Courteney Cox Talks Halloween Setting of ‘Scream VI’

Scream VI is just days away, and until now the Halloween setting of the new Ghostface movie has been basically speculation dawn from a few set photos and some promotional footage, but now we have concrete verification that the film does in fact take place during the Halloween season, as confirmed in recent interviews with a returning legacy cast member and a producer.

While speaking about the significant shift in the new film’s setting from the small town of Woodsboro to the mean streets of New York City, franchise icon Courteney Cox and producer Chad Villella both also talked about the film being set around Halloween.

In a compilation of interview soundbites, shared on the Hello Sidney channel, Courteney Cox says, “New York is a perfect place to have this movie set. Ghostface can hide amongst so many people, and yet he can see you, always there to see you, but you don’t necessarily know where he is, and especially set around the Halloween time of year, where people are in costumes, it’s just genius. I think it added so much horror to it just by the location.”

In another video of interview soundbites, producer Chad Villella says, “New York, sometimes when you’re new to a city like that, you feel alone, even though you’re surrounded by millions of people. There are monsters all around you, and I think the Halloween theme that we added to this movie was also inherent of that and super fun. We were able to play with these iconic villains and monsters, and have them surround our heroes in just everyday, mundane circumstances, just as a way to show that you could be surrounded by monsters. Obviously, not everyone who moves to a city has a  masked, knife-wielding killer chasing them, but sometimes it could feel like that. It is intimidating, it is big, and it is scary to a certain extent.”

While none of the previous five Scream feature films have taken place on Halloween, the franchise has celebrated the holiday on the small screen. The two-part Season 2 finale of Scream: The TV Series (episodes officially titled “Halloween” and “Halloween II”) took place on Halloween, as did the first and third episodes of Season 3 (aka Scream: Resurrection).

The official synopsis for Scream VI: Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.

Hayden Panettiere will make her return to the big screen as “Kirby Reed,” reprising her role from Scream 4 (2011), joining returning cast members Melissa Barrera (“Sam,”) Jasmin Savoy Brown (“Mindy,”) Mason Gooding (“Chad,”) and Jenna Ortega (“Tara”), and legacy cast member Courteney Cox, once again playing Gale Weathers. Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, The Babysitter) and Tony Revolori (Ready or Night) have joined the ensemble cast, along with Dermot Mulroney, Henry Czerny, Jack Champion, Liana Liberato, Devyn Nekoda, and Josh Segarra.

Roger L. Jackson also returns as The Voice of Ghostface.

Directing once again are Radio Silence’s Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Scream, Ready or Not), with James Vanderbilt (Scream, Murder Mystery) and Guy Busick (Scream, Ready or Not) co-writing the screenplay. Project X Entertainment’s Vanderbilt, Paul Neinstein, and William Sherak are serving as producers. Creator Kevin Williamson and the third member of Radio Silence, Chad Villella, are executive producing alongside Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Peter Oillataguerre, Ron Lynch, Cathy Konrad, and Marianne Maddalena.

Scream VI will arrive in theaters on March 10, 2023.

You can watch the interview videos below.

See all of our Scream VI coverage here.

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