Scream VI, the latest installment in the storied Scream franchise, brings Ghostface to the Big Apple, packing plenty of blood, suspense, and stabbing. A sequel to 2022’s thrilling Scream, Scream VI follows sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) to New York City, where they’re both dealing with the trauma of Ghostface’s return to Woodsboro in their own ways.
Over the course of 123 minutes, the longest runtime of any Scream movie yet, Sam, Tara, Mindy, and Chad scramble to figure out who’s after them this time-before it’s too late.
Like every Scream movie that’s come before, Scream VI, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, has some serious twists up its sleeve. The self-referential slasher culminates in an ending showdown that takes place inside an abandoned movie theater that’s been turned into a meta shrine to all the Ghostfaces of old. It’s there that the killer is finally revealed.
For the first time in Scream movie history, there’s not just one or two Ghostfaces, but three.
After a tense few minutes where it seems like Kirby’s Ghostface expertise may have turned into a murderous obsession, Detective Bailey reveals himself to be the one who’s been running the show all along. And what’s more, he’s actually Richie’s father. Working alongside Richie’s brother and sister, Ethan and Quinn (who didn’t actually die earlier in the movie), Bailey orchestrated an online conspiracy theory smear campaign against Sam to convince people she was the one really behind last year’s Woodsboro murders. The family then set a plan in motion to get close to the Core Four and get revenge for Richie’s death.
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A bloody showdown ensues where Sam, Tara, and Kirby manage to take out Quinn and Ethan. Sam then dons her father’s old Ghostface costume and, using his knife, finishes the job by killing Bailey.
Despite some close calls, the Core Four, Kirby, and Gale all survived Scream VI, meaning they could all potentially return for another movie. There’s also the matter of Sam’s ongoing connection to her murderous father.
Let's delve into the specific journeys and fates of Chad and Mindy in this latest installment.
Mindy Meeks-Martin's Brush with Death
Melinda "Mindy" Meeks-Martin is a main character in Scream (2022 film), and its sequels, Scream VI (2023 film) and Scream 7. She is a survivor of the 2022 Legacy Killings in Woodsboro, California, and the 2023 Killings in New York City, New York. Mindy is the daughter of Martha Meeks, niece of Randy Meeks, as well as the twin sister of Chad Meeks-Martin. She is also a member of Tara Carpenter's friend group.
When the Ghostface killings start again, Mindy immediately pinpoints that the new killer is attempting to remake Stab (2021), better known as Stab 8, by doing it as a requel to the original Stab (1997). Mindy attends a party at Amber Freeman's house and is attacked by Ghostface in a similar manner to Randy. She is able to fight off the killer and he is scared away by Samantha Carpenter. After graduating at Woodsboro High School, she enrolls at Blackmore University in New York City and forms a romantic relationship with Anika Kayoko. When a new killing spree begins, she witnesses Anika's murder at the hands of Ghostface. Whilst travelling on a subway, Mindy is attacked and stabbed by Ghostface, but is able to survive her injuries. This time around, she correctly predicts the identity of the killers.
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Reflecting her connection to Randy, Mindy is able to deduce that the Ghostface killer(s) is trying to create a "requel" to Stab (2021) to appease the toxic fandom by tying in new characters and legacy characters. After Gale is attacked by Ghostface at her apartment and left on the verge of death, Tara comes up with a plan to lure the killer in and kill him by trapping him in the Ghostface shrine. As the subway moves in and out of darkness, Ghostface gets closer and closer before finally muffling Mindy's screams and stabbing her. After Wayne, Quinn and Ethan are all revealed as Ghostface, in which they are seeking revenge against Sam for killing Richie as they are his father and siblings, respectively. Mindy leaves the hospital and arrives at the shrine, slightly annoyed that she missed the monologue again.
Mindy is the first canon and openly LGBTQ character in the Scream film franchise. She is technically the fourth LGBTQ female character (third female survivor) in the franchise, with the first being Audrey Jensen from the TV series (the latter two being Audrey's love interests, Rachel Murray and Gina McLane).
Her attack by being stabbed is an inverse to her uncle Randy, who was shot on his upper chest by Billy Loomis, but survived, whom would’ve been stabbed had it not been for Sidney’s cries for help which distracted the killer and gave Randy time to leave after Ghostface left him unnoticed. Mindy is also the first Black female character in the film franchise to survive Ghostface, succeeding both Maureen Evans and Hallie McDaniel from Scream 2, respectively.
The script for the fifth film reveals her full name is Melinda. (pg. Named after writer Guy Busick's cousin.
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Here are some of Mindy's notable quotes from the film:
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- "Oh my god, he's making a requel."
- "Nobody cares about the shitty, inferior sequels, Wes."
- "I'm not actually. But let that be a lesson... Don't. Trust."
- "Come on, man! These are your rules!"
- "Look behind..."
- "Oh, I think of it like being struck by lightning."
- "Step the fuck back. You're at the top of my (suspect) list".
- "Get your Ghostface ass away from me, Ghostface".
Chad Meeks-Martin's Miraculous Survival
Chad Meeks-Martin is a main character in Scream (2022 film), and its sequels, Scream VI (2023 film) and Scream 7. He is the nephew to original Scream (1996) character, Randy Meeks and the son of his sister, Martha Meeks. Despite being Randy's nephew, he does not share many characteristics with his uncle, unlike his twin sister, Mindy.
