Scream 7 is directed by Kevin Williamson and the cast includes Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Asa Germann, Isabel May, Sam Rechner, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O'Connor, Anna Camp, Mason Gooding, Scott Foley, Joel McHale.
My Thoughts on Scream 7
Seven films in, and here we are again, a franchise I keep coming back to, and I’m not even sure if that says something good about the films or something worrying about me, but even with a returning Neve Campbell and star cast, I was expecting Scream 7 to be somewhat watchable for fans of the franchise, but a bit meh, and that's pretty much what it was.
In this installment, we have Sidney, who is older, a mother, running a small-town café and going by Mrs Evans, while her daughter Tatum, (Isabel May,) is seventeen - the same age Sidney was when this all started back in 1996.
And of course Ghostface notices, of course the calls start again, but his time, the voice on the phone isn’t just tormenting Sidney - it’s circling her daughter.
The structure is familiar, as you would expect it to be - A group of attractive teenagers flirt, argue, and wander into dark rooms alone, and one by one, they’re chased, cornered, and cut down, and the kills are staged with decent energy most of the time, and there are a few moments where the tension actually works, and while I obviously don’t need deep character studies in a slasher film, I do need someone interesting enough that I feel something when they’re in danger, and here, I mostly felt like I was waiting for the next scene.
Scream is a franchise that has always had fun explaining the “rules” of horror movies - don’t drink, don’t have sex, don’t say you’ll be right back - it was all playful and a little smug in a way I appreciated, but I have to say that now, the idea of rules feels a bit too exhausted.
There’s a joke about nostalgia being the new rule, which lands somewhere between clever and desperate, and I thought that line summed up the movie better than it meant to.
Behind the camera, we get the return of Kevin Williamson as director, which sounds meaningful on paper - he wrote the original, and there’s history there - but instead of feeling like a bold reclaiming of the series, the result feels too safe, where scenes unfold exactly as you expect them to, which I am sure most people will expect, but it all just feels a bit tiresome by now.
Still, I’ll admit there are stretches where it does work, in particular whenever Sidney shares the screen with Gale Weathers, as that's when the movie finds a pulse, as their history gives the dialogue weight without the script having to strain for it.
And of course we have the mystery element - who is under the mask this time - which unfolds with the usual red herrings, and the final reveal arrives with a speech that explains everything in neat, dramatic terms, where you will feel like you have seen variations of this too many times before, and it's all incredibly underwhelming.
There’s even a late attempt to weave artificial intelligence into the motive, which sounds timely but plays out in a clumsy way, as it feels like more a buzzword that has just been dropped into the script.
Scream 7 ends up being not daring enough to reinvent itself, but it’s not messy enough to become fascinating as a failure, as it moves briskly, it checks the expected boxes, and it delivers blood on cue, and by the end, you realize the series that once dissected horror clichés now mostly reenacts them - the self-awareness is still there, but it feels routine rather than rebellious, and while I don’t need every sequel to change the genre. I do want it to surprise me.
Scream 7 ends up being somewhat competent at times, occasionally entertaining and fun at times, but just too tiresome overall.
I’ll probably show up for an eighth entry if it happens though, same way I will turn up for most of the major horror franchises that have gone on for too long, so maybe I am part of the problem?
But at least Neve was great, as always.