Scream 6's Ladder Scene Left The Cast With Bruises
"Scream 6" shows Ghostface experimenting with some fresh ways to attack victims. This includes making an apartment escape via ladder extra challenging. It's a stressful scene as Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and the other girls crawl across the makeshift bridge to the safety of Danny Brackett's (Josh Segarra) place. Only Anika Kayoko (Devyn Nekoda) isn't so lucky. After Ghostface decides to start shaking the ladder with her still clutching to it, she falls several stories to her death.
According to "Scream 6" directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the ladder scene might be stressful to watch on-screen, but it was also one of the most intense for the cast to film. Gillett told GamesRadar, "[T]hat ladder sequence was a thing. I'm sure if you get to talk to the cast, they will tell you the same. The bruises, we just beat them up for three or four days. It was really, really intense." Bettinelli-Olpin chimed in, "Battle scars." Gillett added, "We wanted it to feel really, really real, and really physical, and we're so grateful that they were all game to have that experience."
Segarra, whose main job was to open the rescue ladder countless times over the course of several days, can attest to the bruises.
Josh Segarra was bruised and sore from the ladder scene
It's lucky for Sam Carpenter and friends that her new love interest Danny Brackett lives right across the way, and can therefore step in when Ghostface comes knocking. But for the actor behind Danny, his character's heroic efforts left him with quite a few battle scars.
He told Pop Culture Planet, "That was a grueling and amazing experience to shoot that scene because me and the girls are forever connected after that. I'll tell you that by day three, day four, day five, I was scratched and bruised up. These shoulders were tired from opening that ladder a hundred times." Still, Segarra stressed that his bruises were nothing compared to those of Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Devyn Nekoda: "...if you watch that scene closely, they're doing all that stuff on the ladder. When Ghostface is shaking the ladder, that's them up there. Their bruises, their scars, their scratches, they're very real. They put their bodies on the line for that..."
This scene was physically taxing for the actors, and emotionally taxing for audiences. In response to a clip of the scene on YouTube, many are naming Anika's death as one of the most disturbing of the entire "Scream" franchise. Looks like those battle scars paid off!