, a month after Barrera and Ortega's departures, it was revealed that Landon too was no longer attached to the project. In March the following year, Neve Campbell said that a seventh film would happen with her returning as Sidney and original writer Kevin Williamson in the director's chair.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer

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Scream VI contains examples of the following tropes:

• Aesop Amnesia: After ending the fifth film vowing to let the previous Ghostfaces "die in anonymity" and instead commemorate Dewey, Gale has yet again written a book about the Ghostface murders. Even worse, she called Sam "unstable" and "a born killer" in the book, which likely fueled the conspiracy theories surrounding her. This justifiably causes a rift between her and Sam, who calls her out on it, and gets her punched in the face by Tara. However, compared to Gale's previous backslides, this is at least downplayed, as she justifies writing the book in the first place by saying that the story got out and someone was going to write about it, so it was better for Sam's sake that a reliable and at-this-point trustworthy eyewitness to the events wrote about it instead of someone unconnected to the case who might have made Sam look even worse, if not outright depict her as the real killer.
• Abominable Auditorium: Ghostface converts an old cinema into a shrine full of memorabilia, weapons and costumes from the previous Scream movies.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Cristina Carpenter, once again, proves herself to be this, cutting off all contact with Sam after revealing to Tara who her dad was.
  • This movie also establishes that Gale's opinion of her own parents isn't great.
• Actor Allusion:
  • An extra is seen leaving the subway in a Mojo Jojo costume. Mojo Jojo is the other most famous character voiced by Ghostface actor Roger L. Jackson.
  • Samara Weaving is the first victim in the opening, getting killed after being tricked and led into a dark alleyway. It's a nod to her role as Grace le Domas in Ready or Not, who avoids multiple murder attempts where she's the designated prey for the hunt, and ends up the Final Girl against the odds. Not so coincidentally, Radio Silence also directed Ready or Not.
• Almost Kiss: Tara and Chad have their first romantic bonding moment in Quinn's room; just as they're about to share their first kiss, Quinn barges in looking for her phone, after which she immediately recognizes that she "cockblocked" Chad.
• Ambiguous Ending: Sam leaving the Ghostface mask behind where anyone could find it. She either did so to once again try to move on with her life or to send a warning out to whoever comes after her and Tara next that she'll get them too if they even try.
• And Starring: The film's credits highlights its legacy characters as such:
  With Hayden Panettiere
  And Courteney Cox
• Anyone Can Die: Invoked but defied. Despite Mindy saying that both main characters and legacy characters are easy pickings at this point in the franchise, Everyone Lives as far as the returning cast are concerned. That being said, they get put through the wringer before they get their happy ending, with Gale specifically coming closer to death than she had in the past.
• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account:
  • This time around, Ghostface has enough resources to purchase a huge property in NYC (an abandoned movie theatre) and turn it into a shrine to all their predecessors and the Stab franchise. Realistically, a property that size in Manhattan would be worth several million dollars, but after the reveal that it's Richie's collection, he was the son of an NYPD detective, and the wealthy Jason and Greg didn't have anything to do with the shrine, it is never explained where Ghostface got that kind of money. Granted, Wayne does not go into much detail about how much he helped Richie build the collection or whether other people were involved, which a sequel could further elaborate on, and given the differing last names, its unclear whether Bailey was ever really a cop or merely used his apparent resources to forge the identity of one.
  • Related to the above, it would also take a considerable amount of money to bribe law enforcement officers across several police forces in order to acquire all of the previous Ghostfaces' gear for the shrine.
• Artistic License – Law: Sam visits a therapist and confesses to him that killing Richie felt "right". The therapist freaks out and says he's going to have to "report this" to the authorities. In fact, the only thing therapists are legally mandated to report are imminent and direct threats of violence. Homicidal ideation remains confidential. However, given that Bailey later reports that the therapist said that Sam "made threats", it's likely that he embellished Sam's words to justify reporting her and dropping her as a patient. Also, while the therapist's reaction is definitely wrong and highly unprofessional, which Sam calls him out on, it's not an unheard-of experience for people who suffer from extreme mental illnesses that are popularly perceived as violent and scary to be coldly dumped by therapists who, despite it being their literal job, decide they can't handle such extreme conditions.
• Artistic License – Law Enforcement: A fellow officer gives Detective Bailey the Ghostface case because his own daughter is roommates with Sam and Tara, two of the main persons of interest in the case. In the real world, that kind of personal connection would mean Bailey would be the last person in the NYPD to be allowed anywhere near the case, let alone be the lead detective, as it would be a massive conflict of interest. It gets even worse with The Reveal that Bailey and Quinn are also relatives of Richie, which means they shouldn't have been anywhere near Sam and Tara, and the police likely should have been somewhat aware of at least one of them.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Given that Jason and Greg were two spoiled brats starting their own killing spree, their brutal murders at the hands of Richie’s family are deserved. That said, it only happened because they were in the way of the family's plan.
  • To a lesser extent, Dr. Stone is murdered after having been shown as an unpleasant Jerkass to his patients.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine:
  • In the opening, after Jason kills Laura in the classic Ghostface routine of a phone call, ambush and murder. He returns to his apartment only to now be on the receiving end of a Ghostface call where the actual Big Bad of the film stabs him mercilessly until his guts are exposed.
  • Happens again in the final battle, Sam uses Ghostface’s regular tactics we’ve seen many times before (phone call, using the voice changer, taunting the person they're calling and then attacking them in a Ghostface costume) to finish off Wayne Bailey, who is the lead Ghostface this time around.
• Attack the Mouth: Tara knifes Ethan in his mouth, and yet he still lives long enough to be the Ghostface who has one last charge.
• Avenging the Villain: The family of Richie Kirsch are the Ghostfaces, deciding to take matters in their hands regarding the one who killed the eldest son.
• Award-Bait Song:
  • "Still Alive" by Demi Lovato, which was made for the movie and definitely written with the intent to express the film's major theme pertaining to both the physical and mental struggle to fight for your life.
  • "In My Head" by Mike Shinoda and Kailee Morgan pertains to the terror of facing one's personal demons and how the scariest things can be in their own mind as well.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite being so pissed at Gale for writing a book about the 2022 killings that they’re willing to punch her, Sam and Tara still rush to save her and are incredibly distraught when she’s seemingly at death's door.
• Ax-Crazy: Turns out Richie’s family is even more insane than he was, given that they go on a killing spree to avenge him despite knowing full well he was an abusive, murderous asshole.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Once there are two Ghostfaces in the theater, Sam and Tara assume this position, armed with whatever's at hand.
• Badass Bystander: A bodega owner goes after Ghostface with a shotgun when he chases Sam and Tara into the store. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Dr. Stone pressures Sam into getting into specifics about her issues. Once she does, he's scared out of his wits, drops her as a patient, and reports her to the police, violating her confidentiality.
  • Said word-for-word by Sam when she finally dons Billy's Ghostface costume, just like Bailey wanted... only instead of him executing her while she wears it, she's using it, along with Ghostface's classic taunting phone call trick, to screw with him while she's stalking him.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Jason and Greg are two rich brats who want to finish what Richie and Amber started, with Jason even getting a kill in. They are both brutally killed in the cold open by the real villain of the movie, who scoffs at their motive.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Gale only survives because Sam and Tara arrive as Ghostface is about to deal a killing blow.
