By Elizabeth Fitzpatrick
Features Editor
The newest installment in the long-running horror-comedy slasher series “Scream” does its best to return to the thrills, kills, and characters that made the series popular in the first place. “Scream 7,” however, seems a bit dead in comparison.
After her diminished part in the fifth “Scream” and absence in “Scream VI,” original final girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to center stage for “Scream 7.” Sidney’s daughter Tatum (Isabel May) is now in high school and is curious about her mother’s numerous life-or-death experiences facing the masked Ghostface killer.
The film also features the return of director and screenwriter Kevin Williamson. While “Scream 7” is Williamson’s first time directing a “Scream” movie, he wrote the screenplays for the original “Scream,” “Scream 2,” and “Scream 4,” making him no stranger to the meta slasher series.
Sidney does not want to discuss her past Ghostface face-offs with Tatum due to her own trauma, the intense publicization surrounding the murders, and a desire for her daughter not to live in fear. Tatum feels that her mother’s refusal to talk about the murders has done more harm than good, as Tatum has never learned how to protect herself, which soon becomes a problem when Ghostface returns.
Grisly murders soon follow as Ghostface slaughters Tatum’s classmates one by one and sends threatening messages to Sidney. The film breaks a bit from the traditional “Scream” setup, as the killer is unmasked early—or is he? “Scream 7” brings back Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), who died in the original “Scream,” through several uncanny FaceTime calls.
One of the major questions the film raises is whether Stu has truly come back from the dead, or if the true Ghostface has managed to trick Sidney through the use of AI deepfakes. Stu’s reappearance also references a fan theory that he had actually survived the events of the first “Scream.”
Yet, as the film goes on, the writers’ complete lack of engagement with the harms of AI as a topic of conversation becomes abundantly clear. Stu’s appearance, rather than being an indictment of the dangers of AI, serves just to insert thoughtless, cash-grabbing cameos of Lillard and other cast members of “Scream” one through six.
Similar levels of complexity are built into the other characters. Tatum’s classmates leave little impression; they never feel truly like suspects and they do not have enough individual personality for their inevitable deaths to feel significant.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “as ever, the side characters try to look suspicious until one (or more) of them is declared the killer, a gotcha that feels as arbitrary as roulette. The script burns so much energy trying to come up with a surprise that it suffers from brain drain.”
Ghostface’s kills, at least, are frequently creative, with interesting set pieces where they can play out, including a bar and a high school theatre. While that might be enough for some viewers, the film gets bogged down in the middle by the plot.
“There’s a rote quality to the proceedings that makes Scream 7 feel like a slog despite its high body count and copious gore. The supporting players, particularly the younger ones, lack the flair of their predecessors, with Campbell and Cox picking up the slack to fine but unsurprising effect,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While “Scream” has always been a comedically self-referential series, playing with the so-called “rules” of slashers, this installment in particular is not new-viewer-friendly. The entire premise of the film, and the tension built by Sidney’s concern for her daughter, relies on viewers to already be familiar with earlier films, and not even the most recent ones.
“Scream” (2022) and “Scream VI” had attempted to take the series in a new direction by focusing on sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), but neither actor returned for “Scream 7.” Instead, focus returns to Sidney, rehashing her issues with trauma and paranoia that were already explored in “Scream 4,” only this time with a daughter in tow. While Campbell is by no means bad in the role, the “Scream” series should have kept moving forward with its new stars rather than reverting to Sidney.
“[Scream 7] is a love note to Neve Campbell and Sidney Prescott, but so were the other Sidney-centric movies, so the sentiment feels redundant,” according to The Wrap.
Every horror franchise reaches its turning point eventually, and it is impressive that “Scream” managed to hold on so long. The film delivers on gory kills, but viewers hoping for clever reveals, funny dialogue, or relevant commentary should probably stick to the earlier “Scream” films.
“Scream 7” will soon be available to stream on Paramount+ and Amazon Prime.
Photo Caption: Ghostface returns for the seventh installment of the popular “Scream” slasher franchise.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia