Scream VI
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: March 10, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 53 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistSimon ThompsonMar 8, 2023
Scream VI builds to a powerful third act of grisly mayhem that is one of the best in the series. Read full review
90
We Got This CoveredAlejandra MartinezMar 8, 2023
The latest installment proves 'Scream' still has the chops to outdo itself consistently and cleverly. An effortless balance of dark comedy and intense set pieces make it worth checking out. Come for the return of a beloved franchise, and stay for a killer joy ride through New York City. Read full review
90
IGNAmelia EmberwingMar 8, 2023
Emotions and brutality are at an all-time high in Scream 6, setting it up to be the best sequel in the franchise yet. Though it does ultimately fumble the reason for Sidney Prescott’s absence, RadioSilence has officially proven that there’s a future for the franchise with or without its original final girl by giving us strong connections to the new Core Four. Read full review
83
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMar 8, 2023
It’s well-paced, the kills are inventive, and the gags largely land, especially for hardcore Scream devotees. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett finally have a lock on the amped-up Scooby-Doo mystery tone of Craven’s era, and that’s a blessing. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubPhil PirrelloMar 8, 2023
Fueled by a seemingly endless appreciation for how enjoyable it can be to subvert horror conventions and audience expectations, Scream VI is one of the most fun (and funniest) modern horror experiences one can have at a movie theater. Read full review
83
IndieWireChristian ZilkoMar 8, 2023
While Scream VI still features its share of meta humor, it leaves no doubt that this universe is now fleshed out enough to support an infinite number of sequels. Read full review
83
ColliderRoss BonaimeMar 8, 2023
It finds just the right combination of nostalgia and fresh blood, telling a story that manages to feel familiar in its winks at the past, but breaking with tradition in ways that are exciting and new for this series. Scream VI might be a sequel to a requel, but this franchise still finds new ways to feel original in its approach to this world. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellMar 12, 2023
Six films in, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett deserve credit for crafting two set pieces that manage to emphasise their characters’ vulnerability and paralysing fear in surprising and unique ways. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJason DelgadoMar 10, 2023
Radio Silence needed to make Scream their own, and they did it in a blaze of blood and guts glory. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshMar 9, 2023
Writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick keep the blade sharp, while directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett bring a brawny, bruising and bloody style to this “requel sequel.” Read full review
80
The GuardianBenjamin LeeMar 8, 2023
It’s the goriest movie of the series so far but without veering into grimness, again that tonal balance perfectly modulated. The last act reveal is as goofy as one would expect but satisfyingly so for reasons impossible to explain without entering spoiler territory. Read full review
80
NMEAlex FloodMar 8, 2023
Scream movies usually follow the same, tried-and-tested format, but directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett should get credit for an attempt to reinvent their villain. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyMar 8, 2023
It’s both wholly satisfying and ridiculously fun. Read full review
79
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiMar 10, 2023
It’s an engaging slasher movie amusement park ride – but just like any amusement park ride, it’s not as exhilarating the sixth time around, it probably won’t impress you with its subtext, and you can usually see the ending coming around the bend. Read full review
76
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMar 8, 2023
While the film’s ending expects audiences to untie some impossible fan-theory knots, the climax is also packed to the rafters with murder and mayhem and even a little on-the-nose movie-theatre nostalgia, resulting in moments that demand fits of laughter, gasps and, of course, screams. Read full review
75
The Film StageMatt CipollaMar 8, 2023
As a whodunnit it largely works, save one aspect easy to spot miles away. Stakes-wise it’s high, even if it pulls its punches once or twice on who bites the bullet. As a return to form for Scream, this is a sigh of relief––notwithstanding some key issues VI has a freewheeling sense of lunacy, and it’s way too fun to decry. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 8, 2023
Of all the ridiculous and overblown albeit entertainingly grisly “Scream” finales, this might be the most outlandish and spectacularly brutal ending of all. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittMar 8, 2023
This “Scream” is neither king of the hill nor top of the heap, but you can’t be too mad at a picture that makes a cathartic treat out of a plunged knife in the eye. Read full review
71
PolygonJesse HassengerMar 8, 2023
Where 2022’s Scream showed how the series could keep adapting and changing to fit new cinematic trends, this one hints at how unsustainable franchise maintenance can feel over the long term, even for a series that’s enjoying its deserved resurgence in creativity and popularity. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 8, 2023
Scream VI, while it goes on for too long, is a pretty good thriller. It’s a homicidal shell game that‘s clever in all the right ways, staged and shot more forcefully than the previous film, eager to take advantage of its more sprawling but enclosed cosmopolitan setting. Read full review
70
Screen RantGraeme GuttmannMar 8, 2023
Scream VI evokes a different kind of nostalgia, taking what made the franchise's original college-set sequel great and amplifying it to a 10. Scream VI is bloodier, scarier, and funnier, nodding to its past while carving a brutal path forward for Ghostface and the new franchise torch-holders who find themselves at the receiving end of the blade. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMar 8, 2023
Compared to other franchises that have resurrected their seemingly indestructible purveyors of murderous mayhem long after they should have remained dead and buried (Halloween Ends, anyone?), this latest entry in the ongoing saga of Ghostface demonstrates its premise remains viable, though admittedly showing a few signs of calcification. Read full review
65
Paste MagazineJim VorelMar 10, 2023
What Scream VI ultimately lacks, on the other hand, is a clear sense of what it’s trying to say beyond the literal plot unfolding on screen. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowryMar 8, 2023
If the last “Scream” movie made noise by wedding the old with the new, Scream VI reinforces how shrewd the producers were in casting the next generation, with Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega ably carrying this chapter of horror’s most self-referential franchise. Throw in a new venue and the same old thrills and kills, and Paramount should be slashing all the way to the bank. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMar 9, 2023
