Daily Grindhouse | PLEASE DON’T KILL ME MR. GHOSTFACE, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SCREAM SEQUELS!

The latest exploits of Ghostface in SCREAM VI confirm what we’ve known for years now: this franchise is, well, a franchise, and if returning horror nerd Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) is to be believed, anything can happen now. In fact, the only thing we know for certain is that SCREAM will surely continue on because that’s a hallmark of many of the slasher franchises that inspired it in the first place: save for legal entanglements, nothing can stop them, even when they stray so far onto the beaten path that they lose the audience. (This is why legacy sequels — or to use SCREAM’s own parlance, “requels” — exist, after all — as course correction.) The only question for SCREAM is just where — and how wild — it will go; however, considering its status as the self-aware slasher that models itself after its predecessors, there are plenty of options on the table. With that in mind, let’s speculate about where it might take us for the next movie — and beyond?

SCREAM VII: THE TRILOGY CAPPER

The most obvious option here is that incoming director Christopher Landon completes this new trilogy of films. If SCREAM (2022) was a requel of SCREAM (1996), and if SCREAM VI is an echo of SCREAM 2, then it follows that SCREAM VII will follow in the footsteps of SCREAM 3, meaning the “Core Four” will find their way onto the set of the latest STAB movie. Or, to follow up on what Gale reveals in SCREAM VI, it won’t be a movie at all but rather a true crime limited series since those are more en vogue these days. SCREAM 3 has become something of a black sheep within the franchise, and it would be interesting to see the new team engage with it and riff upon it.

However, what if they went really wild with the backlot concept? What if STAB was being reimagined as an MTV series that had nothing to do with the film series? And what if we brought in the cast of the actual ill-fated MTV SCREAM series as the actors for the STAB? Multiverses are all the rage these days, and this would give the filmmakers an excuse to indulge in the ultimate meta madness by crossing the franchise streams, ushering in a SCREAM Cinematic Universe of sorts.

Possible inspiration: SCREAM 3

SCREAM VII: THE HARD LEFT-TURN SEQUEL

Maybe simply retracing the steps of the original trilogy is too obvious. Maybe SCREAM needs something a little more subversive (or at least surprising) to shake up a formula that’s becoming a little predictable. Instead of redoing SCREAM 3, what if the next SCREAM movie strays completely away with a sequel that goes completely off the rails? If anything really goes now, then everything should be on the table: supernatural elements (maybe this is how #StuLives), weirdo cults, telekinetic foils for Ghostface, wild location changes — you name it. PART VI hints at an awareness of how slasher franchises tend to get away from themselves (and it certainly requires a little more suspension of disbelief than previous entries), but the next one should really embrace this.

Possible inspiration: FRIDAY THE 13th VI-VIII, HALLOWEEN 6, URBAN LEGENDS: BLOODY MARY, BRIDE OF CHUCKY, SEED OF CHUCKY, CULT OF CHUCKY

SCREAM: THE DO-OVER

In SCREAM (2022), killers Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman are staging a “requel” in response to the haywire STAB sequels that “ruined” their beloved franchises, a notion that inspires at least a few characters in Part VI. However, what if a new Ghostface killer wanted to completely ignore the exploits of the past two movies and “reboot” the continuity with a sequel that proceeds directly from the original trilogy. Maybe there’s a deranged Roman Bridger fan out there who thought he never got his due, so we return to SCREAM 3 instead of proceeding from SCREAM VI. Don’t tell me that sounds too confusing when we have like four HALLOWEEN continuities.

Possible inspiration: every TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE sequel, most LEPRECHAUN sequels, HALLOWEEN: H20, HALLOWEEN (2018)

SCREAM: THE GENERIC SEQUEL

This might be looking a little bit too far ahead because this is generally where franchises go to “die,” but what if a future entry has no explicit connection to any of the previous films? No survivors, no Woodsboro, no 25-year-old lore—just Ghostface stalking a round of new, random victims in a random location. It would be “just a sequel,” which, of course, would be the point: so many franchises have persisted with this method, where the killer ostensibly becomes the star attraction. It flies in the face of SCREAM tradition since it’s the one franchise that has thrived on returning protagonists and a long-running mythology with no real digressions. What would a SCREAM movie be like if it weren’t bound by its own rules and instead was ruled by the chaotic whims of random sequels? I would just have to insist that the title would involve a generic subtitle (SCREAM: REVELATIONS) to really capture the Dimension direct-to-video quality of it all.

