The Scream franchise has been on fire with the recent 2022 resurrection of the slasher saga, introducing a new cast of characters designed to take over the legacy of the OG cast. But after a highly publicized controversy surrounding one such star and her unceremonious firing by a tone deaf studio, the powers that be decided out with the new, in with the old, bringing back Neve Campbell, who sat out 2023’s Scream VI due to another highly publicized controversy, for a nostalgia fueled Scream 7. Directed and co-written by horror mastermind Kevin Williamson, does this new entry overcome the (self-inflicted) wounds?
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Right out of the gate, Scream 7 seems to settle into the franchise’s roots with a memorable opening kill sequence involving an unlucky couple who decide to visit Stu Macher/Amber Freeman’s house in the middle of the night. From there, the story focuses on Campbell’s Sidney, now going by Sidney Evans, and her daughter, who she named after former Ghostface victim, Tatum (Isabel May). It is nice to see Sidney again, this time taking on the overprotective mother role, as well as Tatum, who is an interesting mirror to her mother and May gives a dynamite, star making performance here.
Here’s the problem: Beyond them, Gale (Courteney Cox) and returning Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown), the latter two are reduced to comic relief cameos, we don’t really care about anybody else. There is a new crop of suspects, sure, but Williamson and Guy Busick’s script reduces most of the cast to bloody kills before we, the audience, can identify or care about them. A perfect example of this is Sidney’s husband Mark, played by Joel McHale and unfortunately not Patrick Dempsey, who is paper thin and given not much reason to care about whether he lives or dies other than the fact that he’s Sidney’s husband.
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It’s here that I must try to dissect the big issue with the film without spoilers, which will be tricky: There’s an early twist involving the killer that is A: poorly concealed and practically gift wrapped to fans to get their butts in the theater, and B: leans far too much on fan bait nostalgia. Worse, the film’s final rug pull of Ghostface’s identity is so obsessed with throwing you off that it builds like a screaming kettle only for not much of note to happen. I can’t see diehard fans of the franchise being happy with the way certain characters are used here and I doubt that will go over well with the already unhappy fanbase.
All that said, Scream 7 is by no means unwatchable or even that bad. The kills are the most creative they’ve ever been and once in a while, the film will nail a horror set piece. If you’re not going to see it at all, I can’t say that you’re missing a revolutionary entry in the franchise; it’s solid, but could’ve been more.
Scream 7 is now playing in theaters.
A native of Boise, Idaho, Bradley is a hardcore entertainment junkie whose interest span many different genres. Favorite shows include: The Originals, Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Silicon Valley and Powers.
