Spoilers ahead for Scream VI.
It’s a good time to be a horror fan, as the genre’s renaissance is showing no signs of slowing down. Some of the best horror movies returned to theaters as a result, including beloved franchises like Halloween and Scream. The latter property has released two sequels in quick succession, with Scream VI breaking box office records for the franchise. And the directors recently spoke to CinemaBlend about the Ghostface twist, and how it affected planning and shooting on the sequel.
Following its successful run in theaters, Scream VI is currently available on digital platforms and streaming for those with a Paramount+ subscription. As you can see in the video above, I once again had the privilege of speaking with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett about slasher, and was able to get into all the spoiler-y goodness of its ending. Since the movie broke new ground by having three different Ghostface killers (not counting the guys from the opening sequence), I asked how this affected their process. Gillett opened up about the challenge of keeping the Ghostface guessing game throughout Scream VI’s runtime, saying:
I think with this movie specifically one of the things that we knew going in was with all of the returning cast and the legacy cast, maybe minus Kirby who we could kind of toss out as a red herring though we really wouldn’t be doing that very believably, I think we knew there weren’t a lot of people who were going to believe that any of the Core Four was going to be a killer. Which meant that our suspect list was actually fairly short.
Points were made. Between the Core Four and Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers and Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby Reed, there were a whopping 6 returning characters in the latest Scream movie. They all miraculously survived, and no one really expected them to be behind Ghostface’s mask. And as such, writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick had to switch things up to keep audiences on their toes.
Even for those who guessed that Bailey and/or Ethan were the killer in Scream VI, there were still plenty of surprises. One huge twist was that Liana Liberato’s Quinn faked her own death and was the third member of the Ghostface family, all of whom were trying to avenge Richie’s death from the previous movie.
In our same interview, Tyler Gillett further spoke about the importance of Quinn’s fake death in making sure the ending of Scream VI was satisfying. There was a huge gap between her “death” scene and the eventual Ghostface reveal, which was unique to the franchise as a whole. As he put it,
So at some point you’re going to guess who the killer is, but what you’re not going to guess is that that person we killed early in the movie is also going to come back. And I think that was one of the fun turns that James and Guy had up their sleeves was ‘Yeah yeah yeah you guessed it, but you didn’t guess this.’ And still give the audience something that its thrilling and is a surprise despite the fact that maybe you caught up to the killer by that moment.
Points were made. All three killers being Richie’s family was also another way that Scream VI brought twists to audiences… even if they figured out who the killers were. Trying to figure out the killer is part of the fun of the slasher franchise, and the movie’s directors and writers know just how passionate the fandom is.
Those Scream fans are currently wondering if/when Paramount will green light another slasher installment. Given the sixth movie’s wild success, that seems inevitable. Although I doubt those six legacy characters would all make it out alive again. In the meantime, check out the 2023 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience. Scream VI is now available on digital platforms and Paramount+ and arrives on 4K Ultra HD SteelBook, on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 11th.
