Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Scream VI.Draw up a list of the most iconic and influential horror scenes of all time, and it's going to be tough to not include the opening sequence from the original Scream on it. As Drew Barrymore pops some popcorn and prepares to settle in for a night of watching scary movies, she receives a call from a mysterious stranger whose off-putting voice would soon grow very familiar to fans of the genre. They talk about horror films -- "What's your favorite scary movie?" -- establishing the self-referential tone that would go on to define the franchise. And then, director Wes Craven cranks the tension to unimaginable levels, continually raising the stakes until Barrymore's character Casey finds herself and her boyfriend, Steve, to be the first people ever on the receiving end of Ghostface's knife. Even today, the scene remains a masterclass in horror filmmaking and one the Scream films have continually attempted to, if not top, at least match.
Every 'Scream' Opening Tries to Match the Original's
Scream 2 came close. (That film's movie theater opening is iconic in its own way.) Scream 4 had fun basically spoofing the original opening with a bunch of movie-within-a-movie fake-outs. Scream (2022) essentially remade the original Barrymore sequence with Jenna Ortega, re-introducing Scream to a new generation. But it's honestly probably Scream VI's opening, a pre-title sequence that doesn't so much subvert expectations as it does shatter them, that comes the closest to recapturing lightning in the bottle. Scream VI's opening isn't just the best scene in the film; it's one of the best scenes in the entire franchise and proof that, even in a franchise that prides itself on highlighting the "rules" of the genre, sometimes breaking them is the very best thing a movie can do.
Ghostface Makes a Surprising Declaration
Written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, Scream VI opens, as all of these movies do, with a phone call. Film studies professor Laura Crane (Samara Weaving) is waiting at a bar for her Tinder date to arrive, but he checks in via cell claiming to have gotten lost on the way to the restaurant. Six movies deep, the audience knows not to trust the voice on the phone, but already, something unsettling is happening. On the other end is surprisingly not the now-and-forever voice of Ghostface, Roger L. Jackson, but rather, a fairly innocuous-sounding young man. (And if you glanced at the Scream VI cast list and watched any of the MCU's Spider-Man movies over the last half-decade plus, it pretty recognizably belongs to Tony Revolori.) Still, good things don't happen to young women who answer their phones in Scream openings, so it's not surprising when she's subtly lured into a nearby alley by the voice on the phone. The tenants of a typical Scream opening are all here. There's some horror movie discussion catching us up on recent trends of the genre while a giant invisible hand seems to begin closing around poor Laura. Once she finds herself alone in the alley, Ghostface himself finally makes his true appearance, stabbing her to death in an attack that is unexpected only in its brutality.
And then we cut to the opening title, right? WRONG. Instead ... the unthinkable happens. Ghostface takes off his mask, and Revolori stands there admiring his work. At this point, the standard Scream playbook has been shredded, and instead of cutting to our core cast of characters (survivors from the previous film and whatnot), the camera follows Revolori's character, Jason, home, where we learn he has a roommate, Greg, and that the two are conspiring to start a whole new wave of Ghostface murders. Except Jason ends up on the phone with yet another Ghostface (who he first assumes is Greg), who doesn't seem to be too into their plans. After all, their motive is clear: They want to finish the "movie" started by Richie (Jack Quaid), the Scream '22 killer who took film fandom just a bit too far and desperately wanted the "Stab" franchise (the movie-series-within-the-movie-series that's based on the Woodsboro murders) to return to its roots. This new Ghostface doesn't care about any of that, as evidenced by the reveal that Greg's chopped-up body is stuffed in the fridge. And then comes the mic drop. As Jason unsuccessfully begs for his life, ranting about the need to finish their movie, Scream VI's real Ghostface delivers the line of the film: "Who gives a fuck about movies?!"
Does 'Scream VI' Live Up to Its Opening Sequence?
Seeing the film's iconic killer brazenly refuting what the Scream series is typically about ignites the narrative -- essentially blasting the film out of a cannon at that point. Scream VI can go anywhere and do anything from here. It's freed of what's come before, and the excitement of witnessing a franchise reborn and able to remake itself in whatever image it wants for the next two hours is palpable. And then, of course, the question becomes: Does the rest of the movie live up to that opening? Your mileage there may vary. Personally, I think directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (otherwise known as Radio Silence) are able to string together enough tension-filled sequences that the film manages to hold together even when the story begins seriously straining credulity. You could also make the argument that, despite asserting otherwise at the beginning, Scream VI ends up being once again very much about movies -- not just because the characters continue to use the tropes of the art form to define their own predicament, but also because the machinations of the plot remain too heavily tied to both the stories of Scream '22 and the franchise at large. As it turns out, Scream still does indeed give a fuck about movies.
But for a moment there, it didn't have to, and just the notion of that possibility was electric. The resulting jolt no doubt reminded audiences of Craven and original Scream writer Kevin Williamson pulling the rug out from under their feet when they killed off Barrymore, at the time the biggest star in the original film, a quarter-century ago. It's a dynamite opening that shows, six movies in, these movies are still trying to keep us off balance from the very first frames. You hear that, Scream 7? The pressure on you to live up to that opening-scene legacy just got a lot more intense.