The following contains major spoilers for Scream VI.

Scream VI slayed at the box office this weekend, scaring up $44.5 million. The movie follows sisters Tara and Sam, along with siblings Mindy and Chad, who have relocated to New York City after being terrorized by Ghostface in the previous installment. All of them almost perished at the hands of Tara's psychotic best friend, Amber, and Sam's deranged boyfriend, Richie. But it seems Ghostface isn't done with them yet. Somebody has picked up the slasher's mantle and is, once again, targeting the "Core Four," as Chad dubs them.

Scream VI's opening sequence finds disgruntled college student Jason slaughtering his film teacher Laura, only for a new Ghostface to return the favor by murdering him. Scream 4's fan-favorite Kirby comes back as an FBI agent investigating any Ghostface leads. But the largest bombshell surrounds the identity of the killer. For a spoiler-filled post-mortem, CBR recently spoke to directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, along with executive producer Chad Villella about that opening sequence, defying expectations, Gale Weathers' face-off with Ghostface, and the killers' identities.

Ghostface raises a knife in Scream VI

CBR: After killing off Dewey in the previous installment, did you come into Scream VI with a "nobody is truly safe" attitude?

Tyler Gillett: You have to believe that. There is always some discussion of, "Should we go further? Are some of these characters expendable?" Going into prep, we knew [who] we wanted to survive. That wasn't something that was changing or evolving through the process. The movie still has to make you believe that anything is possible. It's one of the fun ingredients in Mindy's monologue on the quad. We love that the movie is going to twist itself. There was something really fun about having a character call out, "Get ready for a bloodbath. We are all goners!" and have them all survive. It was a really cheeky nod to the meta-ness of these movies, but also the means of us keeping our favorite characters around. I would be lying if we said we weren't wildly attached to all of them and hoping and wanting them to survive as friends and filmmakers as well.

Laura's death was not your typical Scream opening sequence. How much did you enjoy defying those expectations? What kind of tone or message does it set up for the rest of the film?

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin: When we read the script for the first time, and we got to that first turn… five minutes in, page five, give or take… We all had that moment of, "What is going on? What is this movie? I have no idea where this is going. I am riveted." That reaction really shaped the way we read the rest of the script for the first time and how we approached making the whole movie. We had to make a movie that would leave you guessing the whole time and feel dramatically different than the previous movie while still feeling like a Scream movie. It had to walk that tightrope the entire time. The opening scene sets that up perfectly.

There's plenty of smoke and mirrors in this sequel.

Gillett: Yeah, the manipulation of it. Also, the confidence. While that Ghostface doesn't survive the opening, it sets up this idea that we are in the city now. The Ghostfaces in this movie are going to take risks that we haven't really seen before. They are not interested in staying hidden, necessarily. All of that is going to spill into a public space. That kill in the alley definitely plants that seed.

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Laura gets gutted. Sam goes to town on Bailey. What kind of conversations do you have over how many stabs are too many and how many are not enough?

Gillett: It's the feel thing, to be honest. We know what we want the emotion to be in the moment. Is it a frenzied stabbing? Is it a one-and-done situation? We always shoot overkill, so we have an overkill version of everything. We dial that in through the editing process. If one is really realistic and then one gets bananas, that doesn't work. It's finding that balance throughout the process. At the end of the day, it comes down to how we feel because they are all over the top.

Villella: The moral of that story is always get enough. You always want to make sure you get enough on the day so that you can dial back.

Bettinelli-Olpin: Chad's stabbing, we dialed back. Bailey's, we dialed up. We watched the assembly and fully recognized and embraced that we were playing loose with scientific logic with the Chad stabbings. We also love that if Sam has stabbed Richie 22 times, then we have to double that with Bailey. She has to outdo herself. That was one where we were thankful that we shot as much coverage as we did. There was a moment where it was 15 stabs, and we were like, "No, it's got to be more."

Gillett: Yeah, it just wasn't enough.

Bettinelli-Olpin: It's frenzied enough that you lose count.

