Melissa Barrera might be reprising her role as Sam Carpenter in the slasher sequel Scream 6, but she’s excited that fans of the horror movie franchise are finally going to “get to know her” character on a more personal level.
In the prior installment of the film series, 2022’s confusingly titled Scream, Barrera said the narrative was concentrated more on the revelation that Sam was the daughter of the franchise’s original killer than anything else.
“I got to know [Sam] a lot more during [Scream 6],” Barrera, 32, told Remezcla during a recent interview. “In the last one, the focus was on … the big secret and saving Tara. I felt like we got a glimpse of who [Sam] is at the end of the movie when she snaps, but we didn’t really get to linger and feel what that did to her.”
Now, with Scream 6, Barrera is looking forward to “exploring the consequences” of what happened in the last movie and how Sam moves on from that trauma. The first step, of course, is getting away from the scene of the crimes, Woodsboro, California, and starting fresh in a new city. Part 6 begins with Sam and Tara already living in New York.
“I feel like now that they went to New York, they can go anywhere in the world,” she said. “So, it’s exciting to see that [the franchise] works in other places and not just Woodsboro or the West Coast.”
Barrera adds that going to New York City sets “the stakes higher” and makes the attack scenes and chase sequences more terrifying. “Everything that happens in this movie feels bigger,” she said. “It gives you hope for where we can go next – if we’re lucky enough to do that.”
So, how about setting a potential Scream 7 in Mexico City? “How awesome would that be?” Barrera said.
Of course, not only is the setting bigger and the stakes higher in Scream 6, but there’s also the main villain of the film, Ghostface, who is described in the film’s trailer as “something different” than fans have ever seen before. What does that mean exactly? Is Ghostface smarter? Stronger? Crueler?
“It’s all the above,” Barrera said. “He seems smarter, and he’s definitely faster and stronger. He’s definitely crueler and more ruthless. I think this is the first Scream movie where there’s bystander casualties. Normally, Ghostface is very targeted in his attacks. But [in Scream 6], there’s a lot of random people who get killed. That just shows how much he doesn’t care.”
Barrera admits the Scream franchise isn’t something she would’ve watched as a kid. It didn’t take much to frighten her when she was elementary-school age. Even a movie like the 1995 family film Casper was a bit too much for her. She did, however, sort of have a crush on the title character.
“That movie was scary, but I was also in love with Casper,” she said. “As a little girl, I remember thinking, ‘That’s a hot ghost!’”
Scream 6, starring Melissa Barrera, premieres at theaters this Friday (March 10).
