Scream VI (2023) is finally slashing its way through movie theaters, just over a year after the last film in the franchise, the confusingly-titled Scream (2022). And given the fact it's had the biggest opening in the series so far, a seventh installment will probably be announced in the coming weeks. But not so fast. Here's the Scream VI ending explained...
Warning -- there are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Scream VI.
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Scream VI picks up one year after the events of Scream (2022), at the end of which survivors Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), Chad Meeks (Mason Gooding), Mindy Meeks (Jasmin Savoy Brown), and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) decided to leave Woodsboro, with Gale vowing to never write another book about the killings, in honor of Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and so that the two most recent Ghostface killers, Ritchie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) and Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison), can die in anonymity.
Now, the ensemble lives in New York; Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy are at college, trying to live a normal existence, despite Sam being targeted by online conspiracy theorists who believe she was behind the latest killings, while Gale is doing her usual thing, and has also gone against her word completely, and has written a new "Woodsboro Murders" book. What a truly wonderful human being she is. Meanwhile, Sam, daughter of Ghostface killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), is in therapy, as she's trying to come to terms with her darker side.
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Meanwhile, there are already two new Ghostface killers actively slaying in the city - Jason Carvey (Tony Revolori) and his off-screen roommate Greg, who are "trying to finish Ritchie's movie". However, an even newer Ghostface appears and cuts their would-be-legacy short, quite literally - as he butchers the pair at their apartment just before the title screen appears. This is the first Scream film to do these two things; revealing a new Ghostface at the beginning, and dispatching said-Ghostface with another.
Before you can say "What's your favorite scary movie?", the new Ghostface starts terrorizing Sam and the other survivors. But when Sam's friend Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato) is killed by Ghostface, her father, detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) joins the "Scooby Gang" in trying to hunt down the new killer. Soon, Scream 4 (2011) survivor Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), now an FBI agent, and fellow student Ethan Landry (Jack Champion), also join the fold.
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The gang are pursued relentlessly throughout the city by the most brutal version of Ghostface yet - through apartments, subway stations, stores - as they try to uncover the truth behind the new killer. Ultimately, Kirby leads them to a "Ghostface" shrine hidden away in the city, where the new killer has collected evidence from all the previous murders - Ghostface costumes, knives, photographs, everything you can think of is (somehow) here.
Eventually, Gale is attacked in her New York apartment, and is seemingly left for dead. Soon, Sam and Tara's friends also start to drop like flies, as they find themselves cornered at the Ghostface shrine, where it's revealed that there are three Ghostface killers! Though Kirby is briefly suspected, the three killers turn out to be detective Wayne Bailey, and his two children, Ethan and Quinn, in what is easily the most underwhelming Ghostface reveal in any Scream film.
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It turns out that Wayne is actually the father of Scream (2022) Ghostface killer Ritchie Kirsch, and Quinn and Ethan his siblings. In a shameless imitation of Scream 2 (1997), the new killers' motives are plain and simple: avenge the death of a family member who was a Ghostface killer. But actually, there's nothing plain and simple about any of this. Not only do each of the three new Ghostface killers come as no surprise, they also cancel each other out.
Worst of all, it seems that there's no such thing as a Ghostface who isn't a live-action Looney Tune. This time, it's Ethan (last time, it was Amber Freeman), while Wayne also feels like a Scooby-Doo villain in his own right. Eventually, more cat-and-mouse mayhem ensues, as the once-competent Ghostface killers become sweaty, inept, unhinged, and bafflingly stupid each get their comeuppance at the hands of the Carpenter sisters in the most brutal fashion.
Eventually, the three killers are dispatched, leaving for a signature reunion between survivors at the scene of the crime, surrounded by emergency response vehicles. Another baffling decision this film makes is that almost every character is invincible (every character besides Ghostface, that is). Not only is Kirby stabbed in the same place as before, Gale is also stabbed with a huge shard of glass. Mindy too is stabbed in the gut twice. Her twin brother, Chad, however, receives multiple stabs in quick succession up and down his torso by Quinn and Ethan. Yet each one survives...
The film ends with Sam, who at first appears to be drawn to one of the Ghostface masks, but drops it to the ground and embraces her sister.
Check out the brand-new official trailer below:
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As per Wikipedia, here's the official synopsis for Scream VI:
The film continues with the survivors of the latest Ghostface killings, sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks, leaving Woodsboro behind and starting a new chapter of their lives in New York City only to again be plagued by a streak of murders by a new Ghostface killer.
Scream VI stars Jenna Ortega (Tara Carpenter), Melissa Barrera (Sam Carpenter), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy Meeks), Mason Gooding (Chad Meeks), Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers), Hayden Panettiere (Kirby Reed), Roger L Jackson (the voice of Ghostface), Dermot Mulroney (Wayne Bailey), Henry Czerny (Christopher Stone), Tony Revolori (Jason Carvey), Jack Champion (Ethan Landry), Devyn Nekoda (Anika Kayoko), Liana Liberato (Quinn Bailey), Josh Segarra (Danny Brackett), Samara Weaving (Laura Crane) and Skeet Ulrich (Billy Loomis).
Scream VI is now in theaters.
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