Before watching this sequel in cinemas, I decided to rewatch the original Beetlejuice (1988), which I hadn’t seen in over a decade. During that rewatch, it dawned on me just how original, quirky and full of imagination that movie was. It got me thinking how difficult it would be for the sequel to recapture the magic of this almost accidental cult classic. So when I sat down, I hoped for the best but braced myself for the worst and surprisingly, it wasn’t bad at all…?

It took me probably the entire first act before I got into Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the movie starts big. As opposed to the original film, we begin in New York; we need to establish a couple of details (like why Jeffrey Jones‘s character had to die; if you don’t know, I recommend reading his “trivia” section) before we get back to Winter River and the house we all know and love. The movie definitely gets better once we have all the remaining, not-so-problematic pieces of this puzzle back together, and we follow three generations of women trying to cope with everything.

The youngest is Jenna Ortega, the new “it” girl. I don’t think you could have picked a better daughter for Winona Ryder‘s character, Lydia. I am saying that as someone who believes she doesn’t have much to do in this movie. Don’t get me wrong, Jenna is in many scenes, but her story is a B plot that serves as a throughline for other stories.

The second generation is the already mentioned Lydia Deetz, as portrayed by Winona. I thought it was great to see grown Lydia having to deal with many things, including her daughter not believing that she can see and speak to ghosts. That mother-daughter conflict didn’t feel forced, especially once we learn the reason Jenna’s character is sceptical and doesn’t like her mom; it made total sense to me and felt right. Also, it’s great seeing Winona back in the cinema.

Someone who almost stole this movie for me was Catherine O’Hara. I love seeing her career renaissance; ever since she struck gold with Schitt’s Creek (2015 – 2020, my review here), she seems to be in everything, reminding us she is one hell of a comedienne. Her character was as chaotic, extra and funny as I remember, but it was never in the “we didn’t know what to do with her character, so here is what you loved but more” vain. There was some growth, where you could see her be unapologetically herself and living her best life.

The reason I said “almost” is there were two surprising characters I loved every time they appeared on the screen – Bob and Willem Dafoe. Firstly, I loved how much more time they gave to Bob and his… friends? It was the ultimate example of how to do so much with so little as Bob and others don’t speak; they just emote. I did enjoy every scene they were in. As far as Willem goes, talk about someone who seems to be in every movie now, replacing Samuel L. Jackson as the hardest-working actor in Hollywood. Anyway, for some reason, his actor character, who plays a cop even after he dies, was the highlight of this movie. I think it was his dedication mixed with the fact that his performance was tipping on the “self-awareness” scale, where he almost winked at us once or twice, but he never does and instead gives us this character his all and has a blast doing it.

I thought Michael Keaton as the titular Beetlejuice was fine, but given his manic state, there was no real growth, so this was “more of the same” as the original, but with his character, it made sense. Who I thought was totally underused was Monica Bellucci. Look, if I were Tim Burton and managed to date Monica, I would also cast her in my movies. But then give her something to do! Her introduction sequence was fun, but afterwards, she spent most of the movie walking because she was on a quest to find Beetlejuice. And without going into spoilers, the end of her storyline was underwhelming. I would also go as far as to say that we didn’t need Justin Theroux‘s subplot in this movie, and he doesn’t fit here. I like the guy, but it would be fine if his role had been completely cut out.

I wonder how Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will work when I eventually rewatch it because, during the movie, there were moments I was struggling to be in it, as mentioned above. But the movie makes some interesting twists and turns I didn’t expect, so I appreciated that. Also, it seems to find its footing as it goes. Even though I had an issue with Monica’s character “end”, I thought the end was great. Especially, I loved seeing practical effects, sets and not green screen, you know, all that good stuff. Looking at Tim’s directorial credits, this seems, by far, to be his best movie in a while (I haven’t seen Frankenweenie (2012) or Big Eyes (2014)), but that doesn’t mean as much as it used to. I need to give Tim some credit as this movie seems the most “Tim Burton” he has been in a while, but part of me thinks it will be so hard to go anywhere near what he used to do, especially in the ’90s. I hope I am wrong.

Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a much better legacy sequel than I anticipated. The movie definitely struggles at times, I am not sure whether we needed the producer subplot at all, but I left the cinema in a good mood, hopeful that the success this sequel has will light a creative fire under Burton’s ass, and we may get something excellent out of him again. This movie was a step in the right direction.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I didn’t catch Blue Beetle in the cinemas, partly because the trailers were just “fine” and partly due to knowing that DC was about to take a new direction under their new lord and saviour (?), James Gunn. But I have heard that it was actually a fun movie, so I knew I had to catch it at some point and let me tell you, I am a bit sad I didn’t see this in the cinema. This movie isn’t anything revolutionary, but as far as the DCEU movies of the last couple of years, this one stands out and knows what it is.

One thing that’s clear from the get-go is the sense of identity, and that focus on the Latin community and family helped to ground Blue Beetle in something that felt real and more relatable. Unlike some other superheroes who must hide their secret identity from their families, Xolo Maridueña (Jaime Reyes) goes through all the major stuff with his family pretty much by his side. The initial transformation happens in front of the entire family, there is no room for secrets, and I appreciated that twist.

Speaking of Xolo, he was perfect as our protagonist and is a great leading man. You believe his awkwardness, so when he is slowly transforming into this superhero (almost against his will), you see the stark difference, and he makes it look effortless. No matter whether he returns to the new DC universe under Gunn, I hope to see him in many movies to come because he has that leading man quality where no matter what is happening on screen, he makes you feel safe and is our guide throughout everything and his charisma shines through in every scene. I hope Gunn will bring him back and give him another movie connected to a more coherent universe.

Along with Xolo, his entire family were also superb. From Belissa Escobedo to Damián Alcázar and Elpidia Carrillo, everyone felt right. I believed those were not just actors but one big family as they all had one or two great moments. I also must mention George Lopez, whose “bigger than life” energy charges this movie with that “chaotic uncle” energy I appreciated. But dare I say, the main star of this family was Adriana Barraza, aka Nana. She starts as the stereotypical granny we all love and turns into someone who may or may not have led a revolution or two. I adored her and the choice to give this character more time and space to shine, especially in the second half of this movie. I also would love to see a prequel about Nana’s past, but that might just be me. 😉

The only problem with Blue Beetle was the fact that this is an origin story. Sure, it’s “packaged” differently and told from an entirely new perspective, which I appreciated, but the movie falls into the same traps we have seen now for the last 20+ years. The same vs. same finale is one of the major examples; the “real” villain, Susan Sarandon (who felt a bit wasted and almost like a caricature of a villain), also felt predictable. It’s almost like they focused too much on everything around this movie and copied and pasted what worked in many films before this one.

However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that this is the most enjoyable DC movie since… The Suicide Squad (2021, my review here), and as you can see based on the year, it’s been three years since that movie came out. So even though I have enjoyed Blue Beetle the most out of all the DC movies, that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. But I don’t want to take anything away from this movie because everything they (the people behind this movie directly) had under their direct control felt right, fun, and, all things considered, worked perfectly fine. I can forgive some formulaic origin stories, given the cast is fun. What makes this a slightly harsher pill to swallow is that we may or may not see this cast again, depending on the direction the new DC will take, and that ultimately hurts this movie. Because on its own, it’s a perfectly fine film. But I can imagine how a sequel with more of an original story (now that we have the origin story behind us) could be fun, specifically with the same cast. We need to wait and see what happens next.

Overall, Blue Beetle isn’t anything revolutionary, and yet I didn’t mind. The cast was fun, the family aspect worked, and I had (mostly) a good time with this movie. Sure, it didn’t have to be over two hours long, and ultimately, there are only a few ways how to deal with an origin story for any superhero character, so nothing will surprise you that much. However, I would cautiously recommend this film, especially if Gunn decides that this superhero can be part of his new DC universe and brings back this cast, I would be in.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I wasn’t sure whether I would write a review about Silent Night given how “simple” this movie is and also due to its reception… that’s not great. On IMDb, it currently sits at 5.3/10 on Rotten Tomatoes; this film has a similar standing with a critic score of 58% and the audience one at 50%. You can tell it’s not that the film is bad, but many people just thought it was average. However, I am not one of them. Am I in the minority? Yes. Does this movie rely on what some might call a gimmick? Well… that’s more complex.