  • After the Ghostfaces are apparently dead, Ethan suddenly reappears for one last scare and charges the Carpenter sisters, who are exhausted and heavily wounded...at which point Kirby reappears and kills Ethan with a TV set.
• Big "NO!":
  • Anika, when she's crossing the ladder and looks back to see Ghostface standing behind her.
  • Mindy, when Anika falls off the ladder to her death shortly after.
  • Tara, after seeing Chad get stabbed by Ghostface.
  • Detective Bailey, before Sam (in full Ghostface costume) begins stabbing him.
• The Big Rotten Apple: The story and returning characters are in New York City, but someone is using a Ghostface mask to perform a string of homicidal crimes. They attack and stalk people on the streets of New York, its subway, a bodega, and in apartments. One of the film's taglines even invokes Bystander Syndrome ("in a city of millions, no one hears you scream").
• Bittersweet Ending: Sam, Tara, Kirby, Gale, Chad, Danny, and Mindy all survive the events of the movie, and the culprits — Bailey, Quinn and Ethan — are all dead. However, Mindy's girlfriend Anika is killed along with several others. Sam and Tara manage to make amends, but both are even more traumatized as a result of the events of the film, and Sam's reputation is still in the gutter — unless the circumstances of this series of killings are to be believed when word gets out. Also, while Sam leaving behind the Ghostface mask may mean she's once again trying to put it behind her, in addition to leaving it where anyone could find it, it could also be her sending a message to whoever thinks of targeting her and Tara next too of what awaits them if they do.
• Body in a Breadbox: Greg, Jason's would-be accomplice, is literally Stuffed into the Fridge for him to discover. However, since it's used as bait for the real Ghostface to kill Jason, rather than to motivate Jason to continue his killing spree, it is not a case of actual fridging, but rather this trope.
• Bond One-Liner:
  • "Looks like you're down another brother." Said by Sam to Quinn on Tara's behalf after watching her brutally stab Ethan.
  • "Always got to shoot 'em in the head." Said by Sam after killing Quinn via headshot in front of Detective Bailey.
  • "Saw that in a scary movie once." Said by Kirby after finishing off Ethan by dropping a television on his head — namely, the television from the first Scream that killed Stu Macher, a scene recreated for the first Stab, the scary movie Kirby's referencing.
• Book Ends: The film opens with Jason and Greg, a pair of wannabe Ghostfaces, getting got by the real Ghostface. The film ends with the Ghostface mastermind of the movie, Detective Bailey, getting butchered by Sam.
• Boom, Headshot!: Sam to Quinn. She even lampshades to her father that it's the best way to ensure a death.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Sam and Tara both raise valid points in their argument at the start of the film after the frat party. Sam is correct that after what they endured, they need to be careful in who they trust and that Tara isn't dealing with the trauma of their experience. Tara is similarly correct in her frustration at Sam's overprotectiveness and in her counterpoint that as horrible as what happened to them was, she can't spend her life afraid and paranoid all the time and with Sam always looking over her shoulder. In the end, Tara decides to take Sam's advice and seek professional help to process what happened, and Sam agrees that Tara needs her freedom and to live her own life.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • The movie unmasks Ghostface's identity as Jason in the opening.^note Scream 4 had a similar Ghostface reveal in its opening, but that was part of the Stab 7 fakeout. This leads to some unprecedented Dramatic Irony when he returns to the campus and strikes up a conversation with Tara, who is unaware that she is talking to Ghostface.
  • Three people die in the Cold Open instead of the usual two. Two of said victims are also Ghostface. On that note, this is the first movie with two independent Ghostface factions, although for all intents and purposes, there is only one faction properly menacing the protagonists after Jason and Greg die. Two of the victims are also men, where the opening victims have (very slightly) trended female previously: female Casey and male Steve in the first, female Maureen and male Phil in the second, male Cotton and female Christine in the third, females Jennie and Marnie in the fourth, and female Tara alone in the fifth, who is also the only one to survive.
  • This is the first movie without Sidney.^note This is unintentional, as Sidney was supposed to be a part of the movie, but Neve Campbell's salary dispute changed plans. Furthermore, this is also the first time the killers have no interest in Sidney whatsoever.
  • Ghostface uses a shotgun in costume during the bodega attack, ignoring the other killers' unwritten rule of resorting to guns only when they unmask themselves. They also lampshade this in one of the phone calls.
    Ghostface: ...there's never been one like me, Gale. I'm something... different.
  • For the first time, there are THREE Ghostfaces working together.
• Brick Joke: In Mindy's speech explaining the new rules and stakes of being in a franchise, Chad can be seen taking notes, specifically writing down the word "beheading". In the climax, a Ghostface socks off the head of a display doll in the shrine while trying to kill him, to which he immediately shouts, "Beheadings?!"
• Bring It: Played with. In the climax, Sam and Tara are back-to-back, about to face off against two Ghostfaces, and Tara yells, "Come on, motherfuckers!" However, this isn't coming completely from brazen confidence; Tara is visibly and audibly terrified beforehand, only pulling it together with the help of Sam saying, "I need you to be ready." On top of that, right after she says it, Kirby intervenes from behind them.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • The girl who throws a soda at Sam in the street knows that Sam has killed at least one person (Richie) and appears to believe the conspiracy theories that Sam was who actually killed all the people who died in the most recent Woodsboro rampage... and still goes out of her way to try to pick a fight with her.
  • Of course, there’s the Ghostfaces of this film. Despite the fact that the Baileys are fully aware of what Sam is capable of doing when push comes to shove (since she killed the eldest Bailey son, Richie, by stabbing him 22 times, slitting his throat, and then shooting him in the head), they still decide to commit an entire revenge plan predicated on the idea that Sam would have to be violent to make it work. Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t end well for the Bailey family.
• Bury Your Gays: The first time that Mindy and Anika kiss onscreen, it's during a Ghostface attack that not 5 minutes later results in the latter's brutal death. Mindy survives the film, however.
• The Bus Came Back: Hayden Panettiere reprises her role as Kirby Reed after only receiving a Freeze-Frame Bonus mention in the previous film, now serving as an FBI Agent with a major role in the film.
• Bystander Syndrome: When Ghostface enters the convenience store to attack Tara and Sam, only two shoppers stand up to him. After Ghostface kills said shoppers, everyone but the owner immediately flees, leaving Tara and Sam to fend for themselves.
• Call-Back:
  • One tagline for the film — "New York. New rules." — invokes itself as instantly similar to Scream 4, which had the tagline "New decade. New rules." This could partially be because Kirby Reed from that movie returns in this one as well. The logo of this film modifying the word "SCREAM" to contain a red "VI" inside the M also invokes Scream 4 doing something similar, turning the A in "SCREAM" into a "4".
  • Mindy mentions to "never trust the love interest" since Billy Loomis and Richie Kirsch were the murderous love interests of Sidney and Sam, respectively. Ironically, not only are Mindy and Sam’s respective love interests Anika and Danny innocent this time around, but they’re also the only new group members who are.
