Scream 6 has a brand-new poster that hides a major Easter egg reference to the original film. The slasher sequel, out in theaters on March 10, is a sequel to the 2022 Scream, which itself is the fifth movie in the franchise that originated with 1996's Scream. The new film follows the surviving characters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) and Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) to New York City, where they must team up with Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) to defeat a new Ghostface killer.
Today on the official Scream Twitter account, they released a brand new poster design promoting a fan event ahead of the release of Scream 6.
This poster, which is a design showcasing Ghostface's mask alongside a skyscraper, features a news ticker that reads "McKenzie family found murdered in a series of stabbings in the city." This is a reference to the original 1996 Scream, where the McKenzie family lives next door to opening sequence victim Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore).
Scream's McKenzie Family Explained
Although they are never shown onscreen, the McKenzie family plays an important role in the original Scream. They are only mentioned briefly, when Mr. Becker tells his wife to run down to the McKenzies after they discover the mayhem at their house following Ghostface's attack on Casey. This line was one of the first of a long series of horror references that the overall Scream franchise would become known for.
In fact, it's a reference that is now part of a chain of references that begins with the 1978 seminal slasher Halloween. In that film, Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode tells the kids she's babysitting to run down to the McKenzies when helping them escape from the knife-wielding Michael Myers. While Scream was paying homage to that moment, the 1998 sequel Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later would put a spin on that line, showing Strode tell two more kids to run down to the Beckers.
This reference to the McKenzies in the Scream 6 poster is most likely just the film volleying that reference back, more than two decades later. However, it could provide a clue to the plot of the Scream 2022 sequel. While it might be far-fetched that yet another Woodsboro family moved to New York, if the film really does kick off with the murder of the McKenzie family, it could reveal the new Ghostface's M.O. is to specifically target people from the town where the original slayings took place. It's also worth noting that Liv McKenzie was a character in the fifth film, although she was killed off and the Easter egg hints that the family will still have a part to play in the upcoming sequel.
Source: Scream
