Editorials
‘Scream VI’ – We Sliced into the Stabby Meal and Walked Through the Film’s Immersive Experience
It’s not every day you get to unbox a Scream-themed Happy Meal for adults. Pop-up dinner party brand Chain is celebrating Spyglass and Paramount’s newest slasher entry with a drive-thru classic and swankified fast-food restaurant vibes. All the decorations blend Scream with roadside-casual mascots, like Grimace dressed as Casey Becker or a Bob’s Big Boy with a supersized knife through its burger. That’s what happens when Chain co-founders BJ Novak and chef Tim Hollingsworth share their love of exclusive diner experiences with horror fans, melding two worlds into one bloody-rare bite of Woodsboro history.
Chain started as a pick-up concept during lockdown. Novak and Hollingsworth wanted to recreate fast-food favorites with an upscale twist, available to the lucky few who secured an invite to their limited gourmet drops. Past releases are odes to Outback Steakhouse (“The Bustin’ Onion”) and Taco Bell (“The Wagyu Beef Cruncho Perfecto”) — all your sinful favorites with a decorated chef’s upgrade. It’s a meld of culinary craftiness and childhood comforts like that Kentucky Fried Chicken smell when mom or dad picked up dinner on the way home from work. Chain takes feel-good dishes and kicks ’em up a notch, no different for their Scream VI menu collaboration.
The pop-up’s stab at a Scream menu is their riff on McDonald’s. In the Stabby Meal box — complete with word games printed on the cardboard container’s exterior — is a Bone Marrow ChainBurger, Throwback Fries, and Woodsboro Orchards Apple Pie. Reader, this flavorbomb burger dripping with greasy goodness is one of the best cheeseburgers I’ve devoured since moving to Los Angeles a few months before lockdown. Under Hollingsworth, Chain has rendered the Quarter Pounder with Cheese obsolete. Each bite is as tender and decadent as the last, with bone marrow beefing up the meatiness to obscene levels. I’ve rarely had a cheeseburger melt in my mouth, so kudos to the Chain kitchen staff team.
Throwback Fries and handheld Apple Pies complete the ambiance of a multi-course fast food meal, including unique dipping sauces. Chain’s Midnight Garlic Ranch condiment is their secret weapon, and the Mario Kart 64 station is their version of a ball pit. Chain thinks of everything, including signature cocktails like the tasty Sunset Presidente blood orange mezcal margarita with a deep crimson topper like a fresh Ghostface victim spilled into my glass. There’s no denying the burger is the main event for Chain’s Scream VI menu, but it’s a front-to-back experience that contemplates more than premium ingredients. The Stabby Meal allows adults to feel like a kid again without sacrificing quality and is a must-eat for horror fans who also dabble in foodie adventures.
Plus, is there any more fitting end to a Scream event where Ghostface actors stalked the crowd than the power going out? Credit a freak Los Angeles storm that killed electricity on the entire block where the tasting took place for a fitting end that initially seemed like just another stunt and only amplified the slasher ambiance. Some things you can’t script, and sipping a beverage not knowing whether pitch blackness was all part of the show was a perfect end … at least that night.
The following day, I got to walk through the exclusive Scream VI Experience here in Santa Monica. As a Los Angeles transplant by way of New York City (specifically Brooklyn for eight years), the immersive exhibit provided a bit of nostalgia on a budget. It’s nothing like another Halloween Horror Nights maze, so don’t expect blood-curdling frights, but as a supplementary hype machine for the new Scream entry? Marketers know how to stoke the right curiosities and put on a bloody good show.
As someone who yearns for the taste of a mediocre NYC bodega sandwich at 2 AM after a night of bar-hopping, the welcome window dressing of beer logo stickers on fake bodega entrance doors is perfect. Upon walking in, you can peruse shelves filled with outdated products and new creations like crunchy cheddar-flavored Craven Crisps or sealed packages of Judy’s Lemon Squares. Easter Eggs are hidden between manufactured favorites, like Stu’s Chews gum on the cashier’s counter or stacks of Gale Weathers novels for sale.