  • Gale makes her introduction in the film emerging from a horde of reporters that hound Sam and Tara as they leave the police station. When she asks Sam if she thinks she's the reason Ghostface has returned, Sam tries to punch her in the face in a manner not dissimilar to Sidney in the first Scream. She dodges and snarks that she's "done this dance before", only to be punched by Tara instead.
  • Scream 2 has Maureen yelling at the movie screen when the killer calls Casey, telling her to "hang up the phone and *69 his ass." Gale does exactly that in this film to try and find the killer.
  • Mindy also notes that her and Chad's uncle Randy was killed (in Scream 2) while walking around on a cell phone as Gale and the cops tried to trace the call in a nearby van, as Sam and Tara walk around an open street with people sitting on the grass and playing on cell phones. It's a Red Herring from the killers — they're going after Gale and want to make sure that she's alone.
  • Chad’s unexpected survival after a brutal attack and Tara being happy that he lived is very reminiscent of Dewey’s survival and Gale going to the hospital with him at the end of Scream 2.
  • In Gale's chase around her apartment, the way her boyfriend is quickly and easily dispatched by Ghostface and his body is later flung at Gale while she tries to escape is very similar to the deaths of Jenny and Marnie in Scream 4.
  • Possibly discussed in Detective Bailey's longwinded description of how he needs to go back to the hospital and kill Gale and Mindy to ensure that nobody can talk — as this is exactly what Jill did after the final confrontation in Scream 4.
  • The finale is a Trash the Set confrontation between the survivors and the killers in a theatre, making ample use of the screen and theatrical effects in a way that's very reminiscent of the conclusion of Scream 2.
    • Additionally, where Scream 2 begins in a packed movie theatre, this film’s climax occurs in an abandoned movie theatre.
  • A re-emerging Ghostface (Ethan) is killed by having the same television dropped on his head as Stu in the original. It gets lampshaded by Kirby.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • During the subway scene, someone can be seen dressed as Samara Weaving's character from Ready or Not; Samara herself is a cast member in this film.
  • Mindy brings up Tony Stark when mentioning characters who died while their franchises continued, meaning the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a fictional universe in the Scream franchise. Tony Revolori (Jason) plays Flash in the Spider-Man movies, Jenna Ortega (Tara) played the Vice President's daughter in Iron Man 3, Dermot Mulroney (Wayne) was President Ritson in Secret Invasion (2023) and Jack Champion (Ethan) was the boy on the bike who Ant-Man asked what happened when he came back in Avengers: Endgame.
• Chase Scene: The film features several chase sequences:
  • The first involves Sam and Tara being attacked outside their apartment complex and chased into a nearby bodega, where Ghostface murders two bystanders and the shop owner.
  • The second involves Tara, Sam, Chad, Mindy and Anika being attacked inside their apartment after Quinn fakes her death. Tara and Chad escape out the front door but the others must use a ladder to cross into Danny’s apartment. Unfortunately, Anika is thrown from the ladder and plummets to her death.
  • The third happens when Ghostface lures the group away to attack Gale in her apartment. After killing her boyfriend, Gale is pursued through the apartment by Ghostface.
  • The final chase sequence involves Sam, Tara and Chad being chased through the shrine.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The killer's shrine contains all sorts of memorabilia — or in-universe, misplaced police evidence — referencing to events of the previous films. For example, there is Stu’s robe and the TV that killed him from the first film.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • Jason's roommate Greg is literally Stuffed into the Fridge, as in he was cut into pieces and then placed in a refrigerator; this was a notable first in the Scream franchise where someone was decapitated and dismembered.
  • Dr. Stone is stabbed in the face, right through his nose, and Ghostface leaves him to choke and wheeze on his own blood.
  • Anika's death is notably prolonged. First, she is choked by Ghostface while trying to save Mindy, then pinned to a wall and brutally stabbed in her stomach, with the knife even being dragged while inside her. This wound ultimately slows her down when it is her turn to cross the ladder between two buildings. By this point, Ghostface has broken free from a barricade set up by Mindy and Sam, and is able to torment Anika by shaking the ladder before tilting it enough to send her plummeting to the ground, where she smashes her face into the side of a dumpster and breaks her neck.
  • As per tradition, the Ghostfaces don’t have quick deaths, either. Detective Bailey is stabbed about 32 times in the neck, head, chest, and stomach before getting a fatal knife wound through the eye. Meanwhile, Ethan is stabbed several times in the chest, then stabbed in the mouth, impaled through his jaw, and left to bleed out, before finally getting taken out with a TV set, which crushes his head. Only Quinn’s death is relatively quick, getting struck in the face with a brick and then shot through the head in front of her father.
• Curse Cut Short: Various TV spots used a clip of Tara, her back to Sam and about to face off against what is revealed in the movie proper to be two Ghostfaces, shouting "Come on, mother—!" before being cut off with a shot of Ghostface menacing the camera. In the film proper, she finishes the swear as "motherfuckers".
• Darker and Edgier: The film is far more serious than even Scream (2022), with a lot more gore and a much more sadistic and violent Ghostface. The killer's motive this time around is much more dramatic as well, with a whole family donning the mantle to avenge Richie. Ironically, however, the film has a much lower heroic death count compared to the previous film, with the majority of the good guys surviving (albeit with some very close calls with death).
  • Justified as Ghostface is not trying to make a horror film — it's actually Serial Killings, Specific Target.
• Date Rape Averted: At a frat party early in the film with Tara, Chad, Mindy and Anika in attendance, a drunk Tara ends up being cajoled by a man into following him upstairs into his room. Mindy and Anika catch on the moment they see them and try to intervene, but both Tara and the man try convincing them that everything's fine. When Anika gets Chad to try intervening again, the same thing happens, but the man then begins forcefully dragging Tara up the stairs. Chad then pulls the man away from Tara and gets into a physical altercation with him, at which point Sam arrives and dispatches the man with a taser to the groin.
• Dating Service Disaster: Of the "catfished by a (wannabe) Serial Killer" variety with Laura and her student, Jason, who kills her as Ghostface.
• Dead Star Walking: In true Scream fashion, Samara Weaving and Tony Revolori in the opening. The former is the victim, and the latter is her murderer, but then becomes a victim himself.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Jason and Greg are this, immediately unmasking themselves/revealing their identities before being killed by the film's real Ghostface, all in the opening.
• Disproportionate Retribution: True to form for Ghostface:
  • Wannabe Ghostface Jason chooses to warm up to kill Sam and Tara by savagely butchering his film studies professor. Why her specifically? She gave him a C- on a paper about Dario Argento.
  • The main Ghostfaces all want Sam dead and her reputation ruined because she killed Richie (in self-defense after he and Amber killed plenty of other innocent people), but they also target Mindy, Chad, Tara, and Gale for having "anything to do" with Richie's death ("anything" in this case meaning that they survived Richie and Amber trying to murder them and were in the general vicinity when Richie died), as well as killing several innocent people either to further torture their target or just for being in the way.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: Ghostface's customary final Jump Scare during the credits has him pumping a shotgun instead of wielding a knife.