This “gimmick” may be the main reason some enjoy this film and some hate it, as for about 99% of the film, there is no dialogue. And I didn’t find it weird or “gimmicky”; I thought it worked, as Silent Night is a movie about silence that is louder than anything you have ever heard. It’s about a couple who lose their child during a gang shootout. When chasing after those who killed his son, Joel Kinnaman almost dies, but “luckily”, he survives and “only” can’t speak as his vocal cords are irreparably damaged. After he recovers, although voiceless now, he embarks on a revenge path.

I know what you are thinking: “Yay! Another revenge film? Great, we haven’t had one of those in… several weeks! I will be more than happy to skip it!” But this one is different. Let’s put aside the “gimmick” of this being, effectively, a dialogue-less film; I will address it later. Silent Night (mostly) worked for me due to its view on this revenge business and how it doesn’t celebrate it. Quite the contrary, if you look at what the movie shows you closely, you will see that it is due to Joel’s character being so adamant, not wanting nor willing to accept any help, that he loses everything. From his friends to his wife, to possibly himself.

The biggest example of that could be a scene towards the end I don’t think would be a spoiler. There is a massive shootout outside before we get to the “big boss”, and Brian (Joel’s character) is trying to save this cop. And despite his best intentions, he inadvertently gets her killed. That scene (to me) symbolised what this entire film was about – no matter your intentions, once you set yourself on this revenge path, there is no coming back. It’s a dark process that will eliminate everyone from your life, and you will do more damage than good. I liked this aspect, how despite Silent Night might seem to be “yet another movie that glorifies revenge”, it’s the exact opposite.

The movie itself is a vibe you need to get into. For the first 15 minutes or so, I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to get on the same wavelength, but once the movie started to unravel more and more, I managed to jump on that wavelength. What helped was having somebody as legendary as John Woo behind the camera (his first American film since 2003!), and the action sequences looked like it. During the big finale, there was a stair sequence that was awesome and worth seeing possibly even on its own. It almost seemed like Woo wanted to make a statement that despite not making Hollywood movies, he was still as sharp as ever.

Now, let’s talk about the “gimmick”. I thought it worked, as it never seemed forced. Every scene in this movie was purposefully staged to make the most out of our characters not talking, so we have text conversations, some distant dialogue, music from the radio… Silent Night is not a silent movie. It just plays with the idea of us understanding every action without having the need for words. And I admire that decision. I am not one of those who hate voiceovers, but any lesser movie would feel almost obliged to have a voiceover like: “I am so sad. The pain still hasn’t left my body. I have nobody, so now, I am not afraid to die.” I believe that in this movie, the silence is more than a gimmick, it fits the story, it fits the character, especially in the beginning when we see Brian processing that pain, that loss of his kid… I understand why people would hate that, but I am not one of those people.

What I will say is the last ten minutes seemed a bit rushed. This movie isn’t perfect, and, as I noted above, it mostly worked for me. The first 15 minutes and the last 10 minutes didn’t, especially since the final 10 minutes I was not sure whether we needed it. I am talking about the very last scene. I understand it’s about closure, but in a film like this one, I wished we would condense that scene into two minutes.

Overall, Silent Night is an interesting movie made by a legendary director who still has it. Yes, it’s a movie about revenge, but unlike many films about that topic, this one seems more honest about the idea of revenge and how it will ultimately cost you everything. I enjoyed that part, how it is an anti-revenge movie whilst doing something different and having little to no dialogue. Sure, not every scene/choice worked for me, but I would cautiously recommend this film, especially if you are a John Woo fan.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

We live in an age of “content”, even though I despise that term and don’t use it on purpose to describe any movie or a TV show. However, many films are treated as such, especially on streaming services, so you have to sift through a lot of “content” before finding something great to watch. Some movies get great exposure, whilst others fall through the cracks due to so much “content” everywhere. And Fall seems to have amassed almost cult-like status over a very short period of time because of its gripping premise. So I had to see it for myself one evening.

