‘We’re not in a sequel,’ claims one impending victim in Scream VI, ‘because nobody just makes sequels any more. We’re in a franchise!’

There is cheeky self-awareness, something that has sustained the Scream series of slasher movies this far, and then there is a rote admission that you are running out of ideas. After a long-delayed fifth film was released to great success in 2022, a sixth has emerged just a year later. Once again it is directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and while there is much on display to entertain the fanbase there is also a creaky sense that everything is running on fumes. A seventh Scream is in development, waiting for writers and actors strikes to conclude. To Paramount Pictures, who have inherited the property from Miramax, I assure you: don’t rush on my account.

It is fascinating how many times Scream VI points out its similarity to previous sequels. Even with a major shift from a small town to big city setting, it cannot help but make comparisons. When the characters meet on a university campus, they talk about the events of Scream 2. Hayden Panettiere makes an unexpected return as her character from Scream 4, now an oddly unconvincing FBI special agent. Courtney Cox also makes a return, and to her and the writers’ credit is actually pretty entertaining this time out – someone finally noticed that in the first five films the anonymous phone-wielding villains had never actually called Gale Weathers once.

Even the new generation of characters – they are all remarkably disposable – hearken back to older films. One of them, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) is the daughter of original Scream villain Bill Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Others are related to fan favourite Randy. It all feels weirdly arbitrary, as if the production team are desperate to form a more cohesive fictional universe. It’s difficult: Scream has always been an unusual slasher franchise. All of the other series – Friday the 13th, A Nightmare of Elm Street, Halloween, Saw – feature ongoing monstrous villains and an endless line of arbitrary victims. Scream tends to keep the victims around from film to film while rotating an endless chain of revenge-seeking villains. Scream 6 makes an effort to point this out, with dialogue shared inside an enormous unofficial museum of artefacts from the previous five films.

As a series it creaks and strains, but as an individual film there are more than a few highlights to keep the fanbase satisfied. Individual scenes of mask-wearing killers chasing down hapless civilians show some inventiveness and flair. Several members of the cast show off some real energy and chemistry, including Barrera, Jenna Ortega, and Samara Weaving. At its best the film exploits its urban environment to good effect. Sadly at its worst it can’t help from reminding the audience they have seen most of it many times before.