• Dramatic Ammo Depletion: In the climax, Sam shoots Quinn dead in front of her father, Detective Bailey, and pulls the trigger again pointing at him, only to hear an empty click.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Subverted. In the climax, once Detective Bailey and Ethan have revealed themselves as two of the three main Ghostfaces, Sam tries to use the process of elimination to deduce the final killer. Mindy is one of the last options she comes to, and she's audibly heartbroken when she asks if it's true, considering what a betrayal it would be if a person who she now considers family and knows what it's like to fight off a killer ended up being one herself. However, Quinn ends up being the third Ghostface.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As Ghostface butchers Jason, he throws Jason's own words about killing (that as he stabbed Laura, she became less a person and more just a piece of meat) in his face and finishes him off by snarling, "Who gives a fuck about movies?". While the Ghostfaces in this film are hardly any less savage, this disgust is still head and shoulders above any Ghostface from the previous films, most of whom would probably have agreed with Jason.
• Eye Am Watching You: Mindy gives the gesture to Ethan shortly after the group first discovers the theater while Chad is explaining how they want to keep an eye on Ethan after Anika's death.
• Eye Scream: Sam finishes off Detective Bailey by shoving a knife through his eye.
• Faking the Dead: Quinn, with her father using his influence in the police to pull it off, so no one would suspect her of being both alive and behind the Ghostface mask.
• Fall Guy: It’s poor Sam again, with the killers planting the seeds in advance that Sam framed Richie and Amber for the events of the last film so they can blame their killings on her as well. For Sam's own murder, the killers don't have any specific fall guy in mind; they're planning to say that some random conspiracy nut (who will presumably never be caught) took the law into their own hands, with Detective Bailey "conveniently" finding Sam's bloody remains afterward.
• Family of Choice: This mixed in with a little bit of Fire-Forged Friends is a reoccurring element throughout the film for the survivors.
  • Chad kicks it off by referring to Sam, Tara, Mindy and himself as the "Core Four". While they initially scoff at the name, they genuinely come around by the end.
  • Sam and Tara don’t talk to their mom or dad but think of Chad and Mindy as family.
  • Gale assures Sam that it's her mother's loss to have cut her off and says that "you can still make your own family, even if it's with one person." When Sam asks what happens when someone loses their "one person", knowing Gale can speak from experience, Gale says, "You keep going, and maybe you find another loner."
  • Kirby says that she, the Core Four and Gale are “all part of the same fucked-up family”.
• The Family That Slays Together: The Ghostfaces in this movie are the late Richie Kirsch's father and younger siblings, out to utterly destroy Sam for killing him.
• Final Battle: Sam, Tara, Chad, and Kirby against three Ghostfaces, in an abandoned theatre. Our heroes take some hits, but all four of them make it out alive while the Ghostfaces die messily.
• Final Girl: Sam fully takes Sidney Prescott's throne in this movie, with Sidney not appearing at all, and Sam delivering the final blow against Ghostface.
• Firing One-Handed: How Ghostface kills the guy he takes the shotgun from in the bodega.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Of the cheeky meta gag/Dramatic Irony type. Dr. Stone is sitting in his home, watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) on TV. There's a knock on his door just as a character on the TV screams, "They're here already! You're next, you're next!" You can guess just who is at the door for Dr. Stone.
• Fooled by the Sound: After Sam briefly sees her being attacked, Quinn is then heard screaming, shouting and apparently fighting off a Ghostface before being stabbed by them and having her body thrown through the door. It turns out that this was all feigned by Quinn and her family in order to throw suspicion off her as one of the killers.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Unlike previous Ghostfaces, who are all obsessed with horror films, this film’s Ghostface outright yells “Who gives a fuck about movies?!” and is shown to be far more interested in getting to the point with killing their victims rather than toying with them first, using firearms in-costume and forgoing questions about scary movies altogether. The Bailey family’s motive is less about creating a real-life horror film and more about getting revenge for the death of Richie, their son/brother. In particular, Detective Bailey doesn’t care for horror movies themselves, though acknowledged his late son Richie’s interests, and only used the Ghostface moniker to make it easier to frame Sam for the new killings.
  • This is the first movie in the franchise to feature three victims in the opening scene. Similarly, it is the first film in the franchise to feature three killers working together as Ghostface.
  • Quinn mentions that she had a brother who recently died and their father became overprotective afterwards, having moved to New York after she got accepted into college. Said brother was Richie Kirsch, one of the Ghostfaces from the previous film.
  • Danny sees the killer in Quinn’s room, somehow having gotten into their apartment. Considering Quinn is one of the Ghostfaces, it is pretty clear who let them in.
  • It's very easy to miss (and may have even been unintentional), but Quinn's body moves after her supposed death. It seems that she wanted a better look at Anika getting stabbed.
  • Additionally, Quinn fails to notice Ghostface is in her room, seemingly distracted by a phone conversation. As it turns out, she didn’t have anything to worry about.
  • Meta-example. Most of the major characters who die in the franchise are usually killed onscreen. Here, major character Quinn is Killed Offscreen with only a video documenting the kill and her body getting thrown on Mindy and Anika as they try to escape. Quinn is actually faking her death with the help of Ghostface, and in the chaos of the assault in the apartment, none of the group members have any time to really check for signs of life on Quinn.
  • Tara mentions that Quinn became her and Sam’s roommate as the result of an anonymous advertisement, which Mindy finds suspicious. Anonymous or not, Quinn deliberately became Sam and Tara's roommate to get close to them.
  • Related to the above example, Ethan says that he became Chad's roommate as the result of random assignments, which Mindy points out that anyone can hack. Ethan later confirms this was the case.
  • The killer first contacts Sam and Tara via calling them from Richie Kirsch’s cell, indicating the person whom the Ghostfaces are avenging.
  • During Mindy’s speech about requel rules, Quinn points out that she and the other Woodsboro survivors could be potential suspects as well, which Ethan quickly agrees with. This is not only to drive attention away from herself and Ethan, but also place it on Sam — whom they intend to frame for their murders; Bailey later uses the same reasoning to convince Sam that Kirby is one of the killers, buying himself the element of surprise during the climax.
  • After Quinn dies, Detective Bailey tells Sam and Tara that anyone who fucks with his family will die. He specifically eyes Sam when he says this — which makes sense as he holds Sam responsible for his eldest son Richie’s death a year before and wants her dead as a result.
  • Sam tells Bailey of her alibi, that she was with her therapist during the double murder of Jason and Greg and gives Bailey his info and address. Not long after, Dr. Stone is killed by Ghostface in his home and Sam's files are stolen. Bailey was the only likely suspect as he had the therapist's location literally handed to him, and no one else except possibly Kirby would have known this information.
  • Bailey shows to Sam and Tara a video of the former reacting badly to a bunch of college girls’ accusations about her. It’s later used to demonize her in the media, which was part of Bailey’s plan.
  • Mindy's rule-explaining monologue specifically mentions how similar the setting makes things to Scream 2. Just like that movie's main Ghostface was Mrs. Loomis, seeking to avenge her villainous son's death in the first movie, the killers this time around are Richie's family avenging his death in Scream (2022).
