‘Scream VI’ is an entertaining slasher

The new “Scream VI” provides all the thrills, chills and kills you’d likely expect from this franchise, while failing to bring anything particularly new or interesting to the series.

The “Scream” franchise was brought back from the dustbins of Hollywood last year after more than a decade, and franchise and slasher fans made it a success. So we’re back again, barely more than a year later, with another installment. “Scream VI” does everything it needs to do to make for an entertaining slasher flick, but it doesn’t really innovate.

The survivors from the previous film have moved to New York City, both for college and to start over. But then a new Ghostface killer shows up to target them, and the bodies start hitting the floor.

“Scream VI” works as a perfectly good “Scream” movie, featuring everything you would expect from the franchise. There’s a new killer with a knife in that familiar costume, a whole bunch of returning characters, and all manner of gruesome murders. There’s plenty of blood and gore to fulfill that quota.

The mystery of who is behind the mask is fairly strong, and is about on par with the other films in the series.

Simply put, if you’re already a fan of the “Scream” movies and slasher flicks in general, this new sequel should go over just fine.

“Scream VI” just doesn’t do anything new or particularly inventive with the genre or the franchise. There are a couple of small surprises, but they don’t impact the movie very much. And there is one scene where the characters discuss the new rules of a slasher franchise, but that also doesn’t go very far.

There’s nothing new or unique about this Ghostface or any of the murders. Likewise, the characters who survived last year’s movie and return for this one haven’t evolved all that much. There are some hints toward the future of the franchise and where it might take these characters, but that’s going to happen in another movie.

This movie plays it safe. But then nobody really expects one of these slasher flicks to color outside the lines. They have a formula to maintain, and it seems to be working for them.

“Scream VI” sticks to that formula and produces another entertaining entry into the franchise. Keep this up for at least two more films, and I’m sure audiences will grow bored with the franchise all over again.

“Scream VI” is currently playing in theaters and is not available for streaming at home.