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Gale gets her first call from Ghostface, and it almost costs her. Why was it so important to give her that moment showdown with the masked killer?

Gillett: I think there was all of this potential energy in that interaction. We were certainly waiting for and excited by the possibility of Gale's first phone call. The elaborate moves within that sequence are you have this iconic character who survived five movies and five brushes with death. We loved the idea that they are going to be outsmarting each other and besting each other throughout that sequence. It was essential [that] there were enough moves to prove that Ghostface is terrifying and that Gale, even as a survivor, is up against a worthy adversary. But, also, Gale is really fucking smart. She knows all the rules. She is going to use all of them against Ghostface. When Ghostface says, "Maybe you got me. Maybe I am running down the stairs," and she's shooting more holes in the door… That is an awareness, given her experience. The legacy of these movies is such a nod to that. It was making sure that it's complex enough that you feel that it's two worthy adversaries squaring off each other.

The subway sequence proved to be one of the most difficult to film. What were some of the challenges?

Bettinelli-Olpin: The challenges of getting that on screen started in pre-production when we learned that we had no idea how we were going to do this in terms of getting a subway car. In the back of our heads, we thought, "We'll get a subway and retrofit it and make it look right." Then, we found out that was off the table. We tried to get a couple in, but they were too heavy and were tipping. It would have cost a billion dollars. We had so many conversations about it. Thirty percent of pre-production was like, "How are we doing this subway sequence?"

Villella: Weren't there multiple moments where we were like, "Maybe we should just cut it?" Then, we were like, "Absolutely, under no fucking circumstances."

Bettinelli-Olpin: This was a testament to how great everyone on the crew was. Everybody worked together to figure it out, ''How can we get this? How can we build it? How can we create something that feels like it is moving?" This is a handshake between every department, including costumes. "Oh, we have to make 200 different costumes? They can't all look professional?" It's a long way of saying it was a handshake between every department, and they all exceeded our expectations. I remember when we got on set, the reaction was."This is just the subway. I feel like we are in New York," which is exactly what you want. It didn't feel like a set. It felt like you were there.

Ghostface strikes victim in Scream VI.

The motivations and identities of the killers are intrinsic to Scream's DNA. What was your reaction when you received the script detailing that these Ghostfaces were a family affair based on Richie's death in the previous film?

Gillett: It was actually something that was continuing to grow and change in prep. We were so quick on the heels of [Scream] 5 that the script was a living blueprint for a while. So much of what the process was for us and screenwriters Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt was to continue to rattle-test everything. What ultimately ended up changing was [that] the original draft was a vigilante-justice story. It was interesting, and we liked that as an ingredient, but it felt like it was missing some emotional impact. I remember bringing that note to Guy and Jamie and the three of us chatting through it. They were like, "You guys are right. We are going to brainstorm and come back to you." They came back to us and were like, "It is Richie's family." We were like, "Of course!"

The track had already been laid. It felt like the story was inevitably going to become that. You have to work it to get there. Once that clicked into place, and that was happening simultaneously with us location scouting and designing what that set would ultimately be, it emerged like, "Oh, this is the right idea because there are so many other cool opportunities in it." To have Richie's movies up on the screen, to see his face, to actually invite that character back into the story in a way that is really significant and emotional -- I think that was driving that choice, that the vigilante justice thing is really a misdirect, that it is actually about revenge, and it's actually super-emotional. It's about a family trying to do right by this lost son, this lost brother. That, to us, felt like a primal, clean, and very clear motive. It is also drafted off of Scream 2, which is one of our favorite movies of all time.

Chad coins the term "the Core Four," but with Gale, Kirby, and Danny -- it should be the Survivor Seven now. How eager are you to continue exploring some of those other characters outside of the main quartet?

Bettinelli-Olpin: I think we love all of them. That's part of the process. You fall in love with the characters. You fall in love with the actors. You have such a good time doing the thing in all the different states the process takes you through. Who knows where any of that goes, but we love all those characters. I can't say enough about how great the cast was on this one and how they all embodied those characters in such a full and realized way. Nothing is off the table.

Scream VI is in theaters now.