    • Further allusions to Scream 2 can be found in Jason and Greg turning out to be crazy accomplices to the revenge scheme who are subsequently killed by said vengeful parent, similar to Mickey in Scream 2, but this time they are betrayed in the opening rather than the ending. Fitting to this reversal, the ending takes place in a movie theater as a Stab movie plays on the projector (in this case, Richie's Stab fanfilm), similar to Scream 2's famous opening scene. Furthermore, there is a scene where Mindy is attacked in public in full view of other people but nobody recognizes that she's being attacked, in a scene that strongly parallels her uncle's death in Scream 2, as well as Maureen Evans' death in that movie. However, this time, the Meeks family member is not actually killed from this. In addition, the film also features an Understanding Boyfriend who tries to do his best to help the main characters while still acknowledging the odds of him being suspected as the killer and keeping his distance for exactly that reason. The main difference is that Danny lives while Derek doesn't.
  • In the opening sequence, as "Greg" talks to Jason on the phone in his apartment, Jason's suspicions start to grow and they aren't alleviated until he asks Greg where they met and Greg answers correctly: 8 years ago, in junior high. Such information wouldn't be easy for the general public to get, but a police detective would have no problem by running background checks.
  • Kirby is floored at how Gale managed to find the theatre shrine when she couldn’t find it in Jason and Greg’s financial accounts despite working on their case for a while. In reality, it’s Detective Bailey who moved the shrine to the theatre and afterwards put it in the duo’s names to cover up his tracks.
  • Kirby and Mindy make special note of the TV that killed Stu while looking through the shrine. Kirby later uses it to kill the final living Ghostface, Ethan.
  • For the subway scene, everyone in the group is freaked out by all the Ghostface costumes around them, since they could be the killer. Everyone except Ethan, that is. Why? He doesn't have anything to worry about.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Downplayed with Anika. Mindy is still her Deadpan Snarker self in the scenes after watching her die, but her tone is far more somber and she's far more hostile toward anyone she deems a suspect.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Although Quinn is meant to be dead in the scene, her "corpse" can, for a split second, be seen moving to look at Ghostface choking out Anika. She ends up being one of the Ghostfaces and is revealed to have faked her death.
• Frying Pan of Doom: As Ghostface chases Gale through her apartment, they wind up in her kitchen, where she picks up a frying pan and manages to land a good hit across the killer's head.
• Gory Discretion Shot: When the bodega owner gets shot, there’s only blood splatter seen on the glass in the store.
• Groin Attack: After Chad gets in a physical altercation at a frat party with a guy in the midst of dragging a drunk Tara to his room, Sam disarms the guy with a taser to the groin.
  "Sorry to interrupt, I'm just gonna tase you in the balls real quick."
• Head Smashes Screen: Kirby finishes off the third killer, Ethan by dropping a television on his head in a Call-Back to the first movie. It gets lampshaded, too.
  Kirby: Saw that in a scary movie once.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Sam, courtesy of some malicious rumors started by Ghostface; with her parentage out in the open, she is rumored to have been the real mastermind behind the previous movie's killing spree, having framed and murdered Richie and Amber to hide her involvement. Sam finds herself harassed in public and cursed as a murderer both in person and online because of the Malicious Slander.
• Homage:
  • Laura walking around the street looking for her "date" before being lured into an alleyway and killed in front of clueless crowds is shot very similarly to Helen's death in I Know What You Did Last Summer, where she runs from the crowds and appears to almost reach safety in the crowd before stopping and getting murdered in the alley in front of them.
  • Jason walking around his apartment before finding Greg's dismembered body parts in the refrigerator, and then being murdered immediately afterward, is exactly what happens to Alice in the opening scene of Friday the 13th Part 2.
  • Quinn being attacked and killed by Ghostface, who has snuck into her room unknown to her, in front of Danny who's across the street (in this case, the building opposite) is very reminiscent of Olivia's murder across the street from the helpless Kirby and Jill in Scream 4, after Ghostface has broken into her house and is hiding in her closet. However, Quinn is only Faking the Dead.
  • The characters' slow crawl across the ladder between the two apartments after being attacked by Ghostface alongside Tara and Sam driving like crazy after stealing Bailey's car are both shot in similar ways to Sidney and Hallie's kidnapping in Scream 2, and their crawling over the unconscious Ghostface after he crashes the car.
  • A long-running horror franchise moves its iconic antagonist from the franchise’s typical setting to the concrete jungle that is New York City? Seems like it’s taking a page from Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan — which plays onscreen early in the film.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Zig-zagged, as the movie is set within a couple of days of Halloween, but it's not a major element of the plot. This allows the real Ghostface to move around in costume without suspicion, as everyone is in costume, many of them as Ghostface.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: During the climax, a fall while fighting Sam knocks Bailey unconscious, and when he comes to, the Ghostface mastermind finds himself on the receiving end of the very same stalking and taunting he subjected his would-be victim to, with Sam even using the classic Ghostface voice to further screw with Bailey before showing herself and stabbing him dozens of times.
• Hypocrite:
  • At the beginning of the film, Ghostface gives Jason a moralizing speech about his utter disregard for human life, which holds no weight as they were willing to murder several people for simply being in Sam and Tara’s proximity to avenge a Mad Artist who also disregarded human life.
  • Ghostface, of all people, gives Sam hell for being "a liar and a killer"; every single Ghostface, including the ones in this very film, have been, at minimum, a False Friend to someone and an utterly savage murderer. During the climax, all three killers continue to taunt Sam about her being a natural born killer, often in the same breath as bragging about their victims and their plans to kill her. Quinn adds another note of hypocrisy by admitting that she started the rumor about Sam masterminding the Woodsboro killings, which she knew to be false, just to wreck Sam's reputation.
  • Ethan, after taking off the Ghostface mask of Mrs. Loomis, snidely remarks to Sam that it "really runs in your fucking family, doesn’t it?" This is despite his family having several different Ghostfaces working in tandem; his own family actually has twice as many Ghostface killers as Sam's does (father and all three children vs. Sam's father and grandmother).
  • Most impirtantly, Sam's killing are pure, cut-and-dried self defense (though with a large enough side order of excessive force to perhaps bring reasonable doubt). Every other Ghostface is killing for the sheer demented thrill of it, and generally tries to make sure their victims are as helpless as possible.
• Immoral Journalist:
  • True to form for a Scream movie; as soon as Sam and Tara come out of a police station after Jason and Greg's murders, they're immediately mobbed by reporters who perpetuate the rumors about Sam being behind the previous Woodsboro massacre, as well as asking Tara if she feels safe around Sam. Later, a TV reporter has no qualms about calling Sam a prime suspect in the most recent killings despite the lack of solid evidence implicating her, or with showing edited videos that further smear her reputation.
  • Gale has regressed back into her old exploitative, fame-hungry self, having gone back on her word to let the previous film's Ghostfaces "die in anonymity" and writing a book about their murder spree. To make matters worse, in said book, she described Sam as "unstable" and "a born killer", which only makes Sam's life even more difficult. To her credit, Gale does have the decency to show some shame when Sam and Tara call her out on it, especially when Sam asks what Dewey would think of her actions.
