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'Scream VI' star Melissa Barrera tells 'Late Night' that 'Chucky' scares her more than anything else
Ghostface has nothing on everyone's favorite killer doll.
Ghostface has nothing on everyone's favorite killer doll. Despite being tormented by murderers in a mask in last year's Scream and returning to star in Scream VI, in theaters Friday, Melissa Barrera is most creeped out by another onscreen killer.
It's none other than Chucky, the actress revealed on Late Night with Seth Meyers. The confession came about after Barrera explained that she didn't see the original Scream film when it first came out because she was only six when it debuted in 1996. But she soon caught up.
"I was obsessed with horror movies when I was like 10, 11, 12," Barrera said. "And I wasn’t allowed to watch horror movies, so I would either lock myself in my room, or at sleepovers with friends, watch Scream and Final Destination and I Know What You Did Last Summer and all those obsessively. I’m kind of a masochist that way because I love watching horror movies and I cannot sleep at night. But I kind of love that, weirdly."
Watch the Late Night clip here:
Meyers then asked her what the first film that really scared her was, and Barrera replied, "Chucky," referring to the many Child's Play and Chucky films. "It was not ok," she said. "I specifically remember this scene where he’s in the back of like a big moving truck or something. And the little doll is holding someone hostage — however that happens. And someone’s following in a car or running or something and the little doll just flips him off. And it’s actually hilarious, but it was so scary to me at the time."
Getting a kick out of that, Meyers responded, “I like that of all of Chucky’s crimes, the one that you couldn’t stand for is rudeness.” Lucky — or unlucky — for Barrera, she can catch the tiny, murderous doll engaging in plenty of other scandalous behavior on SYFY and the USA Network's Chucky series, which has been renewed for a third season, due out later this year.
Barrera brought her family along for the New York premiere of Scream VI earlier this week. "Horror is such a communal experience," she said on Late Night. "You need to see it with people, because people are shouting and yelling at the screen and gasping and it’s contagious and it’s fun to do that." The actress, who also starred in In the Heights, added that her family got to guess who Ghostface was in the latest film because she didn't reveal any secrets to them — as hard as they may have tried to get it out of her.
"Every day, they tried," she said. "They try to like catch me off guard. I am really bad when I start oversharing, so I just say, I’m not gonna tell anyone. And that means, not even my mom, not my husband, not anyone, so they get to participate in the whodunit mystery. And I love watching them watch the movie for the first time and their real reactions."
For the first time in Scream franchise history, the upcoming film will be set in New York City. "There’s this very scary scene that takes place on the subway," Meyers reveals. Barrera responds, "I really apologize to all subway users in New York City.”
The flick wasn't shot in the Big Apple though. "We shot in Montreal," Barrera said. "They had a whole soundstage and they built a subway with a station and the train would go in and out of the station inside a studio. It was mind-blowing. And it was dirty too. Very accurate."
Catch new episodes of Late Night With Seth Meyers weeknights at 12:35/11:35c on NBC, then stream them next-day on Peacock.
If you're looking to catch the doll that scared Barrera as a kid in action, the complete first season of Chucky is currently streaming on Peacock. And if killer dolls are your thing, Universal Pictures' M3GAN can also be found on the streamer, in both its PG-13 and unrated forms.