As far as Scream sequels go, we’ve seen worse, but the wear and tear of the years are showing on Ghostface’s mask. The script is serviceable but surface-level, bringing up interesting ideas but never following though on them. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonMar 9, 2023
The scariest thing about Scream VI isn’t seeing someone get knifed in the face 600 times; it’s this movie’s absurdly inaccurate depiction of New York City. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesChase HutchinsonMar 9, 2023
Returning directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett show they have an eye for immersing us in well-constructed set pieces that earn their terror and are all distinct from each other. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 8, 2023
Scream VI offers two hours of fan service while serving up enough gore to appeal to many generic slasher/horror movie aficionados, but there’s not much beyond that. Read full review
63
ObserverDylan RothMar 8, 2023
For the first time, Scream seems at risk of becoming just another horror perennial, one that fans go see because there’s a new installment, not because it has anything new to say. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMar 8, 2023
There’s an intriguing idea and an incredible sequence in Scream VI—which is just enough to justify this follow-up to 2022’s Scream (which itself was just clever enough to justify reheating the series 11 years after Scream 4). Read full review
63
The Associated PressMark KennedyMar 8, 2023
Despite the change of scenery, Scream VI is less a sequel and more a stutter-step, a half-movie with some very satisfying stabbings but no real progress or even movement. It’s like treading water in gore. And to fully enjoy this “sequel to the requel,” you need to have watched most of the others. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 10, 2023
The showdown (in the usual abandoned auditorium) is perhaps the campiest yet to be unveiled, proving that a generally-clapped-out franchise is capable of some fairly fun death throes. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriMar 10, 2023
Scream 6 does distinguish itself in the horror set pieces. Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (who also made the previous entry) clearly grasp that these movies are, at their best, mean. Read full review
60
Little White LiesAnton BitelMar 9, 2023
Scream VI is well-made, fast-moving and often painfully brutal, while peppered with the kind of sassy, savvy dialogue that has always been a hallmark of the franchise. Read full review
60
EmpireOlly RichardsMar 8, 2023
One of the sillier series entries in terms of plot, but still scary enough and funny enough to leave you hoping Ghostface might yet kill again. Read full review
60
Total FilmKevin HarleyMar 8, 2023
Bigger, bloodier, blunter. Ghostface goes all-in for the kills in a brash but broad requel-sequel, sharpened by Barrera/Ortega’s ace pairing. Read full review
60
Screen DailyNikki BaughanMar 8, 2023
While that familiarity is Scream VI’s major strength, it has also become its fundamental flaw. The location may have changed, the kills may be increasingly inventive, but underneath all that window dressing it’s the same as it ever was. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 8, 2023
Scream VI will probably prove as popular as most of its predecessors, proving that if you give the people what they want — namely lots and lots of gory stabbings with a little satire thrown in — they will come. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 8, 2023
Scream VI is a decent film with a transitional feel, a signal that you can take the show on the road and it still works. But it doesn’t leave you screaming for more. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfMar 8, 2023
Splattery, puncture-heavy violence — the hard-R rating is earned — alternates with deadening rafts of therapy-speak, including an actual therapy session. But there's no deeper meaning to any of it; the Scream idea, meta to its core, was always a preening celebration of its own cleverness, never mind the occasional half-explored nods to toxic fandom or cancel culture. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMar 10, 2023
Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett do know how to stage a good scare sequence, and Scream VI has enough decent ones to prevent the film from tipping over into disaster. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJason ZinomanMar 9, 2023
It’s tricky business balancing disturbing terror and jokey film criticism, and while this sequel occasionally pulls it off, the weight of obligations to the dictates of the franchise ultimately drags it down. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineGregory NussenMar 8, 2023
It simply picks up the baton from the previous film, relying on a series of increasingly nasty, and at times exciting, kills to thrill audiences, while leaving everything in between to feel as fake as its vision of the Big Apple. Read full review
50
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaMar 8, 2023
After an opening kill sequence that bucks convention and suggests a much better movie, Scream 6 grows tedious as it attempts to catch us up with the returning characters and introduce new ones. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleZaki HasanMar 8, 2023
There’s a lot in Scream VI to satisfy longtime fans, but it still feels like a step down from the last one. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 8, 2023
This sixth chapter boasts not a single genuinely unnerving jolt—a consequence of tepid writing as well as the familiarity of Ghostface’s tactics, which have long since become their own genre clichés. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithMar 23, 2023
Ghostface tends to veer from fiendishly brilliant to unbelievably thick depending on the writers’ limitations. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeMar 12, 2023
The only notable development is just how rapidly a satirical skewering of genre formulas can become thuddingly formulaic. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 9, 2023
The sixth time isn’t the charm here. And it’s certainly way, way less fun and clever than it thinks it is. Read full review
40
Time OutPhil de SemlyenMar 8, 2023
Even in those well-executed gnarlier moments and winky character beats, Scream VI feels a lot more dated than the genre it’s deconstructing. Read full review
38
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiMar 9, 2023
That’s the worst thing about these new Scream films — they couldn’t spook a kitten. They’re much more concerned with so-so jokes and overly geeky observations about the horror genre. Yes, Scream always commented on other scary movies, but never so obnoxiously and repetitively as now. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 8, 2023
I’ve always appreciated the humor in these films, but by the time things go wholly over the top for the finale this time, the joking has run its course. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanMar 8, 2023
In the final scenes of Scream VI, there are a lot of deaths unfolding, including, arguably, the demise of a once-vital film franchise. Read full review
More From This Movie

61 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL