The Writers of 'Scream 6' on Paying Tribute to the Classics and the New Era of the Franchise
Writer Guy Busick and writer/producer James Vanderbilt are a great crux of old school horror aficionados and new school ideas. That mix brought them success with the fifth ‘Scream’ film, and they hope it will continue in the highly anticipated sequel.
The power of nostalgia is certainly strong in the world of pop culture these days. We Generation X-ers are planted firmly as the new backbone of consumerism whether it be trying to resurrect our own fandoms, or introducing our children to the greatest era of television and film - the 80s and 90s. One need look no further than the box office of this calendar year to prove that. Some of the highest grossing films of 2022 rely heavily on nostalgia. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick brought in both legacy characters and new blood to bridge the gap between reminiscence and recency, and with it, major box office success. Those films ensured that middle aged movie goers continue to geek out a few more times before officially passing the torch of their beloved franchises to the next generation
Scream (2022) was an exciting, if not underrated entry into that collection of cinematic legacy sequels, and the team that brought you that film couldn’t be more of a perfect fit. Between the writing duo of Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt, their combined filmography includes recent thriller and horror staples such as Castle Rock, Zodiac, and the darling smaller-studio surprise, Ready or Not. Throughout the time they sat down with FilmSpeak, you can sense what tremendous, dare I say ‘geeky’ fans they are of the horror genre. You can see that in Ready or Not, a film they made with their friends and collaborators at Radio Silence, which at the time included co-writer R. Christopher Murray, and directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Just a few years later, the team reunited to bring the ‘requel’ in the Scream franchise, and geek out even more by creating a love letter to the franchise, Wes Craven and creator of Scream, Kevin Williamson.
Williamson (center) with Scream directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (seated)
While Williamson was by their side, giving his blessing when appropriately needed, these two men, as mentioned, already knew the works inside and out. That meant that a lot of Scream 5 was forged in the fires of the original four films. “We were enormous Scream fans and enormous Kevin Williamson fans. So the first thing Guy and I did when we got the job, is we sat down and watched all [of the Scream films] again.” explains Vanderbilt. He goes on to note that the entire legacy is important to their new era of Scream. “We didn't want to sort of play ‘This one counts, This one doesn't’, we wanted to have something from all of the films in the new one”.
That also meant that Busick and Vanderbilt knew exactly what they needed to have in these new Scream films in order to keep the property what it is. There are certain tropes, or tricks that they used that were certainly a strong homage to Williamson’s groundbreaking work in Scream (1996) and Scream 2. Most notably, the franchise in the mid-nineties was one of the strongest examples of being ‘meta’, a clever writing tool that movies like Deadpool or shows like Community rely on. Nods to the audience or subtext that has more than a touch of dramatic irony.
Williamson brilliantly touched on the post-Colombine, Matrix-infused era, when politicians in McCarthy-like fashion wanted to blame gun violence in film and television for perpetuating real world tragedies. Busick knew that creating something clever and topical was arguably going to be one of the toughest parts of the process when creating Scream 5 . “All of the screen movies have commented on what's going on in film, [or] what's going on in horror. We wanted to talk about the ‘requel’ - it seems like that's what all the big franchises were doing.” Busick, now in a world where Top Gun: Maverick is king, and legacy sequels are common, knew this was the perfect time, and the perfect bit of ‘meta’ that audiences could cleverly chuckle about with their fellow film-fans. “We have legacy cast, we have new cast, we have a passing of the baton - and we felt that that was the right approach for the franchise continuing forward.” Yet this wasn’t the only meta piece they included in the film. The internet has completely changed film, audience interaction, and criticism, and not necessarily for the better. Busick continues; “then it just kind of hit us, what else do we want to talk about that's going to make this of the time? It was just this new phenomenon, especially with Twitter, where it's the toxic fans versus anyone who disagrees with them. We felt very strongly about how unhealthy that is, and how, you know, potentially scary it can be.”
Whether the duo themselves were victims of that toxic fandom or not, remains a mystery, but they certainly had difficult decisions to make when writing the fifth instalment. That meant killing fan favorite mainstay of the franchise, Dewey (David Arquette). When asked if they’ll continue that trend, where no one is safe, perhaps even meaning we could see the death of Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) or other icons, Vanderbilt simply stated “I think if I say that, then people will assume one thing and if I don't say that people will assume something else. So I'm not gonna say anything.”
Vanderbilt would reassure fans that this franchise, for the upcoming Scream 6 is still very much in the hands of real fans. “What I will say about this sequel is.. we love this franchise so much. I hope that comes through and in the film we've made and that is carrying through into the film we're about to make. We're looking to try and deliver another great movie in the franchise that we are all enormous fans of”.
‘Scream 6’ has recently finished principle photography. The film is set to open in March of 2023.
Check out the full interview, below:
