SCREAM VI Directors Studied JASON TAKES MANHATTAN and Also Included an Easter Egg in the Film

With Scream VI taking place in New York City, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the movies that filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett looked for inspiration from was the 1989 horror movie Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Chad Villella confirmed that he and the directors “studied” Jason Takes Manhattan before going into production. Villella said:

“Oh, we definitely studied it, and we wanted to make sure that we didn’t have a boat in this! We wanted to be in the city, in the lived-in part of New York, that was very important to us. Obviously, being in a city is a scary thing. With Woodsboro (the setting of most of the previous Scream movies), you’re able to be isolated very easily, but in a city, you could be surrounded by millions of people and still feel very alone. That’s exactly what we wanted to capture with this one.“

Not only was Scream VI inspired by Jason Takes Manhattan, but the filmmakers also planted an Easter Egg in the movie. During an interview with Bloody-Disgusting, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were specially asked about that Easter egg that is placed in plain sight. Bettinelli-Olpin said:

“I think it’s funny; it was really serendipitous, actually. We kept making jokes, obviously; from the first time we read the script, Jason Takes Manhattan was a part of the conversation. But we never had a place for it in the movie to actually call it out. Then that, what you’re talking about, we had a list of movies from Paramount that they owned that we could use in the movie. The second we saw that one, we were like, ‘Oh, there it is.’ It all just fell into place.”

Gillett went on to add: “That was the lowest hanging fruit, and oftentimes, you don’t want to pick the lowest hanging fruit because it feels too obvious, and then you see it, and then you go, ‘Well, there’s no better choice.’” Bettinelli-Olpin adds, “…if you get it, you get it. It lets you know that you’re in for a fun ride.”

The Jason Takes Manhattan Easter egg is in plain sight early on in the film. Did you catch it when you first watched the movie!? I didn’t catch it until my second viewing, so keep your eyes peeled for that Jason Takes Manhattan homage in Scream VI! It’s seriously not that hard to miss as the movie is being played on a TV.

The next chapter of the horror saga “continues with the four survivors of the Ghostface killings as they leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.” They try to start this new chapter of their lives in New York City, and well… things don’t really go very well for them as Ghostface is back in action and on a killing rampage in the city.

Have you seen Scream VI yet!? Did you like it!?