Get ready to 'Scream' for this killer franchise

The newest film of the more than 25-year-old Ghostface franchise, "Scream VI," features almost everything fans love about the series.

Paying homage to the previous movies? Check. Killing off a character right off the bat? Check. Having the character obsessed with horror movies explain the rules of this new one? Check.

References to the film-within-a-film "Stab"? Check. Ghostface miraculously disappearing multiple times? Check. Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) getting punched in the face? Check. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)? No check, unfortunately.

Campbell declined to be part of this latest installment of the "Scream" franchise due to the lack of salary she had expected to receive for her appearance, making "Scream VI" another example of women being undervalued and underpaid.

"I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years," Campbell said in an interview with People Magazine. "And as a woman in this business, I think it's really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued."

Although I'm a die-hard "Friends" fan who loved seeing Cox reprise her role as Gale, I'd much rather have seen Campbell as Sidney instead. I love the personality that Cox brings to the table, but Campbell is the lead and will always be the lead of the "Scream" franchise in my book.

Beyond Cox as Gale, the film brought back other iconic characters like the original movie's Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) of "Scream 4."

Seeing Kirby return to the Ghostface drama was a nice turn of events. She was no longer a scared high schooler but an FBI agent ready to help catch the new Ghostface killers.

This set of Ghostface killers took a few pages out of the franchise's previous films' books, and surprisingly enough, there was no way to actually predict who they were because of how situations unraveled. This was an amazing aspect of the film because it truly is a guessing game about who the killers are this time.

Of course, before starting the mystery, I thought "Scream VI" threw a curve ball at the audience and possibly revealed one of the Ghostface killers and had it told through their perspective.

But unfortunately, there was no crazy plot twist to that degree. And I'm sure any "Scream" movie fan knows that the film wouldn't actually reveal the Ghostfaces until that last crucial fight, where our lovely main characters always seem to come out on top.

With "Scream VI" making $44 million at the domestic box office during just its opening weekend, I think it's safe to assume there will be a seventh film to come from the franchise.

And due to how successful this film was, I doubt Campbell will be returning to reprise her role considering how much the franchise made without her. Still, perhaps, the next film will have a larger budget and the production can pay her what she deserves. 

One actress who I think it's safe to assume will be returning for the next film, if there is one, is Panettiere, especially after the not-so-subtle hints she dropped to Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), telling them how they could reach her if they ever needed anything in the future.

As for now, I can safely say "Scream VI" is one for the books and a film that will be on my annual spooky season binge list, just like all the previous "Scream" installments.