When a new Ghostface entity strikes, Chad immediately suspects 22-year old Vince Schneider who had stalked Liv's Instagram, having previously been in a relationship with her. When Vince attempts to steal Liv back, Chad threatens him. He is later attacked after trying to track down Liv at Wes Hicks' memorial party at Amber's house. Chad later enrolls at Blackmore University and moves to New York City where he, Mindy, and Tara Carpenter attend. He is assigned to be roommates with Ethan Landry who he forms a close friendship with.
After Tara Carpenter is attacked at her home, Chad and his friends go to visit her after school, in the hospital after calling Tara's half-sister, Samantha Carpenter, back to Woodsboro. Chad is questioned about the bruises on his arm by Amber Freeman and then defends his girlfriend, Liv McKenzie, against Vince Schneider, a former summer romance of hers who is now stalking her through Woodsboro.
The next night, Amber hosts a party at her house to which Chad, through drinking, dedicates to Wes Hicks's memory, as he was killed the day before alongside his mother, Sheriff Judy Hicks. Chad then gets a text from Liv with a GPS tracker of her phone and he follows her to try and apologize, unaware that it's actually a trap set by the killer. Chad tries to flee, but Amber as Ghostface bursts out of a shed behind him and chases him, stabbing him six times, with Chad falling in pain.
After recovering from his injuries and later graduating from Woodsboro High School, Chad either was awarded a athletic scholarship to or he himself enrolls at Blackmore University with Mindy and the pair move to New York City with Tara, who is also attending, with Sam following them not long after to be with Tara. Chad is then assigned to be roommates with Ethan Landry, who manipulated the allocations to get close to him, and he forms a close friendship with him.
Chad attends a Halloween frat party with Ethan, Tara, Mindy, and her girlfriend, Anika Kayoko, and is called in as a reinforcement when Tara is groomed by a date-raper student, Frankie, who wants to take advantage of her. Chad gets into a physical altercation with the student and the fight is broken up by Sam who tases the student in the testicles. Chad returns to Sam and Tara's apartment, which they share with roommate, Quinn Bailey, and comforts Tara before confessing his feelings for her. He leans in for a kiss, but they are interrupted by Quinn who is looking for her phone.
When they are ambushed by Ghostface, who murders Quinn, Chad and Tara are able to escape while Mindy, Sam and Anika are forced to escape through Quinn's bedroom through a window using a ladder and Anika is thrown off the ladder to her death. When Wayne Bailey, Quinn's father, devises a plan to trace the killer, Chad hides in a police van with Mindy, Ethan and Kirby Reed while Kirby tracks down a phone call from Ghostface. When the group arrives at the theatre, he confesses his feelings for Tara and kisses her. As soon as he could kiss her again, Ghostface arrives and stabs Tara on the back of her shoulder. Chad then knocks down Ghostface telling Tara to run. As they are running, Sam gets in the way in which Chad tells her to run. As they are running, Ghostface catches up with them, but Chad knocks him down, but a second Ghostface comes and stabs him. Chad's fate is unknown until he is rolled out of the theatre on a stretcher, still alive. Tara and Sam run over to greet him joyfully, with Tara kissing Chad.
In the original draft script, Chad was originally supposed to be killed off. The scene of Chad being attacked outside of 261 Turner Lane is a slight parallel to how other victims were attacked during their run ins (all unexpectedly) with Ghostface and were ultimately killed, such as: Kenny Brown in Scream, Hallie McDaniel in Scream 2, Steven Stone in Scream 3, and Robbie Mercer in Scream 4. He survives Phil Stevens, Tyson Fox, and Anthony Perkins before him in the films; also preceding and succeeding Deion Elliot, Amir Ayoub, Latavious, B. He is the only jock involved in the Woodsboro Murders that has survived.
Chad has cheated death once again. He was supposed to die in 5 and he didn't. And he made it through this.
Here are some of Chad's notable quotes from the film:
- "Ah, yes. The slumber party with the Core Four."
- "Alright, listen up, uglier Michael Myers. It was a summer fling, alright?"
- "Hey! How about you get your fucking hands off her?"
- "That's too bad. Survivors gotta stick together..."
- "Tara, you're..."
- "I'm gonna go. But get some rest, get sober, and please don't kill your sister, okay? She loves you very much. Good night".
- "Woah, stop!"
Behind the Scenes: Decisions on Character Deaths
According to James Vanderbilt, a writer for Scream VI, the filmmakers seriously considered killing off both Chad and Mindy. "We test every character dying in our heads at a certain point in time and go back and forth on certain ones," said Vanderbilt.
"And I believe, just a little bit of trivia, that some of the stabs were cut in post because there were several more stabs," he said. But it was just too… It's already stretching credibility a bit. "We digitally removed some of the stabbing," added Vanderbilt.
The decision to keep Chad alive, despite his brutal stabbing, was partly driven by the desire to maintain a sense of optimism. Tyler Gillett, one of the directors, noted that Scream movies are "meant to be secret feel-good movies at the end of the day." The filmmakers felt that Chad not surviving "felt like a real bummer."
Scream VI was released digitally on April 25, 2023, in the US, where it also began streaming on Paramount+ and various other regions. In the United States and Canada, Scream VI was projected to gross $35-40 million from 3,675 theaters in its opening weekend.[76] The film made $19.3 million on its first day, including $5.7 million from Thursday night previews.[3] It went on to debut to $44.4 million, marking the highest opening weekend of the franchise and finishing first at the box office. Of the opening weekend audience, 71 percent of the audience was between the ages of 18 and 34 (with 42 percent being between 18 and 24), while 51 percent were male.
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