By: Jamie Steinberg
Oh, how the mighty have fallen…Scream 7 strays too far away from the franchise fans came to hold in such high regard. Director Kevin Williamson returns with co-writer Guy Busick promising to give fans “the hits,” fails to do them justice and leaves viewers disappointed with their latest iteration.
Scream 7 kicks off the killing with Scott (Jimmy Tatro) and his girlfriend Madison (Michelle Randolph) in the Macher house – the location where the first and fifth films in the franchise ended. As expected, both meet their demise but in a way that is disconnected from the rest of the film and what is to come in the remainder of it. From there things don’t get much better, despite the much needed return of iconic star Neve Campbell. Her Syndey is still up to par, but it’s Williamson and Busick’s writing that let her down. Hoping to add to the nostalgia of the Scream franchise includes an appearance by Stu Maher (Matthew Lillard) who threatens to kill Sydney’s daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Thus, kicks off a Ghostface showdown between Tatum and her friends, which include ex-boyfriend Ben (Sam Rechner), pal Chloe (Celeste O’Connor), additional friend Hannah (McKenna Grace) and movie lover Lucas (Asa Germann) – clearly looking to be the new Randy Meeks of Scream fandom.
And did we mention that Stu and Sydney reappearing wasn’t the only guest appearances that Williamson hopes to get viewers to invest in Scream 7? Courteney Cox’s legendary character Gale Weathers is the only perk to the film when she teams up with Scream 5 and Scream 6 characters Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding). Unfortunately, there isn’t much time to celebrate in this slasher film as the masked killer reveal returns the viewer to the downfall of the movie.
Sadly, there is no happy ending to watching this film (yes, it’s a horror movie but you know what I’m referring to here). From the plot to the lighting, it is a movie that was clearly hard to piece together into something Scream fans would enjoy sitting through. The rhythm is missing and the dialogue just feels off. Not to mention the weaving of AI/tech into the narrative makes viewers go, “Huh?”
Unfortunately, Scream 7 falls to the wayside in the franchise of a once beloved scary movie . The wheels came off back in 2023 when a number of cast members dipped out and that should have been the time to either regroup or let things lie. I wish it had been the latter.