‘Scream VI’, Tara Carpenter, And A New Way To Look At Trauma
Mike Snoonian
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To the surprise of no one Scream VI crushed the box office with over $160 million globally to date. While the Radio Silence directing duo have tried to appease longtime fans by keeping legacy characters like Gale Weathers and a returning Kirby Reed in the mix, the latest film feels like it belongs to the “Core Four” of Mindy & Chad Meeks and Tara & Sam Carpenter. Admittedly, I’m a bit down on this new installment. However, the one thread it introduces that I can’t help but pull on is the different ways Sam and Tara handle the traumatic events of the previous entry. Tara’s story in particular offers a divergent path from the way modern horror puts trauma at the forefront of its characters’ motivations.
At the outset of Scream VI, Tara and Sam share an apartment but occupy different headspaces. Sam continues to struggle with her identity as the offspring of serial killer Billy Loomis and also contends with her ex-boyfriend Richie revealing himself as a horror movie psychopath obsessed with recreating the Stab movies with his accomplice (and Tara’s best friend) Amber. Therapy seems to do more harm than good whether because Sam refuses to open up or because she scares off her counselor when she does. Sam’s plan to follow her younger sister to New York leaves her adrift working menial jobs with no purpose aside from acting as Tara’s protector.
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The fatal flaw in Sam’s plan is Tara doesn’t want protection, oversight, or an older sister she didn’t see for five years suddenly forcing herself into every aspect of her life. When Sam electrocutes a frat bro in the nards to prevent Tara from an alcohol-fueled hookup, Tara points out that it’s her own mistake to make if she chooses. Further, Tara tells Sam she’ll be damned if the events in Woodsboro the previous year will determine the rest of her life. While one sister seems hellbent on forcing one sister to relitigate the past, Tara is determined to put those days in her rearview mirror. She’s packed her bags and left Woodsboro for college life in the busiest city in the United States.
We can argue that between the four Ghostface killers she’s befriended on campus Tara has subpar character assessment skills, but at least the young woman has reached out to others. Tara also has the built-in support network of her two besties, fraternal twins Chad and Mindy Meeks (side note—Scream VI seems awfully quick to gloss over the twins’ own experience in the previous film, seeing how events left them both pierced like pincushions and nearly bled out).
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From the “elevated horror” of A24 to mainstream fare like Smile, horror has found a goldmine in exploiting TRAUMA in all caps these past few years. Tara’s “nah, I’m good” approach is a breath of fresh air and a welcome respite from the barrage of films that treat traumatic events as a vice that crushes all the life from its protagonists. I’d rather watch a quiet conversation between Tara and Kirby where the former questions if she can fake it until she feels normal. Contrast this quieter moment with David Gordon Green’s presentation of Laurie Strode in his Halloween relaunch. Green presents a woman so haunted by that singular night forty years ago that it has stripped her of her family and left her isolated behind the iron bars and security gates of the prison she calls home.
It’s a dour, cynical take on trauma, one that suggests events simply bulldoze individuals into submission and a life of misery. As the genre continues to mine the subject for content, it depicts Trauma as a Jason Voohees-like character: always lurking just off-screen, inescapable, and inevitable. It’s that last characteristic that left such a bad taste in my mouth during Smile’s conclusion. It’s like Trauma spends its Friday nights at the local karaoke dive, belting out the Stones’ Under My Thumb to an audience filled with sad-clapping patrons spilling tears into their whiskey sodas.
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Tara’s attempt to move on from the events of Scream (2022) offers something different. While suffering traumatic events, whether it be a natural disaster or surviving a string of violent attacks can lead to developing PTSD, it’s important it’s not a one-to-one ratio. There’s acute distress disorder, whose symptoms mirror that of PTSD and include intrusive thoughts of the event(s), nightmares, a heightened flight/flight/freeze response, and increased anxiety. Unlike PTSD, which develops six months or later after the inciting incident(s), acute stress disorder develops immediately, but symptoms resolve themselves after a month.
