Notable Cast: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May,
Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Roger L. Jackson, Anna Camp, Joel McHale,
Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace, Mathew Lillard,
Kraig Dane, Ethan Embry
You know, just when you thought things were going pretty
fuckin’ well, Paramount and Spyglass had to go and do something real dumb and
fire Melissa Barrera. The ‘rebooted’ Scream series found a lot of
interesting paths to address creatively with both Scream (2022) and Scream
VI for its new characters, and the producers/studio decided it would be a
great idea to just detonate a landmine under the whole thing. The ripple effect
of that decision was wild. They lost Jenna Ortega (who had found a very strong
following in young viewers), and they lost their director, Christopher Landon,
who went on to make the highly entertaining Drop in 2025. It didn’t
quite look like the Scream franchise was, perhaps like Scream 4,
going to be able to see this new era through.
However, Scream VI did make a franchise high best in theaters, so never count out the bean counters when it comes to a horror franchise. Thus, Scream 7 exists. To be fair, while this seventh entry into the meta-slasher iconic series does rank towards the bottom, it isn’t the horrific train wreck that I was expecting. Bringing back Kevin Williamson and Neve Campbell is one hell of a pivot, particularly since producers/studio seemingly gave the latter the middle finger regarding her involvement in Scream VI, and there are a lot of interesting aspects of this film that carry it through. Sure, it's very obvious that this was a script rushed through into production, and the overall thing feels more like a spin-off than a legitimate sequel, but it features some fantastic kill sequences, and Kevin Williamson is bringing a lot of old-school solid filmmaking to it, so it doesn’t feel quite like a side dish. For that, I will give it credit.
For Scream 7, the series does once again mix the old
and the new. Since Sidney, played by a returning Neve Campbell, sat out the
entire last film, it’s only natural that the series would return to her for
this one. Courtney Cox also returns once again as Gale, this time with two of
the new cast members in tow in the form of Brown and Gooding as the
Meeks-Martin siblings, albeit in something of glorified cameos that feel like
they were simply tucked into the script for the sake of continuity more than
having a real impact on the plot or narrative. It does allow Gale to make a
comment to the effect “Well, at least you missed the craziness in New York!” to
really try and remind us that, yes, this one is not just a spin-off of what
happened to Sidney while Ghostface Took Manhattan.
Perhaps the biggest misstep in the film is that Scream 7
also features a slew of cameos by actors who had “died” in previous entries,
serving as potential red herrings. It’s fairly obvious, no real spoilers here,
that none of them will actually pan out, but placing the constantly reliable
Matthew Lillard in front of a green screen as Stu Macher feels more abrasive
and borderline offensive than I would have expected. The idea doesn’t seem too
far-fetched for the series, but here it feels like an apology to the fans for
derailing the new era of the series and rushing this entry out. “We know you
liked Barrera and Ortega, but would you take a Lillard as a consolation prize?”
Certainly not the best choice that Scream 7 makes.
Yet, to be fair, Campbell holds her own as the lead of the
film. Her performance as Sidney has always been a large part of the film's
success, as the soul that runs through it, and once again, she is holding so
much of the patchwork script together. Williamson also, besides the characters
from previous entries, surrounds her with some decent characters and ideas.
Isabel May, who plays Sidney’s daughter Tatum, holds her own nicely as the
other lead of the film, while Joel McHale, as Sidney’s husband, also shows a
surprising amount of gravitas in a very serious role. There’s also a plethora
of great character actors who show up in a few scenes, like Mckenna Grace (very
much on her way to genre queen status for such a young actress - definitely go
watch Slanted), Ethan Embry, Timothy Simons, and a fun little role for
Anna Camp. If anything, Williamson does use casting pretty well here.
The biggest surprise of the film, though, is Kevin
Williamson. Yes, his rise to power as a name in genre work was with the Scream
franchise, but moving from the writer’s chair to director was a pleasant
surprise. I’m not going to bash his other directorial effort, Teaching Mrs.
Tingle as that film potentially suffered greatly from edits and reshoots in the
wake of the Columbine shooting, but he hasn’t directed since. Well, shit, give
this man some more, cause his directorial efforts might be the highlight of Scream
7. He knows that the film is far more intimate in scope and feel than its
two predecessors, and he delivers on that. The kills feel more personal,
gruesome, and vicious, and he shoots them while focusing on the tension with
some impressive precision.
Interestingly enough, he tends to move the film away from
its comedic bits and aspects, which will certainly be abrasive to many of the
series’ fans, but he feels locked and loaded as the director here and for that
I’ll give him massive credit. The opening, where the “Scream House” has
been converted into an Airbnb, features the most traditional tones of the
series, but the rest tends to be more of a traditional slasher rather than a
meta one when it comes to the kills.
So, in its own way, Scream 7 is essentially the
necessary placeholder as the studio and producers attempt to figure out where
the franchise will go from here. It’s not nearly as “bad” as some fans would
have you believe, thanks to some strong direction from Kevin Williamson, fun and
brutal kills, and a solid cast, but its writing is patchy - particularly when
it comes to the motivation of Ghostface - and some of its choices in pandering
to the franchise feel forced. Still, it’s also a film that inherently feels
more like a spin off than a true sequel and that in itself makes it fall
towards the bottom of the franchise.
Since Scream 7 has now made the most money of the
franchise in its box office, I’m curious where the franchise goes from here.
Will they continue with more individualistic entries like this one or try and
bring back the new era characters? Either way, you know they are going to take
a big stab at getting Scream 8 back on track.
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