If you had told us a couple decades ago that not only would the Scream series still be going in 2023, but they’d be making new ones in pretty quick succession, we’d have assumed they’d rebooted the thing. But nope–every Scream sequel, including the upcoming Scream 6, has been a direct sequel that addresses everything that’s come before.
After the original Scream’s irresistible pairing of self-referential satirical humor with an actually good slasher flick became a smash hit in 1996, director Wes Craven turned out a sequel a year later, and a third film in 2000. Both follow-ups maintained that navel-gazing tone, commenting on and subverting as many sequel and trilogy tropes as possible.
And then it was over, or so we thought. But Craven and writer Kevin Williamson released the quite good Scream 4 in 2011, this time going after remake and reboot conventions with a plot that paralleled the original film while still taking things in a new direction. After Craven died in 2015 it seemed like the series might have actually ended for good, but in 2022 we got a fifth film from Devil’s Due directors Tyler Gillet and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. It was one of the best movies in the series, it performed well at the box office despite a simultaneous streaming release, and Scream 6 was put on the fast track.