There are two points to emphasize here. First, this wouldn’t mean that persons are free from struggling with their traumas. What it means is there are enough coping strategies and a solid support network that helps push through the hard times, so the ability to move through the day isn’t debilitating. Second, if steps aren’t taken, acute stress can and often does lead to PTSD, with some studies suggesting about a 75% rate
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Tara’s attempts to move forward with her life mirror the efforts I see when working with clients processing their own traumatic experiences. Far from tucking themselves behind iron walls, they’re out and about, adapting to their circumstances, facing their traumas on their terms, and doing the best they can. It means some days they have to ask the question, “Where do I have to put my energy in order to make it through today, safe and healthy?” then making the choices that best serve their needs. It’s okay to acknowledge that traumatic events are really bad, that they affect us, and that they can fuck us up.
They don’t have to define us. They don’t have to destroy us.
Rather than hide away, Tara jumped with both feet into the college experience. She’s dragged her two best friends along with her for emotional support. Yes, she makes questionable at best choices when she mixes alcohol and frat bros, but she would be far from the first person to make those mistakes. Even in those moments, Tara can own her mistakes and defend her right to make them. What impresses me the most about Tara, and what distinguishes her from sister Sam, is her ability to make a plan to move forward instead of keeping one eye checking the rearview. Despite her sister’s constant objections and reminders, Tara knows that if she tries a deep dive into resolving her best friend’s murderous betrayal, she’s going to sink into a mental quagmire.
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For the many issues I took with Scream VI (and hey, who am I to not take the opportunity to plug our show on this very movie), I can’t help but admire and appreciate the brief but transparent conversation Tara shares with Kirby. As the group navigates through the underground shrine celebrating the previous Woodsboro murders, Tara asks Kirby if she’ll ever truly move on from the past. Kirby relates her own history of navigating through recovery, determined to not “be afraid of monsters” but to live a life where the monsters would fear her. It’s a small, quiet moment that ends with Tara nodding her approval at that philosophy while recognizing her own journey toward that goal.
Maybe it’s because Tara’s story feels like a fresher take on recovering from traumatic events that big sister Sam feels stuck in place this time around. Just as in Scream (2022) Sam finds herself struggling with her legacy as Billy Loomis’ daughter. She remains paranoid and standoffish, with the added quirk of acting like a helicopter parent towards the now grown-up Tara. Months, if not years, of therapy have failed to help as Sam refuses to tackle the multifaceted threats to her mental well being In fairness to Sam, it’s a lot. Learning your dad is a spree killer is bad enough. Finding out your super hot and seemingly supportive boyfriend is his number one super fan dying to take up his mantle ratchets up the crazy to a whole new level. Mom abandonment issues are just the cherry on top of the sundae after that.
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That said, Sam feels stuck in place and forced to hit the repeat buttons on her worst moments. It feels like a retread. Look, I understand that recovery isn’t a footrace, and there’s no timeline we can put on healing. As a storytelling device, however, the “damaged damsel” is tired, and worn out. Tara’s arc as a young woman pissed off at what’s happened to her, but determined to live her life, to engage with the world around her, and to set her own boundaries even if they land her in trouble feels like a far more exciting story to explore.
While Sam and Tara handle their recoveries in different fashions, their fates are intertwined, and things come to a head during the climactic showdown at the abandoned theater. Throughout the movie, Tara implores Sam to “let her go.” Tara wants Sam to leave her to her own devices, to pick herself up and dust herself off after mistakes. Sam refuses to do so because on a subconscious level anchoring herself to her sister allows her to kick her own can of introspection down the road even further.
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But, Tara’s metaphorical pleas become literal during the climactic battle as Sam dangles Tara precariously over a balcony as sibling killers Ethan and Quinn bear down on the sisters, smelling chum in the proverbial waters. At that moment, Sam finally finds the strength to let go. It allows Tara the chance to get the drop (oh shit no pun intended) on Quinn, and see for herself that her little sister doesn’t need protecting. Maybe, just maybe it lets Sam start on her own road of recovery as well.
Of course, nothing will send a person to therapy faster than life smashing the repeat button on their trauma. After a second faceoff with a new batch of Ghostfaces, Tara and her friends narrowly escape with their lives. Once this new trio of psychopaths has been dispatched, Tara admits she hasn’t completely moved past the events from last year. No longer determined to go it alone, she and Sam make a pact to move forward together in support of one another. The sisters’ reconciliation even allows Sam to have her own “Spiderman No More” moment as she drops her father’s mask to the pavement and walks away, determined to not fall under the Same evil spell as him.
Will that be enough for the sisters to move forward with a life absent of knife-wielding maniacs? I can think of 160 million (and counting) reasons why that’s not going to be the case.
Categorized:Editorials
