Horror Lamb

Spoilers. Obviously.
Written and Directed by the same team that did the last movie. This is the first movie in the franchise to not feature Neve Campbell, due to pay disputes. Gale returns, as does Kirby from Scream 4.
The Meeks twins have recovered from their injuries, and we get a couple of new characters as well. Quinn, the housemate. Danny, the hot neighbor, that Sam is hooking up with in secret.
Anika and Ethan, the new college friends, and detective Bailey, our new cop who is also Quinn’s father.
The story continues with Sam, Tara and the Meek twins moving to New York for college.
We find out via a therapy session with Sam that there are a bunch of internet conspiracies about her, claiming Ritchie was innocent, she killed everyone and framed him.

It goes back to the Scream roots with a cold open kill of the absolutely magnificent Samara Weaving by a Stab fanatic, who is ultimately killed by our new Ghostface, who leaves Sam’s drivers license at the scene.

Sam and Tara get their first phone call from Ghostface about 30 minutes in, they’re attacked on the streets of New York, there is a fair bit of collateral damage here with the people in the deli being killed. Our new Ghostface also uses a shotgun. Traditionally, our killers only use a gun once they have unmasked themselves.

The girls of course get away, at the police station, we find out the mask at the Stab fanatic’s house from the beginning has Ritchie’s DNA and the mask the killer left at the deli has Jill and Charlies DNA from Scream 4. It is here we get our reunion with Kirby, who is now working for the FBI and she also went to Woodsboro high with Sam. What a convenient plot point. As they leave the police station, they are greeted by a bunch of press including Gale Weathers.
So now all of our characters are in the same city, our Ghostface can slowly start the rampage.
Mindy also gives us some new rules, this time on the rules of a franchise.
1. Everything is bigger than last time.
2. Whatever happened last time, expect the opposite.
3. No one is safe.

Another Ghostface mask is found after the therapist is killed, with DNA from Roman Bridger, the killer from Scream 3. If I remember correctly, this is the first time the other killers have been mentioned in a movie, usually only Billy and Stu are referenced. Also, why is no one asking where they are getting these masks, shouldn’t they all be in some evidence locker?

This movie confirms that Stu did in fact die back in 1996, squashing any internet rumors’ about his possible return, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring him back anyway after loosing Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.

Our first main cast kill is Quinn, who is killed in her bedroom, while Sam, Tara, Mindy, Anika and Chad are all in the other room. Hot neighbor Danny warns them as he can see it happening from his window. Mindy is attacked, and Anika is also killed here.

Gale finds an old movie theatre that was rented by the stab fanatics in the beginning, she takes the whole gang there, including Kirby and our new detective, who was taken off the case after Quinn was killed.
Once inside they find a shrine to the Ghostface killers. It is full of real evidence from all the other killings, we have Randy’s old work T-shirt, the knife Kirby was stabbed with, Dewey’s badge and gun, the TV Stu was killed with, just to name a few. Plus all of the original killers costumes.

Gale gets her first ever call from Ghostface while she is in her apartment with her new boyfriend, who is quickly taken out. Ghostface attacks Gale, Sam and Tara get there just in time, and of course Gale survives, because Gale always survives.

On the Subway we get a lot of really cool horror movie references.
We see people dressed as iconic horror characters, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, Pinhead and a bunch of Ghostfaces.
Mindy and Ethan are separated from everyone else and Mindy is attacked, on a completely packed train and no one notices.

It is finally time for our climax, Sam, Tara, Chad and Kirby arrive at the old movie theatre, planning to lure the killer there to kill them. Sam sends hot neighbor away because she doesn’t trust him. Kirby locks them all in the theatre and takes the key. Shortly after Sam gets a call from our new detective, telling her Kirby was fired from the FBI after she became obsessed with last years Woodsboro murders.
Ghostface attacks Chad, and everyone believes it to be Kirby, even though Ghostface is the same height as Chad and Kirby is like 4 foot tall.
As chad is about to kill Ghostface, killer number 2 pops up and stabs him, Chad is then killed by both of them.
This shot with both killers cleaning their knives was cool.

Tara and Sam are cornered by our two killers, when Kirby shows up and shoots at them, the girls still accuse Kirby of being the killer, then our detective turns up and he shoots Kirby.
it is time for our reveal.

Detective Bailey, Quinn and Ethan, yes that’s right. They faked Quinn’s death, and their surname isn’t Bailey, it Kirsch. It’s a family affair. They’re getting revenger for Sam killing Ritchie. We’ve got about 20 minutes left in the movie for them to yap about framing Sam, and everyone fights for a while. Kirby obviously pops back up, but gets stabbed by Ethan. Tara also gets stabbed by Ethan before she kills him. Sam shoots Quinn straight in the head, no body shots this time. Now only our detective is left. Sam puts on Billy’s costume and mask, and starts taunting the detective, she eventually stabs him a bunch of times, but doesn’t kill him, so she can tell him she is in no way a killer like her father. Then promptly stabs him right in the eyeball.
Que Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Ethan pops up for one last scare and Kirby kills him with the TV that killed Stu.
Hot neighbor arrives with the police just after, letting us know Mindy and Gale are gonna be okay. Chad is also wheeled out by the paramedics, alive.

I really didn’t like this movie the first time I saw it, bringing Kirby back felt like a cheap hit at nostalgia because they couldn’t have Sidney. But on a second watch I like it a lot more, I think it holds up in the franchise, having 3 killers instead of 2 was a nice touch, as was faking Quinn’s death so we wouldn’t guess it was her. Also a nice nod to Scream 2, where Mrs. Loomis wanted revenge for Sidney killing Billy. I think Chad or Gale should have died though, they didn’t really kill anyone of importance in this movie, Anika was the only real friend death, and she didn’t really get enough screen time for me to care. I don’t know what is going to happen with Scream 7, the only confirmed cast member on IMDB so far is Neve Campbell, but Courtney Cox has said she loves playing Gale, so I assume she will also return, but without Ortega and Barrera, will we get to see the Meek twins again?
I guess only time will tell.