Ever since Drew Barrymore’s telephone rang in 1996, the Scream movies have been a part of pop culture. The now-iconic Ghostface mask and his line, “What’s your favorite scary movie?” are horror staples. It’s surprising how consistent the quality of this franchise has been (even Scream 3 has its defenders), especially given its more recent history of behind-the-scenes drama. After a pay dispute led franchise star Neve Campbell to sit out for the sixth movie, she’s back once again as Sidney Prescott in Scream 7.
Fortunately, this is a pretty decent entry into this franchise. There are issues here and there, and it’s one of the weaker films in the series, but it manages to pull off everything you’d expect from a Scream movie. Scream 7 marks a return to the ways of old for the franchise. After Scream (2022) and Scream VI put a greater focus on Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) as the new leads, their departure from this series alongside formerly-attached director Christopher Landon forced a rewrite that put Sidney back as the face of this series.
It’s a good idea, as Sid was the lead of the first four movies (albeit a smaller role in 3), and who better to make this movie than Kevin Williamson, the writer of Scream 1, 2, and 4? He also sits back in the director’s chair for the first time this millennium. Although one wonders what a more experienced horror director may do with this franchise after Wes Craven and Radio Silence’s excellent work, Williamson does quite a good job. He created these characters, so he knows how to write horror and adapt it. He uses darkness, silence, and suspense quite well throughout this film, just like the others in this series.
This film follows Sid as she tries to keep her teenage daughter Tatum (Isabel May) safe after new killings begin. If you’ve seen one Scream movie, you’ve seen them all. People get phone calls with Roger L. Jackson’s voice on the other end, they get stalked and brutally murdered, there’s a group of teenagers in here, etc. There’s a formula to these Scream movies, and Scream 7 does not try to break out of that at all. Although the film features one new idea halfway through, it immediately then reverts back to more killings, more Ghostfaces, and all of the running and screaming that you expect.
Some may find it slightly irritating that this franchise has now given us seven of what is essentially the same movie. But you come to a Scream movie knowing what you’re going to get, and you get a lot of it here. There’s the occasional dark humor, over-the-top violence, and we get to see the returns of franchise veterans Campbell and Courteney Cox, once again playing reporter Gale Weathers. There are a few more familiar faces here, some of which were announced publicly, but I won’t get into those; it’s better to be surprised.
One of the more unfortunate missteps is how this movie handles the ideas of its predecessors. In Scream 3, we were introduced to Patrick Dempsey as a cop named Mark who has some chemistry with Sid. In Scream (2022), she mentions her husband, Mark. And now, in Scream 7, we have her married to…a different cop named Mark? This is one of those things where it’s so clear that the plan was to have her be married to Mark from Scream 3, but due to scheduling issues, Dempsey couldn’t return. So instead, we have Joel McHale as Mark. McHale is good in the film, but this is not what the fans wanted to see, and it’s definitely not what the writers were intending when they wrote this script.
It’s quite an odd feeling to basically smell the behind-the-scenes mishaps of a movie just from watching it, and that’s clear in the absence of Barrera, Ortega, and Dempsey. But look, there were many circumstances out of their control, so I can accept some of it. What I struggle to accept is the existence of Tatum, which creates a continuity issue. Tatum is 16 years old, which would put her birth around 2009/2010, which means she was a baby around the time of the events of Scream 4 in 2011.
But in Scream 4, there’s no implication that Sid has a child or is even married. You can rationalize it by saying Sid was on a book tour, so maybe the husband and baby were at home. It’s a stretch, but it almost works. But here’s something else that doesn’t quite work. In Scream (2022), Sid is pushing a stroller. In Scream 7, despite Sid mentioning she has three kids, the other two are nowhere to be found. Where are Sid’s other two children? The movie never addresses this, even though it would make more sense and perhaps be better if they had. Can you imagine how much scarier Ghostface’s attacks would be if there were young children in danger? There’s a joke about retcons in this film, but the movie itself is guilty of it.
But that’s nerd stuff that not everyone will care about. Is this an exciting slasher movie? Sure! One of the best sequences sees Sid and Tatum on the other side of a wall from Ghostface, who starts stabbing the wall to try to find them. It’s quite suspenseful and very effective. There are some cool, gory kills throughout. The supporting cast isn’t quite as great as what we got from Scream (2022), but if you know how the Scream movies work, you know a lot of them don’t make it to the end anyway.
Part of the fun of the Scream movies is guessing who Ghostface is. Will there be one killer, two, three? Scream VI had quite a predictable reveal, but this movie manages to be more surprising. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a great reveal. We learn who our Ghostface is and the motivations, but none of it is that compelling. It simply does the job, but it’s one of the weakest reveals in the franchise, especially compared to the reveals of Scream 1, 4, and 5, which are by far my favorite.
It’s also worth noting that Scream 7 does not lean so heavily on meta commentary, compared to previous films. There’s a tiny bit, but it does lose one of the key ingredients that make this franchise so smart from time to time. That may be the biggest disappointment because it can feel like a more generic slasher without that ingredient. But the reason why Scream 7 works is because of the kills, the cast, and how scary it can be to imagine yourself in these situations with Ghostface. Even if these movies deserve a change to the formula, let’s face it, baby, these days, you gotta have a sequel!
SCORE: 6/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 6 equates to “Decent.” It fails to reach its full potential and is a run-of-the-mill experience.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Scream 7 review.