I can see now what the hype was about. Fall is one of those films that can be split into two very uneven halves. The first half is everything that happens before our two characters get stuck on that tower, and the second is everything that happens after they get stuck. Because the first 30/40 minutes, I was annoyed by everybody and the movie itself for being predictable and full of painfully dumb characters… Basically, pick an unflattering adjective, and the chances are, Fall has got you covered. However, they understood the assignment in the second part of this movie, and once they get stuck, the tension feels real. Sure, the film still has some awful dialogue and many predictable moments (even though there was one turn I should have seen coming, but I didn’t; more about it later), but I didn’t care as much because I was on the edge of my seat, often literally.

I didn’t think I had problems with heights, but I discovered I might have. But I would never climb an old TV tower that’s almost 2000 feet long (over 600m for most of the world). As you can presume, those scenes are as tense as it gets. Fall knows how to build these scenes of upcoming danger and hopelessness and throw in anxiety-ridden climbing scenes you will remember for some time. In a weird way, this movie is almost a miracle, as at the beginning, I gave zero fucks about either of our protagonists, but the moment they get stuck… Well, I still didn’t care about either that much, but I was rooting for them (mainly one).

Since I referred to them several times, let’s talk about our protagonists. We follow Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner, who are roughly in 95% of all scenes of this movie. Sure, we have a random Jeffrey Dean Morgan in here as well, but I swear he must have shot all his scenes in two days maximum, given he is in roughly three minutes altogether. Over time, I found myself liking Grace’s character more despite her not being in charge of her decisions for most of this film. She is, effectively, pushed to action by her friend Hunter, played by Virginia, who brilliantly portrays one of the worst types of person there is – a YouTuber. No, I am joking, of course, but she is this self-centred, Instagram-famous wannabe who fancies herself a bit too much, and the movie wants to give her some reasoning behind that, but nothing about her character worked for me. I found myself rooting less for her and more for Grace’s character almost by default, especially towards the end when Becky (Grace’s character) must act, or everything is lost, without going into spoilers.

But I will hint at something, and that is the above-mentioned plot twist I didn’t see coming. I thought it was clever, and once I thought about everything in my memory, it all made sense, so I take it that if I were to rewatch this movie again, this turn (or twist) would work. But I can’t shake the feeling that the only reason this twist is in this film is to make it easier for our character(s) to stay likeable and not make tough choices. That’s all I will say.

Again, Fall is an interesting film, and I will understand any rating because it all depends on how willing you are to ignore many bad aspects of this film. From the awful dialogue to our protagonists, neither is as likeable (for different reasons), to the ending, which felt rushed. I must mention that, as I love when movies know when to finish, there is nothing wrong with that, and I always appreciate it. But there is such a thing as skipping over a few pages just to show us the ending. For as much as we spend our time with our protagonists, this movie’s resolution felt… sudden. It felt like they suddenly ran out of money, so they just shot something quickly during the final day and didn’t get the chance to go back and do some additional pick-ups. What a weird choice.

Writing this, I still have to emphasise the point that from the moment these two get stuck until this sudden end, this might be one of the most nerve-wracking movies I have ever seen. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tense throughout most of it, and despite all these flaws I have mentioned above, I was in the moment with them. I felt every wind gush; I felt every (attempted) climb… This movie succeeded where (I believe) it counts the most and delivered on its premise. And that’s the reason my final rating is much higher than you might imagine, given how I spent most of my review “bashing” this film. What can I say? I will forgive any movie much easier if it gives me something unique despite many flaws, and Fall delivered some of the tensest moments of my moviegoing life.

