Ghostface is on the hunt for everyone’s favourite gay icon in the chilling trailer for Scream 6
Jenna Ortega is back as Tara Carpenter in Scream 6. (Paramount Pictures)
Ghostface is back – again – for round six, with the trailer for the newest instalment in the iconic Scream franchise featuring the internet’s current It-girl and gay icon Jenna Ortega.
Also on the chopping block are Yellowjackets’ Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin, who played the franchise’s first explicitly queer character in Scream – which was actually Scream 5, but stylised as a single word.
The original screenwriter and creator, Kevin Williamson, is openly gay and has previously spoken about the films being “coded in gay survival”. But the inclusion of Brown’s character in the fifth chapter put LGBTQ+ representation front and centre, and cemented Scream’s place in the queer horror canon.
Savoy Brown and Ortega’s Tara Carpenter star alongside Melissa Barrera’s Sam Carpenter, Mason Gooding’s Chad Meek-Martin and Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers, who’s been through enough Ghostface’s to deck out several haunted houses at this point.
The teaser shows the group (save for Weathers) on the New York City subway during what’s assumed to be Halloween – so lots of costumes – accompanied by an ominous warning: “In a city of millions, no one hears you scream”.
Of course, everyone’s favourite long-faced serial killer shows up, disappearing and reappearing closer to the group as the train zips through dark tunnels, making their final appearance with their hand over Savoy Brown’s mouth – so no one hears her scream. Very clever.
Ortega, whose popularity has recently skyrocketed due to her titular role as the sulky daughter of the Addams family in Netflix’s Wednesday, has stolen the show, flexing her ‘horror’ acting chops once more.
Fans on Twitter have done what fans on Twitter do best, praising Ortega and generating countless memes faster than you can say, “You’re the killer!”
The film is the first in the franchise to not feature Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, its most recognisable character besides Ghostface. The actress was reportedly unhappy with the “unnfair” deal presented to her for the film, making it the first instalment without its signature scream queen.
Scream 6 will be released in cinemas on 10 March 2023.
