"Scream VI" sets popular slasher franchise in New York City
NEW YORK -- The latest "Scream" movie is set in New York City, and the Big Apple is featured in the slasher film in a big way.
CBS2's John Dias has a look back at New York's place in horror movie history.
Freddy has Elm Street, Jason has Camp Crystal Lake and Michael Meyers has Haddonfield. Hollywood's most famous slashers have their favorite killing grounds.
For Ghostface, that's usually Woodsboro. But in "Scream VI," the action moves to New York City.
We see Ghostface in a bodega and on a subway train, as New York itself becomes a character.
"See someone in a Ghostface mask in the suburbs, you're going to be like, 'OK, that's a little weird.' See them on the subway and be like, 'Eh, they're doing their thing, they're headed to Times Square,'" pop culture expert Brian Balthazar told Dias.
Balthazar said the move to New York breathes new life into the popular franchise.
"It kind of change the rules of suspense and horror if you insert it in this place where anything can happen," he said.
The movie directors have teased that the thrills are going to be more wild this time around, and trailers show the new city setting will factor into the action.
"We are used to people running through the woods and falling down and being caught up to by the killer," said Balthazar. "Taking this from the suburbs into the city, it changes all the places that we can be frightened. You've got bodegas, subways, alleyways, tall buildings."
It's not the first time a scary movies takes place in the Big Apple. New York has a rich history of horror. For example, the 1968 classic "Rosemary's Baby," and the 2000 satirical horror "American Psycho."
But "Scream VI" is different.
"It's not just a horror movie in New York, it's a slasher movie in New York, which is a bit of a different take," Ty Weinert, freelance writer for Collider, explained.
Weinert recently published an article about New York-set horror movies and said only few mainstream slasher movies take place in the city -- most notably, "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan."
When Ghostface takes Manhattan, expectations are high.
"They want to do something bigger. Obviously when you say New York, it's as big as you can get," Weinert said.
New York, new rules.