Possible inspiration: the Dimension DTV sequels era (CHILDREN OF THE CORN, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, HELLRAISER, etc.)

SCREAM: THE “FINAL” CHAPTER

Here’s an obvious slasher franchise rite of passage SCREAM hasn’t experienced yet: the much- ballyhooed “final” entry that promises a definitive ending. There are even some options here: maybe SCREAM concludes with a definitive entry that leans into what the franchise does best (see: FRIDAY THE 13th: THE FINAL CHAPTER). Maybe it goes off in a new, weird direction that also introduces some previously unknown backstory to give the illusion that this is really the end (see: FREDDY’S DEAD, JASON GOES TO HELL). Maybe it sidesteps any expectations altogether by telling an unexpected story within the SCREAM universe that dovetails back to the franchise’s roots (see: HALLOWEEN ENDS). No matter what, though, one thing is for sure: this wouldn’t really be the final chapter since we all know what the rules are there.

Possible inspiration: in addition to the above titles, there’s also OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT, PUPPET MASTER 5, and SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER

CHRISTOPHER LANDON’S NEW SCREAM

Horror’s most meta franchise takes the ultimate metafictional step with a sequel set in “our” world, where yet another SCREAM film is in production, much to the dismay of a hardcore fan who’s taken their love for their favorite scary movie franchise too far. It’s a natural way to bring back our favorite cast members to play themselves, including (and especially) those whose characters perished. This approach would bring everything full circle, giving SCREAM the chance to tackle the conventions of meta-horror itself.

Possible inspiration: WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

GHOSTFACE VS. ???

That’s right. You didn’t think I — the world’s #1 FREDDY VS. JASON fan — would forget about the crossover option, did you? It’s been rarely used in the slasher realm, but horror has a long history of mash-ups dating back to the Universal Monsters. Obviously, the fact that SCREAM has referenced dozens of actual titles means a lot of possibilities are off the table here: Ghostface can’t go toe-to-toe with Freddy, Jason, Michael, and scores of others if they exist as fictional characters within its own universe (though that didn’t stop the brain-breaking cross-references between SCREAM and HALLOWEEN: H20, so who knows?). The most obvious route would be to expand the Kevin Williamson universe and have Ghostface cross paths with Ben Willis, the hook-handed killer from I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Recent reports have suggested that the franchise is due to be resurrected soon, so why not kill two birds with one stone? (Or knife?) (Or hook?) Let’s get even more ambitious: what if the latest SCREAM sequel just ended up being one of the rituals in the CABIN IN THE WOODS universe, allowing Ghostface to cross paths with other horror staples?

Possible inspiration: the Universal Monster Rally films, GODZILLA VS. KONG, FREDDY VS. JASON, ALIEN VS. PREDATOR

SCREAM: THE FINAL FRONTIER

Because someone will inevitably wonder why I left this possibility off the list, I have to at least acknowledge the fate that’s often considered worse than death when it comes to horror franchises: going to space. Forgetting for a moment that these usually aren’t the worst entries in their respective franchises (there are at least five HELLRAISER movies worse than BLOODLINE), it’s still surely the most absurd thing you can imagine for SCREAM. If, for some reason, this does ever happen, I hope Ghostface is somehow stalking a far-flung future descendant of Sidney Prescott and eventually morphs into a cyborg during the climax.

Possible inspiration: CRITTERS 4, HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, LEPRECHAUN 4, JASON X

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Brett Gallman

Video store brat still easily suckered in by box art featuring severed heads. Writes about movies at @efilmcritic & @horror_reviews. @OFCS member.

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PLEASE DON’T KILL ME MR. GHOSTFACE, I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SCREAM SEQUELS!