Even though this has my least favorite killers and reveal by a landslide, 6 is tugging on 2's wig for my favorite a bit. The set pieces alone were just so fantastic. I was resigned to think the combination of Maureen in the movie theater, Sid/Halle in the cop car, and Gale in the soundbooth would never be topped but I think Screavi did it and that's why I love it so much despite the lackluster killers. The bodega, apartment/ladder scene, Gale's chase, and the theater at the end all blow everything from 3-5 out of the water for me.
Anika very much so the best mid-movie kill of a seemingly irrelevant new character since thee Cici Cooper? It's more likely than you think. If I didn't have so much nostalgic love for SMG, I'd be fully honest with myself and admit Anika did it even better. I'm spectacularly uninterested in knowing anything about you. The power that has. On more than one occasion, I craved a sitcom of The Core 4 + Anika just living in New York City. Slutty sex positive roommate can make cameos. The shy dorky virgin cannot. Anika's black lipstick in the party scene being the direct sequel to Liv's silver sharpie eyeshadow in 5 is the level of gay nuance I demand out of these films. Stan card laminated for that alone. Stan card hung in a shrine for having the exact same hair as Lea from Bad Girls Club.
What's a requel? You know she just lets Mindy monologue and drone on about these horror tropes while not even half paying attention. All my friends having an emotionally tender moment in the kitchen? Let me just stay in the living room with a book and watch the news instead <3 I knew she was a goner in the ladder sequence but what a way to go. Sis said she wanted it all before getting taken out. Brief fight with Ghostface and a brutal stab? Not enough. Let me go ahead and be the hero to sacrifice myself and ensure I'm involved in one of the most innovative kills of the entire franchise, too. And I want a face prosthetic to really show my injuries. Yes ma'am! The confused and unexplainable "what?" as Sam & Mindy look behind her in horror, you know, in the very same room Ghostface was directly trying to barge into for the past 5 minutes. Who else could it possibly be honey? Queen behavior to milk that scene so deeply.
And though I love a tertiary woman character who barely makes it halfway through a horror film, enough can never be said about Miss Samantha Carpenter and how much she carried. I don't think a Final Girl has ever Final Girl'd harder. I was already sold on Sam in 5 and hated the amount of negativity both her character and Melissa got online but I'm so glad she shut everyone up this time around. I saw the vision then and so happy to see it worked out so well here. He was a man-baby who made his girlfriend do all the killing. Chad Michaels yes. Justice for Amber Freeman! He was a limp-dick little fuck who cried before I slit his throat. Line of the franchise, I fear. Guess she wasn't joking about those boner pills after all. The feral audacity it takes to say that to someone's parent as they hold a gun to you <3 She really took Sid's iconic "I fucking killed him" and made it 20x cuntier. Looks like you're down another brother. The little head nods and evil smirks? Award-worthy.
I think that's part of the reason I find Sam so refreshing is they let her actually be the bad gal of horror. Even despite Sidney initially supposed to buck the typical horror girl trend, they still always wrote her to be as close to perfect as humanly possible. The "worst" thing she ever really did was... use Stu's mom's hairbrush have sex with her boyfriend? In almost every single horror movie, the main girl is nearly always the most toned-down, vanilla and marketed to be likable girl in the cut and it's all a bit boring at this point. I love that Sam has a dark edge, is a former druggie, fucks random guys, and is ready to get into fist fights on the street. College? Who needs it. Sis is working 2 dead-end jobs and I love that. I also love that she's developing her own uniform of sorts. Sidney in a jacket. Sam in a tank.
Despite all 3 Baileys dwelling at the bottom of the Ghostfaces along with Charlie and Jason, the Act 3 of 6 is held up so strongly by how powerful the Carpenters are. There's something about Sam covered in blood and sweat that is possibly the hottest a woman has ever been to me. Her climbing that ladder? Cast Melissa as Lara Croft immediately. The callback to "you have to let me go" was so good. Tara inching over to the dark side with her sister after that kill. And the sheer nerve to pop her index finger up while twisting the knife in Ethan's throat! It was like Tyra Banks was there on set. I need Screven immediately and I don't want it to end there, either.
It's ever changing but as of today: 6 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 3 > 4.
