Scream 6 Filmmakers Studied Jason Takes Manhattan Before Putting Ghostface in New York

The Scream franchise has left the town of Woodsboro before, but Ghostface has never made the trip to the Big Apple. That changes this weekend with the release of Scream VI, as the latest installment in the beloved slasher franchise is set entirely in New York City. Of course, a slasher in New York immediately makes fans think of the much-maligned Friday the 13th movie, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. 

The story of Jason Voorhees slashing his way through New York is often considered one of the worst of that franchise and hardly even incorporates the city at all, largely taking place on boat into the city. The filmmakers behind Scream VI aimed to avoid any Jason Takes Manhattan pitfalls by studying what that film did (and didn't do).

"Of course. I don't think you can make a horror movie in New York and not bring up Jason Takes Manhattan," director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin told ComicBook.com's Chris Killian, when asked if the widely panned slasher had any influence on Scream VI.

Chad Villella, one of the executive producers of Scream VI, said that one of the biggest takeaways from studying Jason Takes Manhattan was that they wanted to make sure they explored the live-in parts of New York in order to make it feel authentic. (Ironically, the movie was filmed in Montreal.)

"Oh, we definitely studied it, and we wanted to make sure that we didn't have a boat in this!" Villella told EW. "We wanted to be in the city, in the lived-in part of New York, that was very important to us. Obviously, being in a city is a scary thing. With Woodsboro, you're able to be isolated very easily, but in a city, you could be surrounded by millions of people and still feel very alone. That's exactly what we wanted to capture with this one."

Are you excited to see Ghostface take Manhattan this weekend? What's your biggest prediction for Scream VI? Let us know in the comments!

Scream VI arrives in theaters on March 10th.