Overall, Fall is a fascinating movie that will test your anxiety. It will also test your patience before our protagonists get trapped; you can believe me there. But if you stick with it and won’t switch it off when it gets too intense, you might go on a journey you won’t forget any time soon. Is Fall a perfect movie? No, by a mile. Is it one of the most entreatingly nerve-wracking movies I have ever seen? Yes. Would I recommend it? I would say yes, but… If you are looking for an unpredictable story or one with likeable characters, you might want to skip this one. But if you don’t expect anything else than one of the tensest experiences of your life, give this movie a chance.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Two seasons are unique in the world of cinema – Christmas and Halloween. The reason is that if you make a movie for one of these seasons and it’s a great one, chances are that movie might join the ranks of “classics” for that season, the films people love and tend to rewatch every year during those seasons. And Totally Killer, whilst not without some flaws, I can see becoming one of those modern classics in 10/15 years’ time, where people would gather together, have a watch party and put this on.

The main reason I think that is the script mixed with the “vibe” of this movie. It knows what it is; it doesn’t pretend to be anything else. If I were to simplify it, it’s Halloween (1978) mixed with Back to the Future (1985, my review here). And this film does everything but break the fourth wall to confirm it; it’s not denying it; it wears its heart on its sleeve. Due to that earnestness, it is charming and easy to forgive/get over a few things, like the fact a teenager (based on her mum’s diary) figures out time travel. No, this movie doesn’t pretend to shake hands with reality; it spits in reality’s face to give us a comedic horror with a few time travel paradoxes mixed in for a good time.

I had a great time every time we were in the 80s because the young cast had brilliant chemistry. Everyone from Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson to Stephi Chin-Salvo were great in their roles, and what’s better, they played well with each other. This movie has many group scenes, so you rarely get time with just one or two characters (except for Kiernan), and therefore, they needed to work well with each other; they had to have that group chemistry nailed, and they did.

What I also liked and was surprised how it didn’t get old were all the “Oh yeah, it’s the 1980s.” jokes. From the casual racism to Kiernan’s character managing to enrol into high school with no papers, those jokes always worked. I think the reason they didn’t get old was they knew how to spread them around and understood that they couldn’t make the same joke ten times in a row. Totally Killer had them sprinkled throughout the film, so they can make you chuckle at least and laugh at best.

I appreciated the spin on time travel and how this movie not only tries to “re-invent” it (by telling us Back to the Future got it wrong), but it shows us what is happening in 2023, whilst Kiernan’s character is away, how her timeline doesn’t just “stop” or disappear instantly. I thought that was a good spin on the expected formula, as not many movies I can remember would do that, despite some of those scenes slowing the pace down for me. Which is weird, writing how I appreciated this twist whilst admitting I might have preferred had we stayed in the 1980s entirely. But that wasn’t my biggest issue with this movie.

My biggest issue was the last 20 minutes of this film. Respectively, two things – the CGI and the killer reveal. The reveal I won’t spend that much time on it as I don’t want to dip into spoilers, so I will just say that it was obvious. And that is as much as I will say because saying anything else might ruin some surprises for people who haven’t seen it yet. Now, the CGI… I don’t know whether production was behind schedule and ran out of money, but that was… a choice. There was a scene near the end of the movie where we saw the killer stabbing someone. And until that scene, all the other stabbing scenes looked real, but there was one where you could clearly tell the killer wasn’t stabbing anyone. What a weird shot and the decision to keep it in the film; you could have always cut to something else, but no. Another thing, there was a foreshadowing about a nail gun, and once that comes back and gets used, the final result looks… well, plasticky as fuck. The thing is, until the last 20 minutes, I didn’t think of the movie’s budget because it looked and felt perfectly fine, so those choices towards the end pulled me out of it.

But other than that, I enjoyed Totally Killer. I liked the ending, and it will be interesting to see whether this will do well enough to warrant a sequel. If you go into this movie with the mindset that you will see a comedy movie with some horror elements rather than horror with some comedic elements, I think you should have a good time. Purely on the strength of that 80s casting alone, it’s a good time. Also, who wouldn’t want Julie Bowen as their mom?

