Scream VI Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. The Bloated Runtime

Scream VI is the longest film in the franchise at 123 minutes, and while that's only a few minutes longer than the two-hour Scream 2, it does result in a film that lacks the tight leanness of the original in particular.

Though the film's characters literally talk about this new "movie" being bigger and more epic than what came before, as if to justify that extended runtime, the length does verge on over-indulgent at times, particularly with regard to some of the more pedestrian character drama and especially the drawn-out finale.

This absolutely would've benefitted from another pass in the editing room to trim the flabbier first and third acts, because while it's in no way a torturous sit, its less-appealing elements are made worse by how distended they are.

There's probably a good reason that most slasher movies run well under two hours.