• In the Back: After Tara and Chad have their first kiss at the theater, the tender moment is interrupted by Ghostface emerging and stabbing Tara in the back.
• Ironic Echo: "You fuck with my family, you die." Said by Bailey to Sam after Quinn's apparent death, with the later-revealed double meaning of his desire to kill Sam for killing Richie. Sam throws the line back in Bailey's face when, with him at her mercy, she briefly considers sparing him before remarking "But you did fuck with our family, so..." before finishing him off.
• I Shall Taunt You: When faced with the killers and learning how their motives are tied to Richie Kirsch and avenging his death, Sam begins to taunt the ringleader by insulting Richie, calling him pathetic and noting how Amber did most of the killing. This provokes one of the Ghostfaces into attacking in a rage, which breaks the standoff they were in and gives Sam's group a chance to fight back.
• Last Kiss: After Anika insists that Mindy cross the ladder to Danny's apartment first despite her pleas, Mindy gives Anika an emotional kiss before she sets off. It does end up being the last kiss for Anika, as she doesn't make it across the ladder when it's her turn.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Well, what else did you expect from a Scream movie?
  • This time, Mindy points out that by being the follow-up to a legacy sequel, the murder plot is taking after a franchise, and so one should expect things like trying to subvert expectations and returning characters having a high chance of dying. When she gets attacked by Ghostface later in the film, in the midst of her excruciating pain, she says, "Fuck this franchise." In context, it's because she was seemingly wrong about the killers again, since her prime suspect Ethan had just come to her rescue, but it also very much reads like a middle finger directly to the film's writers.
  • Radio Silence confirmed that the in-universe backlash towards Sam is a nod to the polarized fan reaction to her taking over as the series' lead character.
    Sam: It just sucks being this hated...
  • When explaining Sidney's decision to go into hiding to Sam and Tara, Gale makes the remark that "she deserves to have her happy ending", which could easily be applied to the real-life cast and crew's feelings on Neve Campbell's decision to step down from the film, with many people involved in the film publicly stating that Campbell's presence was missed and they would love to see her return for a future film.
• Letters 2 Numbers: The Roman numeral VI is quite literally carved into the film’s logo, with the letter M split into three and the latter two parts being colored blood red to make out a stylized "VI".
• Light-Flicker Teleportation: Ghostface does this on a subway while staring down Mindy before attacking her. It's implied that this is only an illusion created by how many Ghostfaces there are.
• Literal Metaphor: When Sam and Tara get their first phone call from Ghostface, he warns them to “watch their backs” a second before actually jumping out of the shadows to grab Tara, whose back was turned against him.
• Loony Fan:
  • There is a massive room dedicated to all the previous massacres, their victims, and the killers. This is because it's a dedication to Richie, the Stab fanatic who started a massacre trying to inspire a new movie to keep the franchise going in the last movie.
  • Jason and Greg, the two wannabe Ghostfaces, are huge Stab fans and planned to murder Sam and Tara in order to "finish Richie's movie". The real Ghostface, who has their own plan to kill the Carpenters, quickly puts a stop to that.
• Lost in a Crowd: Ghostface takes full advantage of New York crawling with people dressed as Ghostface for Halloween. Specifically, Ghostface gets within stabbing distance of Mindy on a subway car with three other Ghostfaces.
• Love-Interest Traitor: Discussed by Mindy and Sam at different points, with the former saying, "Never trust the love interest." Ironically, their respective love interests, Anika and Danny, are completely innocent. However, Quinn did allow Ethan to kill her lover during the apartment attack midway through the film.
• Made of Iron: Virtually all of the main cast members. Gale survives multiple vicious stabbings, Chad once again survives a ridiculous number of stab wounds, Mindy has her stomach sliced open and is on her feet after at most a few hours, Kirby survives a gunshot wound and being stabbed in the stomach (again), Tara and Sam are each stabbed and keep fighting like nothing happened, Quinn is back up and fighting after taking a brick to the face, Bailey manages to stay conscious after about three dozen stab wounds, and Ethan gets back up after having a knife driven deep into his mouth.
• Manipulative Editing: A news report about Sam becoming the prime suspect of the new Ghostface murders shows a phone recording of her attacking a girl on the street and cursing at her — leaving out the fact that the girl had just thrown a soda at Sam and called her a murderer, perhaps a result of the recording deliberately being started after the initial assault.
• Meaningful Echo: "You have to let me go."
  • At the start of the film, Tara comes at odds with Sam over her belief that Sam is living in the past, unable to let go of the events of the last film, and has become overprotective of her. Tara acknowledges that Sam is looking out for her but states that she can't do so for the rest of her life, after which she says the line to Sam for the first time.
  • At the film's climax, Sam is holding onto Tara as she dangles over the railing of the theater's second floor, with one killer (Ethan) below Tara and another killer (Quinn) approaching Sam. In order to turn the tables, Sam must literally let Tara go by letting her drop (with Billy's old knife) so she can face Ethan, with Tara cluing her in by again saying, "You have to let me go." After the killers are defeated (save for Ethan, who pulls the trademark "one last scare"), Tara thanks Sam for "letting [her] go", and Sam understands the lesson about giving Tara space.
• Meta Twist:
  • The film opens with a Ghostface reveal, as the Ghostface who kills Laura in the alley then takes off his mask and reveals his identity as Jason, working in tandem with his roommate Greg to kill the Carpenter sisters and those connected to them. However, they turn out to be decoy villains, and the real opening victims, when another Ghostface kills them.
  • This is also a double meta twist, working as it does as a Leaning on the Fourth Wall acknowledgement of criticism around Jason's original counterpart, Mickey, in Scream 2. A common issue with Mickey is that he isn't in enough of the movie to make his character or reveal as Ghostface meaningful. Jason has a similar brief run in with Tara as Mickey does with Sidney; however, he can't make a bigger impact because he's then killed by a second Ghostface.
• Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: While reprimanding Gale for writing about the last Ghostface murders after promising not to do so, Sam outright asks, "What would Dewey think?" Gale's reaction is mostly being taken aback by Sam bringing up Dewey (which she calls "a low blow").
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • One of the trailers has Ghostface menacing Mindy on a ladder above an alleyway, seemingly the last to go on the ladder. In the film itself, Mindy actually makes it after Sam, and it’s her girlfriend Anika that Ghostface menaces.
  • The teaser trailer has it appear that Sam, Tara, Mindy, Chad, and Danny are on the subway car together being menaced by Ghostface. In actuality, Mindy alongside new character Ethan are separated from them, and Mindy is attacked in a different car.
• No One Should Survive That!: Chad is stabbed multiple times from two ends by two Ghostfaces in the theater, to the point that even the killers take delight in having killed him. He ends up surviving in spite of this.
• Not His Sled: In Scream 2, Randy is murdered in plain sight while the cops try to trace the call, a lengthy process, and Gale and Dewey run around looking for him. This time, Sam and Tara end up in a similar scenario (as pointed out by Mindy) and both survive, and the phone trace is much faster due to modern technology. However, it turns out to be a setup anyway, because the killer was actually trying to misdirect them all.
• Off with His Head!: Jason's roommate Greg is found cut up and dismembered (head included) and stuffed in the fridge.