Overall, Totally Killer surprised me by how much fun I had with it. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and is a homage to horror and comedy movies of the past decade, bringing its own time-travelling spin on this genre as well. If it wasn’t for the questionable execution of a few scenes towards the end and that horrible CGI, my rating would have been higher. But who knows, maybe when I rewatch it during the next Halloween, I will mind it less…? It will be interesting to see where this film stands in 10/15 years’ time.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I admire M. Night Shyamalan. He started out strong, then made some questionable films, and when it seemed he would never make a good film, he started to self-finance his movies. Slowly, he managed to get back to a level where I am not excited per se to check out his newest films, but I trust him enough to seek them out once they are streaming. Knock at the Cabin is the perfect example. When it came out, I mostly heard of “ok-ish” reviews, so I knew that it was not a “cinema must-see film”, but I wanted to check it out when it landed on streaming.

The honest truth about this film is simple – it’s a brilliant premise that gets brutally unexplored enough. Knock at the Cabin is one of those films with a simplistic setting with only a handful of actors, and it’s all about that premise. One of the family members has to die; otherwise, we all die, and the apocalypse will come. I hoped for some philosophical moments; I thought the movie would have the characters engaging in deep conversations, and it… just didn’t.

The biggest problem with this film is it reveals its hand way too soon. I don’t know about you, but regarding movies like these, the best part about them is the build-up, the anticipation, whether that crazy thing that is supposed to happen will happen. And here, the movie seems to want to move past this, which I thought was weird but fine. I hoped we were skipping past that and moving to those tough conversations about sacrifice, family, and possibly religion/philosophy… But the movie isn’t interested in that either. This film shows you everything, so there is no tension about the “truth”, and that simply destroys the decent amount of tension this film builds up over the course of its runtime.

I can talk about all the actors here because they were all great. But honestly, most have pretty straightforward roles. The only one who stands above everyone (both metaphorically and physically) is Dave Bautista. It was a huge risk to play this role because he is (effectively) the main character, so if he doesn’t work, nothing will work. But Dave delivered and proved again why he is, by far, the most talented wrestler turned actor around. He brings depth, charm and a sense of danger into his character. I am not certain whether he will ever be considered “excellent”, but I think he is good enough to be considered a decent actor and carries this movie.

Everything else about Knock at the Cabin is fine. The runtime is a breezy 100 minutes; the movie never bores you and gives you something to think about. However, it doesn’t give you any incentive to think about it any further, on a deeper level. And that is, ultimately, where it fails and loses me. Movies like Knock at the Cabin are specific ones where you need a few metaphors and great foreshadowing with many details of things “hidden” throughout the film, so the next time you watch it, you go: “Hey, I didn’t notice that that’s cool!” I am afraid that everything is literally spelt out for you in this movie so you won’t have that experience. Everything in this movie has “one explanation”, no nuance, no chances for “what if”… And that feels counterproductive. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a perfectly adequate movie, but… That premise alone should have made your movie much more than “perfectly adequate”.

Overall, Knock at the Cabin is a decent time with some great actors, reasonable runtime and one moral dilemma in the middle of everything. But it feels like the movie doesn’t want you to think about it too much or use your own imagination, as it tells you everything you need to know and in its definitiveness, it lost me as a viewer who wanted to feel more involved. From what I understand, the book this movie is based on is different (mainly the ending), so I am tempted to get that and read it rather than rewatch this movie again. Not that I didn’t have a good enough time, but frankly, I don’t believe the rewatch will open my eyes to something I have missed. If you are looking for an entertaining enough film, try this film. Just don’t expect it to challenge you in any way, as everything here is as deep as a kiddie pool.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

As you might know, I am a big fan of the Scream franchise, but I had some issues with Scream (2022, my review here) besides the title being the same as the original Scream film. Mainly it was way too much in love with itself and patted itself a bit too hard for being meta as fuck. And this one continues this, but… The action sequences were better, I actually cared about most characters in this film, and the meta-ness of it all didn’t bother me until the finale, where they decided to say fuck it, let’s break our own rules. But let’s delve into it properly.

