‘Scream 6’ being set in NYC is a very bad sign for New York

The final particular person Mayor Eric Adams wished to see on a New York Metropolis subway prepare is Ghostface.

However when Paramount introduced that the upcoming movie “Scream VI,” out March 10, can be set proper right here in New York Metropolis, the poster depicted the masked serial killer staring out of an MTA automotive window, knife in hand, with the ominous tagline “New York. New Guidelines.”

Replied all people within the 5 boroughs: “Simply what the MTA wants — another deranged slasher.“

“Scream” is seizing a tense second when New York’s rising crime is the speak of the nation. So, after 26 years of killing sprees and breathy cellphone calls in small-town California, the franchise is headed east — as the town’s fame continues to go south. 

“Scream,” in any case, isn’t our solely scary squatter. Ryan Murphy additionally plopped “American Horror Story: NYC” here again within the fall. 

The pattern is a nasty omen. Within the aughts and 2010s, Hollywood principally steered away from utilizing the Huge Apple for scary films … as a result of it was too flippin’ good!

Underneath the mayoralties of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, Manhattan turned rom-com central and shone onscreen as a glittering metropolis filled with risk and youthful power. “Intercourse and the Metropolis,” “Maid In Manhattan,” “The Satan Wears Prada,” “Trainwreck” and lots of extra ebullient, horny movies and TV exhibits basked in New York’s optimistic glow. 

That’s over. Now fiction is beginning to, as soon as once more, mirror our grim and dirty actuality.

The worrisome transfer is paying homage to the Sixties, ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s when New York was not solely a hotbed of criminality and tacky dwelling circumstances, however a haven for horror movies.

A blind Audrey Hepburn was attacked in her West Village residence by thugs searching for heroin in 1967’s “Wait Till Darkish.” Mia Farrow found a secret satanic cult on the Dakota on the Higher West Aspect in 1968’s “Rosemary’s Child.” In 1980’s “Maniac,” a serial killer murdered and scalped a prostitute in Instances Sq.. Tim Robbins performed a traumatized Vietnam vet who returned residence to a supernaturally frightful NYC in 1990’s “Jacob’s Ladder.”

In the meantime, who can neglect Charles Bronson snapping right into a Manhattan vigilante in 1974’s “Demise Want”?

Even good films made New York appear like a dump filled with derelicts. Patrick Swayze was offed in 1990’s “Ghost” in the midst of Soho! In 1992’s “Dwelling Alone 2: Misplaced In New York,” Tim Curry says to Catherine O’Hara, “Madame, there are a whole bunch of parasites on the market armed to the tooth!” Proper outdoors the Plaza Resort. And the entire shtick of 1984’s “Ghostbusters” was, “Oh nice. Now NYC has ghosts, too?!”

That every one these spooky tales and scenes occurred right here was a results of New York being a harmful place to stay that folks had been afraid to go to. It was the proper spot for terrorizing moviegoers. Then, for the previous 20 years, we had been the prime locale for luxurious and love. Probably the most hair-raising story on “Intercourse and the Metropolis” was Samantha getting booted from the Soho Home rooftop pool.

And now we’ve traded Blahniks for bloody homicide. Ghostface is on the cellphone, and this time he isn’t saying, “Hey, Sidney” — he’s saying, “Hey, New York!”