I haven’t seen Scream VI, nor were we given any exclusive information, so take anything from this point as speculation — but one Weathers book title stirred immediate social media attention among Scream superfans. “Requel: Terror Returns to Woodsboro” is stuck between “College Terror” and “Stabbed in the Back: The Real Sunrise Story,” which theorists deem a new Weathers publication for Scream VI. The hope is that Gale would have grown from Dewey’s death, but such a title might suggest the opposite. “Requel: Terror Returns to Woodsboro” could be another cash-grab expose that exploits more victims and a reductive development for the character of Gale Weathers if canon — or Gale’s writing about Dewey from a place of bittersweet remembrance, and the book is leagues away from hurtful exploitation.
After a few minutes, sound effects trigger a call that urges attendees into the next room. It’s a hallway where we’re told to stay toward the middle, away from white walls. That’s because a video element will instruct us on the dangers that await as we get a personal message from Ghostface himself. Projected imagery flashes blood-red Ghostface masks, glistening steel hunting knives, and other disturbing pictures. Ghostface asks if we’re lost — “Is this your first time in New York City?” Whether it is original voice actor Roger L. Jackson’s dialogue or not, it’s everything you’d expect from a private message from Ghostface.
Video magic makes it appear like you’re riding a New York City subway car. It’s more pleasant speeding through underground tunnels sans mystery smells and reckless dancers almost roundhousing you in the face. Finally, you end up outside Lincoln Square at the 66th street stop after a Ghostface scare on the screen. It’s a reminder that Ghostface is always lurking, no matter your exit. A fresher incarnation of Ghostface than we’ve seen, who repeats a trailer line about how they are a whole new type of villain Scream fans have yet to encounter (keep this in mind for later). “I’m something different.”
After a brief stroll through makeshift New York City alleys drenched in bloody red lights, we reach a limited version of the trophy room seen in the Scream VI trailer. There’s ample time to wander around, and here’s what tickled my curiosities and grabbed my interest.
Generally, it’s a memorabilia collection dedicated to all the violent implements used by Ghostface, shrines to standout victims, and paraphernalia attached to Ghostface. It’s a celebration of the killer’s accomplishments, starting with the original cloak and mask Billy Loomis wore. Other displays are filled with stained clothes, the knife used to gut Principal Arthur Himbry, the badge left behind by Dewey Riley — they’re all in airtight boxes, like an art gallery. Even the massive stage prop from Scream 2 that Derek Feldman is bound to, the bronze star, is on display. Everything from Stab costumes to a slate for Stab 3 (directed by Roman Bridger) is encased in glass like precious valuables, which makes it all seem celebratory.
Included with the murder weapons and blood-stained garments of past Ghostface victims are sketchbook drawings that illustrate each murder. The only color used is red for the blood of crime scenes, like someone jotting down illustrated notes, keeping a morbid yet artistic body count. Maybe these aren’t clues and add a sinister touch to the Scream VI Experience, or perhaps these are evidence of an obsessive yet to be unmasked. Make of the details what you will since deaths as recent as Dewey’s are included, but also Kirby Reed’s “death,” who we now know is alive. Does this illustrator not have all the pieces themselves? Or, like most Scream VI marketing, is this all meant to keep conspiracies spinning while the truth remains hidden under shadows?
Soon after, the Scream VI Experience ends with a hall of Ghostface statues that leave surprises best discovered for yourself. That’s the essence of the Scream franchise anyway, right? I’ll find any way to solidify my claim that Stu Macher is living and will oversee a “Cult of Ghostface” angle in Scream VI, which could be furthered by the fact that in the experience’s trophy room, the busted TV that crushes Stu’s head doesn’t have a nametag on display. Billy Loomis’ outfit is labeled, and everyone else’s drawings or news clippings have explicit identifiers, but why not Stu’s supposed execution weapon? It’s because Stu’s collecting everything, overseeing Woodsboro massacres from afar, and now he wants the ultimate revenge.
If you’re going to theorize, why not go big?
All burning questions will be answered on March 10th when Scream VI hits theaters. Then we’ll know if countless hours of internet debates over the deterioration of Ghostface masks shown in trailers or the title of fictional Gale Weathers books stuck behind a fake cashier in a limited-run immersive event mean a lick to the canon outcome. Radio Silence have done a splendid job picking up where Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson left off, and experiences like Chain’s Stabby Meal or the Los Angeles walkthrough help solidify the impact Scream has left on not only horror cinema but pop culture at large.
May this be the beginning of Chain’s collaborations with horror properties — maybe a riff on the McRib would pair nicely with the next Leatherface movie? The public demands more edible marketing campaigns for horror movies, especially if they’re as good as the Stabby Meal.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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