• Oh, Crap!: Jason, after discovering Greg's dead body in the refrigerator, gives an epic look of shock and horror when he's surprised and stabbed in the back by the true Ghostface, the main antagonist of this film.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Detective Bailey, the movie's real Ghostface, offs Jason and Greg in the opening scene to make sure they don't kill Sam and Tara before he and his children can.
• Playing Possum: Quinn, as Ghostface, plays unconscious after fighting with Gale, even letting her take the knife from her hand so Gale can get close enough for Quinn to stab her in the gut with a large piece of broken glass.
• Posthumous Character: Aside from Sidney Prescott, this is also the first film in the franchise without Dewey Riley, who tragically died in the last film. Nevertheless, Dewey is mentioned throughout the film, his photographs and drawings are shown in the shrine, and his theme song from Scream 2 also returns during Sam's conversation with Gale.
• Phone-Trace Race: Discussed and subverted, as Mindy mockingly asks Kirby if they’re going to have to keep Ghostface on the line for a certain amount of time to get a trace, only to be told that the FBI tech Kirby has on the surveillance van can trace the call in 15 seconds. The trace still ends up being useless because Ghostface is in a completely different part of the city when he calls.
• Police Are Useless: The NYPD does a piss-poor job of handling the Ghostface killings, as they don’t assign even a single officer to guard the Carpenter sisters' apartment after the bodega massacre. Later, they don’t notice that Quinn's supposed dead body isn’t her at all. Perhaps worst of all, one of their own detectives is Ghostface, and no one is the least bit suspicious, nor is he at all worried about getting caught.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
  • "Now I see something red!" Said by Jason as Ghostface before finishing off Laura, with her section of the opening sequence having consisted of Jason luring her out of a bar by pretending to get lost, with Laura trying to help him by pointing out the bar's red exterior.
  • "Who gives a fuck about movies?" Said by the real Ghostface before killing Jason in turn at the end of the opening sequence, in response to his dying plea that "we have to finish the movie".
  • "Now die a fucking virgin." Said by Tara while brutally stabbing Ethan, in reference to him going out of his way to ask whether he would die a virgin in an earlier scene.
  • In the penultimate kill of the movie, Sam seems to give Wayne mercy, takes one look at Tara, and brings up an earlier line he had said to her ("You fuck with my family, you die!") before killing him.
    "My father was a murderer, and I'm better than that. (Beat) But you did fuck with our family, so..."
• Pretender Diss: Jason and Greg are a pair of film students who moonlight as Ghostfaces intent on finishing Richie's movie, but are quickly killed off by the real Ghostface of the film, who scoffs at their plan by saying, "Who gives a fuck about movies?"
• Put on a Bus: Given Neve Campbell declined to return, Sidney only has a cursory mention by Gale, who mentions she's hiding her family in a safe location rather than helping to track down the new Ghostface.
• Quizzical Tilt: Ghostface does it a few times, the first over a man in the bodega he follows Sam and Tara into who tries getting in his face, clearly having no idea of the threat he's facing (and just about to get stabbed in the gut).
• Ragnarök Proofing: Billy's knife in its display case is still covered in blood from the original Woodsboro killings two and a half decades ago. A steel knife blade coated in blood that long, even as the blood clotted and dried, would rust and pit and lose most, if not all, of its sharpness. But when Sam grabs it, it's just as much an Absurdly Sharp Blade as it was in 1996.
• Recycled with a Gimmick: In grand slasher franchise tradition, it takes the Scream series and moves it to New York City. Ghostface attacks in a New York high rise apartment, and stalks Mindy on the New York City Subway.
• Red Herring:
  • Notably averted with Jason, who immediately reveals his identity from the very start of the film after killing Laura.
  • Danny Brackett is yet another suspicious love interest who is conveniently not around when Ghostface attacks.
  • Mindy admits that her girlfriend Anika follows the trend of suspicious love interests.
  • Invoked with Quinn, who fakes her own death with some help from her dad, so that the protagonists are none the wiser.
  • In the "rules" scene, it is argued that the Woodsboro survivors can potentially be the new Ghostfaces. Fittingly enough, Detective Bailey suspects that returning character Kirby has a shady past and is the culprit behind the murders.
  • Gale is once again publishing Trashy True Crime novels for money and fame despite stating otherwise in the previous movie. Tara points this out as a possible motive for her.
  • Cristina, Tara and Sam's estranged mother, is brought up once again. She never appears, but given the "subverting expectations" rule, the new Ghostface revealed as a character that shows up out of nowhere wouldn't be out of the question.
  • Played with, with Ethan. Ethan is designed to be a perfect red herring, a character who is so obvious of a choice to be the killer that Mindy calls him Ghostface to his face. There's no way he's the killer, and Mindy's refusal to trust him or let him within arms length leads to her being isolated and stabbed on the subway and needing to be rescued by Ethan. But then it turns out that he actually is one of the killers.
• The Reveal:
  • The film begins with one, with the killer unmasking himself as an assuming college student named Jason, only to be killed by the film's true Big Bad.
  • Not only do we learn the identity of Ghostface in the climax as per usual, but we get the added twist that there are THREE of them now.
• Rewatch Bonus: During the killer's phone call with Gale, he makes a quip that legacy characters are expendable now, a call back to Mindy's earlier speech about franchise rules. The only people besides the Core Four who were present during this conversation are Anika, Quinn, and Ethan. Anika was definitely killed earlier in the movie, and Ethan is with Mindy and Chad at the time. Since Quinn was apparently Killed Offscreen in a manner similar to Roman in the third movie (who is revealed to have faked his death), by process of elimination, the killer talking to Gale can only be one person.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Ghostface stabs two men in the bodega and the owner brings out a gun (which in turn leads him to be killed as well), the other patrons flee the store, which leaves only Sam and Tara with the killer.
• Seen It All: Gale's reaction to the latest Ghostface call is a sense of weary resignation.
  Gale: You know you're, like, the tenth guy to try this, right? It never works out for the dipshit in the mask.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Downplayed and subverted with Ethan and Chad. Initially, it seems like this is their dynamic, with the former being scrawny, awkward and constantly being told that he needs to get laid, and the latter being extroverted, bold, taller and athletically built. But as the film shows, Chad is very kind-hearted, soft-spoken and considerate (particularly to the people he cares about when they get caught in another Ghostface killing spree), and Ethan is later revealed to be a ruthless Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who was willing to fight and take down Chad with the help of his sister, Quinn. Ethan even sees Chad as "a conceited, condescending alpha", which is far from the truth.
• Series Continuity Error: A news report and a whiteboard in the police precinct both say that the previous film's events took place in 2022, the year it was released. However, the previous movie was stated to be taking place 25 years after the events of the original Scream, which was set and released in 1996, so the previous movie's events should have taken place in 2021.
• Sequel Hook: While Bailey, Ethan and Quinn are all killed and their plan is foiled, the film ends with Sam briefly holding onto her dad's Ghostface mask after throwing his costume on to take out one of the killers — and killing another out of costume, too — before then deciding to leave it behind on a road where anyone could then pick it up. This also leaves the question of whether she's decided to fully leave that life behind or if it's a calling card and message with her deciding to embrace the identity. It would also beg the question of what kind of Ghostface Sam would be, and if she'd continue the Serial-Killer Killer motif she's starting to become known for.
