Scream 6 First Reactions Rave About Ghostface’s Good Works

Unlike Jason Voorhees, it appears that when Ghostface takes Manhattan, he makes quite the night of it! That is certainly the implication from the first wave of social media reactions to Scream 6 from critics and film journalists who saw the movie this week.

As a rapid follow up to last year’s Scream legacy sequel (aka Scream 5), the sixth chapter in the franchise has had a large groundswell of anticipation going for it in recent months. The viral success of the hype is likely due to a few factors, not least of which is that the directing/producing team of Radio Silence’s last stab at the Scream franchise was so well received. Throw in the new A-list status of star Jenna Ortega after last year’s Wednesday phenomenon and the radical departure from Scream formula by setting Scream 6 in New York City and you have a film that’s tracking to have the highest opening in its franchise’s history.

Indeed, when we caught up with Scream 6 directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett last month for Den of Geek magazine, the pair mused about the possibilities of an NYC setting. “So much of the tone and the fun of what this movie is, we think, is that all this crazy shit’s happening, but at any moment, somebody wearing a ridiculous costume could walk through the shot. That, for us, is Scream in a nutshell.”

Or as star Melissa Barrera told us, ““Post-pandemic, crowds do scare me. I think we have a bit of PTSD about that as a society. We’re not used to being in close proximity to people and bumping into each other. You don’t know where hands are coming from, and anybody can touch you, anybody can grab you. You can disappear in a crowd.” Apparently that approach has paid off in dividends with the earliest viewers of the movie.