Scream 6 Directors Talk Sequels, Easter Eggs, and More (Exclusive)
With the highly anticipated Scream VI having finally been unleashed on audiences last month, its home video release is now allowing fans to dive into the twisted and terrifying mystery of who carried on the legacy of Ghostface's crimes. The latest sequel was directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin from a script by Guy Busick and Jamie Vanderbilt, who had all previously collaborated on last year's Scream. The success of last year's film is what allowed this most recent sequel to move forward so quickly, with this release being a hit with both fans and critics alike. ComicBook.com caught up with Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin to talk about the development of the film, which is out now on Digital HD and streaming on Paramount+ and hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 11th.
WARNING: Spoilers below for Scream VI
Each film in the franchise has delivered audiences a disturbing path of murder and chaos, leading towards the unexpected reveal of the killer, or killers, responsible for the crimes. The killers in this film were the dad and siblings of killer Richie from the previous film, with Gillett detailing the process of landing on these figures being the ones responsible.
"We got a draft of this really shortly after the release of Scream 5. Guy and Jamie had been cranking on it so it got dropped in our laps and we read it and we fell in love with it," Gillett detailed. "We also were like, and they were very open, they were like, 'Guys, this is a very living document, this isn't like Scream 5 where we had a year, six months to really develop it and then give you a finished thing.' I think that they were, to their credit, very honest about, 'Guys, we're moving really quickly, we want to bring you into this now so we can start developing the movie because it's gotta shoot really quick.'"
He added, "One of the things that shifted during that prep process was really honing in on the killers. We knew it was always gonna be three but what shifted over the course of a few rewrites, a few drafts, was really honing in on them as Richie's family. I think that that was ultimately the most significant change that happened to the script during the prep process, was making sure that when you reach the end of the movie, that motive while, yeah, there's a bit of commentary baked into it, that it actually feels really primal. I think that, for us, we just knew that we had to hit something that, in one moment, you feel the pivot of that scene, the bottom falls out. There's a reveal within the reveal, right? It felt like the easiest -- not the easiest, but the most satisfying way to do that, especially in a movie that is so much about lineage and so much about legacy, was to actually connect it really directly. Not only to the legacy of the franchise but the Carpenter sisters, Sam's legacy, from the previous movie."
Last year's Scream featured a number of Easter eggs to the horror genre, to former Scream films, and to original director Wes Craven. With Scream VI taking place over Halloween weekend, it allowed for even more opportunities for loving tributes to the horror genre, with both fans and the filmmakers themselves still discovering them.
"It's funny, especially with the Halloween costumes, because there's different baskets of Easter eggs," Bettinelli-Olpin expressed of the nods. "There's the fun ones that are like, what's the address on Samantha Carpenter's license? And then there's all of the thousands of Halloween costumes and then there's all the stuff at the shrine. With the Halloween costumes, we joke a lot about how we are also finding the Easter eggs. We worked with Avery [Plewes], our costume designer, to create a big list of all the things and then her and her team just knocked it out of the park. But when you're making the movie, you don't actually know what's going to end up in the finished cut. There's certain things that us and the A/V department will be like, 'We have to see this and this and this,' but beyond that, there's a bunch of stuff that we see every time we watch, we go, 'Hey, wait, that's so and so. Yay!'"
He continued, "As far as things that people haven't really caught, I'm not sure where that lands. I know one of the ones, we did a fun one just for us, which was our first feature anthology was V/H/S, and so we dressed Tara, Jenna's character, and her friends as the V/H/S characters, which was dumb as f-ck and also, we were like, 'Let's just have some fun with this.' We did some other stuff with friends' movies and stuff, put their costumes in. Personal Easter eggs are always really fun."
Whereas this year's sequel was announced weeks after the opening of last year's Scream, there has yet to be official confirmation about a Scream 7. With Gillett and Bettinelli-Olpin getting more exciting opportunities to develop films, they addressed what their future might be with the series.
"I think that it's hard to not fall in love with the thing that you're making. In fact, I would say that, at its most basic level, the job, right? Is to really love the process," Gillett admitted. "You have to love that thing in order to see it across the finish line. Making a movie is too hard to not love it. I would also say, though, that we never expect to have another one, you know what I mean? And I think that that's just an important way of creating. You leave it all on the field. We try to make 5 and then 6, we tried to make those, tried to cram as many of the good ideas that we had into those as possible, not ever knowing if there's gonna be another one. I think that what you end up with is a story that feels like it's a full thought. It's not teasing, it's not a trailer for what's next, it's its own thing and it's got a close-ended character resolution at the end. I think that's just, also, the job. I think it's, for us, our taste and the thing that we love is to arc out a character over the course of one story."
He noted, "We love Scream. We want it to continue forever, regardless of whether we're involved or not, it's a franchise that is very, very dear to us and we love the people that have brought it back to life. It's been a dream to get to make two of them."
Scream VI is out now on Digital HD and streaming on Paramount+. Scream VI hits 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on July 11th.
What did you think of the film? Let us know in the comments or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!