• Shout-Out: See here.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Of all people, Ghostface agrees, stealing a shotgun from a bodega owner who tried shooting at him, killing him with it, then using it to go after Sam and Tara.
• Sickbed Slaying: During the climax, Bailey voices his plan to make sure the hospitalized Gale and Mindy don't survive their wounds once Sam and Tara have been dealt with. Thankfully, the Ghostfaces are all killed before that can become possible.
• Sinister Subway: Mindy is attacked and stabbed by Ghostface aboard the New York City Subway.
• The Stinger: True to the franchise while also laughing at the audience, the most the film gives is a quick shot of Mindy saying, "Not every movie needs a post-credits scene!"
• Stopped Numbering Sequels: Zig-zagged. After the numberless fifth installment, Scream, the franchise returns to a numbered sequel, albeit now with Roman numerals rather than the numbers used by the first four entries.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Defied. Though all of the returning characters suffer injuries ranging from minor to nearly fatal, all of them ultimately survive this time around despite Mindy’s previous warning that Anyone Can Die when it comes to the old cast members.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kirby fills in for Sidney as the savvy but hardened survivor who returns to help the new kids.
• Sword Drag: Quinn drags a knife along the railing of the theater's second floor while menacingly walking towards Sam in the climax.
• Talk to the Fist: When Gale reveals herself among the reporters waiting for her, Sam tries punching her in the face, but she dodges...only for Tara to punch her instead.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted; Sam, like in the previous film, has sought help for her mental health issues, and is shown attending a therapy session early in the movie. The session goes sideways when the therapist, Dr. Stone, convinces her to be specific about her issues, and upon hearing about her parentage, current reputation, and the satisfaction she took in Richie's death, he immediately tries to drop her as a patient and claims that he has to report what she said (when Sam rightfully points out that she hasn't made threats or said she'll actually do anything violent, Dr. Stone dodges the question), a violation of her confidentiality. Sam's frustrated reaction and remark that Stone is "just like all the others" suggests that this isn't the first time she's run into such a problem. So, while there are therapists, and Sam has made use of them, it hasn't done her much good.
• This Is the Part Where...: After Mindy highlights how the "legacy characters" (Gale and Kirby) are now at risk of death in her rule-explaining speech, she says, "That's not even the worst part!", to which Chad casually tells Tara and Ethan, "This is the part where she tells us the worst part."
• Trashy True Crime: Exaggerated. Not only is Gale back to publishing true crime novels, but an online true crime "fandom" of the Scream (2022) massacre exists that highly respects Richie and is convinced that Sam is the real perpetrator of those events. Random fans also apparently regularly attack or confront Sam on the street because of this.
• Understanding Boyfriend: Much like Derek Feldman in Scream 2, Sam's boyfriend Danny Brackett proves himself to be this. He tries trash-talking Ghostface when he can't get Quinn or Sam's attention to warn them that the killer's in their apartment; he is instrumental in getting Sam and Mindy to safety; he tells Sam to not trust anyone, including himself; he takes the Core Four not trusting him in stride, and gives Sam a gentle goodbye when she says she can't have him take part in the trap at the theater; and he still makes an effort to get her some police backup nonetheless.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them:
  • Ghostface kills a bodega owner with his own shotgun.
  • As she did before, Sam turns the Buck 120 knife against the Ghostfaces who use it to off most of their victims. Though this case isn't a specific knife weilded by one of the killers, but the one Billy Loomis used in the very first Ghostface killing spree.
• Vader Breath: Ghostface’s muffled breathing can be heard throughout the bodega.
• Villainous Legacy: Richie Kirsch, the previous movie's Ghostface mastermind, is all over the place despite Sam having thoroughly killed him. Jason and Greg, the wannabe Ghostfaces, planned to murder the Carpenter sisters to "finish Richie's movie", Sam is still dealing with having killed Richie and how it made her feel, and the movie's Ghostfaces are Richie's father and younger siblings, out to avenge his death by turning the public against Sam (claiming that she masterminded Richie and Amber's rampage and then framed and murdered them to get away with it) before framing her for their killings and murdering her.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • The late Richie Kirsch, thanks to some malicious rumors spread about Sam, is seen as an innocent victim by many, with the rumors stating that he was manipulated and murdered by Sam, supposedly the real mastermind of the killings in Woodsboro.
  • The movie's Ghostface mastermind, Detective Bailey, is a decently regarded police officer, with the public unaware that he's a psychopathic killer out to destroy an innocent woman because she killed his son in self-defense.
• Wham Line:
  • "Who gives a fuck about movies?" Said by Ghostface before killing Jason, evidencing that it won't follow the focus of 4 and 5.
  • "You killed our brother!" Quinn revealing that she, Ethan, and Wayne are Richie’s family.
• Wham Shot:
  • Ghostface taking off their mask in the opening scene, revealing that it's Jason. While he's not the Ghostface of the movie, it still marks a significant departure from the Scream formula of always having the murderer be masked.
  • A literal example: Detective Bailey shoots Kirby when she tries to shoot down a Ghostface behind him, revealing himself as the lead Ghostface.
  • Immediately after the above example, two Ghostfaces appear on either side of Detective Bailey, marking a franchise first of there being three main Ghostfaces.
  • To a lesser extent, two Ghostfaces attacking Chad, marking first time (except for a scene in Stab 6 in Scream 4) we've seen two costumed Ghostfaces working together. To top it off, they do a sychronized blade wipe.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: On Gale's call with Ghostface, the killer torments her with graphic details of Dewey's death and mocks her grief over him.
  Ghostface: Richie and Amber managed to butcher Dewey. Carved him up like a Christmas goose. How does it feel to lose the only man who ever loved you?
  Gale: Fuck you!
  Ghostface: How does it feel to know that you weren't there for him at the end? Not there to give him comfort as he died screaming in his own guts?
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Sam is already familiar with Kirby because she attended Woodsboro High as a freshman while Kirby was a senior, which would make Sam 26, as Kirby herself says she's 30. If that is the case, then, given the five-year gap between the Carpenter sisters' ages, Tara would be 21, which doesn't gel with the fact that the previous film (set one year before this one) had her and her friend group attending high school. Then again, Kirby says this in response to Gale calling her a "child", meaning she could have rounded her age up to 30 to seem more mature.
  • The movie also says the Richie-Amber Woodsboro killings occurred in 2022, which is either a case of this or a Retcon (considering that they're supposed to take place 25 years after the Billy-Stu killings in 1996, which means the Richie-Amber ones should be in 2021).
• Writing Around Trademarks: Given that this film is set in NYC and Tara, Chad and Mindy are university students, the university they attend (Blackmore University) is clearly based around New York University and Columbia University. The train station seen in the film is also based on the train station that is outside of Columbia, and has a park similar to Washington Square Park, which is directly next to NYU.
• Written-In Absence: As Neve Campbell didn't return for this film due to payment disputes, Gale explains that Sidney's response to the newest Ghostface killings was to take her family and go into hiding.

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"Fuck this franchise."