This movie starts with the “Core Four” trying to move past what happened in Woodsboro and live in New York now. I thought the opening was a well-executed subversion of the genre (and Samara Weaving is always a great addition to any film) by revealing two Ghostface killers, only to kill them off instantly. I thought that set the mood well and got me intrigued.

I also enjoyed how we got more of the Carpenter sisters and their dynamic (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega have such good chemistry). I appreciated the movie showing us how different they are and how differently each of them is shaped by what happened in Woodsboro. We have also gotten more of Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, and that was something I felt was missing from the previous movie. Scream VI does a much better job at the character development of these four people; after all, they nickname themselves “Core Four” and joke about how, in franchise rules, neither of them is safe (more about that later).

My first hang-up with this film is the lack of Neve Campbell. I don’t think that counts as a spoiler to say she doesn’t appear here due to a pay dispute if I am reading IMDb trivia correctly. And it felt a bit weird having a Scream film without Sydney. She has always been the heart of this franchise, and the lack of her presence was noticeable. It wasn’t that extreme that it would make me dislike the film; it simply felt a bit different. Sydney’s character is the original survivor, the one who started it all and not having her here because the studio not wanting to pay her her worth (on a budget of $24 million, the fifth Scream grossed almost $140 million in the cinemas alone, so they definitely made a healthy profit) is fucking stupid.

As mentioned above, the big improvement from the previous film was the kill set pieces. Whether it was the beginning, the metro scene, or the college door room scene, they all had my attention; they were executed well, and there was just the right amount of suspense and not too many jump scares. That’s another thing about Scream VI; maybe it’s just my feeling, but I liked how they weren’t overly relying on jump scares. Sure, you still have some here, but for the most part, they are used well, are effective and don’t feel cheap.

I was really into this movie; I thought I would rate it around four stars, and then, the last 20 minutes happened. I will try my hardest to talk about it without discussing any spoilers, but there might be some hints, so reader discretion is advised. For a movie that (yet again) is so self-aware and makes up franchise rules (how nobody is safe, including the legacy characters)… there were a bit too many survivors at the end. At one point, it genuinely felt like the safest place for you to do in this movie to survive is to get stabbed. I am not talking about a single cut or two on your arm or something; I mean getting properly stabbed like ten times. There were some characters that should have definitely died as a result of… you know, being fucking stabbed multiple times!

Regarding the killer(s) revelations, I thought it was… alright. I might be in the minority here, but I never try to guess the killer in any Scream film because they always make it so everyone is not only the suspect, in most movies, there are multiple killers. So you can’t even rely on any single person who is part of a “kill scene” not being in on it. And in this film, the reveal was… okay. Again, I discussed it in my review for the fifth movie, but this reveal of who it was and how the killers are connected to all of it felt again like a Latin telenovela. We get some new information, so it would all make sense, but yeah… didn’t care that much about it either way.

I know that might sound bizarre to hear, but, honestly, the Scream franchise (to me) was never about: “Oh, I wonder who the killer(s) is this time around!” Nope, I fell in love with the originals because of their meta humour (back when it was still new), balancing it with an actual horror. And whilst I liked Scream VI way more than the fifth Scream, I am not convinced whether we have any new grounds to cover in another sequel that surely will come after all the strikes are over. At some point (and I would argue that point has already been reached in the previous film), you start to run out of “logical” choices for the killer, and instead, you need to retcon many things for your story to make sense. Also, if we really get another Scream film, please bring Neve back, pay her what she deserves, and let her shine, just one more time, giving her character some well-deserved (and earned) closure.

Overall, Scream VI was a surprise. After the mediocre fifth Scream film, this sequel spends more time on character development whilst making the kill set pieces bigger and cooler, and I enjoyed that. What I didn’t like was the lack of Sydney’s character and the number of people who get stabbed multiple times and survive in this movie. But, I would recommend this over the previous film in a heartbeat, despite all my grievances, as it felt like a more complete film overall.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke