The people of Woodsboro are well aware that Ghostface is everywhere. Actress Melissa Barrera discovered during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival that not even the festival’s bustling crowds could keep the masked stalker at bay. As a bonus for us fans, when Perri Nemiroff interviewed Barrera about her involvement in Benjamin Millepied’s Carmen, she also brought up Barrera and Jenna Ortega’s co-directing of Scream 6. The actress offered us a lot more than a taste when Nemiroff mentioned the franchise’s relocation to New York City. Even the most successful horror series have to mature and expand. Iconic murderers take off as their influence grows in the modern cultural consciousness.
Jason Voorhees left Camp Crystal Lake for New York City, Freddy Krueger moved to Hollywood and Michael Myers went live online. (You do know that Scream 7 will be set in either hell or space, right?) Nearly 30 years after Ghostface initially tormented the school body of Woodsboro, we’re following in Jason’s footsteps to the big city after the killer(s) tortured a new generation of students. While Barrera and Ortega’s Sam and Tara Carpenter remain shrouded in mystery, Nemiroff did manage to track down Barrera at TIFF to discuss Scream 6’s new locale. Barrera was overjoyed to share her insight on “what it means to be stalked by Ghostface in a major metropolis” as opposed to the more rural setting of Woodsboro.
“It’s mortifying because you’re chased by Ghostface, but you also see humanity and how that reacts to a situation like that. Anyhow, I think I’ve already precluded that possibility by saying that it’s 20 times more embarrassing. It’s awful. In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a character named Helen Shivers. In order to demonstrate how lonely a large group might be, Ghostface is bringing their assassinations out into the open, into the streets of New York City. When dealing with a plot of this magnitude, it’s impossible to predict who will be the killer.
The setting of a Scream movie has moved before. The second instalment of the Scream series took place on a college campus, while the third film moved the action to Hollywood. Although the storyline details for Wes Craven’s next Scream instalment are being kept under wraps, the film’s completion this month has generated a lot of excitement among fans. The loss of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, who played Ghostface’s original counterpart, is tragic, but the reappearance of Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) and the possibility of more appearances by Skeet Ulrich’s Billy Loomis in the sixth film are welcome compensations. Courtney Cox, who plays Gale Weathers, returns, along with Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding.
The newcomers include Dermot Mulroney, Samara Weaving, and Liana Liberato. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Opin and Tyler Gillett, as well as Scream 5 screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, are all back for the sixth instalment. The series executive producer is Kevin Williamson, who also wrote the first three Scream movies. March 31, 2023, release date has been set as the target for Scream 6.