Intensity 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Kevin Williamson
Written by Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick, and James Vanderbilt
The Scream series has always been self-conscious, self-referential meta-commentary on slasher films. Scream 7 provides evidence that the franchise has been extended beyond its expiration date. Even with the longtime scribe of the series, Kevin Williamson, serving as the director and writer (again) for the film, and the presence of stalwart actresses Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox returning in more prominent roles, the whole effort feels exhausted. The references don’t work, the story is entirely predictable, and many of the kills are eye-rollingly lame. The movie made plenty of money at the box office, but it has not earned another sequel.
Despite my misgivings about the second generation of Scream (2022), headlined by rising stars Melissa Barrera, Jack Quaid, and Jenna Ortega, it understood the mandate. Comment on the current state of horror. The Radio Silence-helmed version riffed on “elevated horror” and the decline of the slasher genre. It winked at the audience, who knew what was going on. The new production team also brought a more savage, less comedic brand of horror to the table. Unfortunately for the franchise, politics stepped in, and Scream lost its next generation of Scream queens. Barrera was ushered out of the franchise due to her position in international politics, and Ortega followed her off the platform.
To rekindle interest in Scream, Paramount/Spyglass turned to its OG team to rescue the product. Campbell, who skipped Scream VI because of contractual disputes, agreed to return and is now the movie’s headliner. Courtney Cox also returned, and the producers found a way to bring Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) back into the story. The nostalgia train was ready to roll. Or… not.
The Scream franchise is, by and large, built on the charisma of a core group of young survivors. It also depends on linking other characters to put on the mask and robes to become the Ghostface Killer(s). That is a continuing truism. Full stop. It doesn’t help that the crop of young characters has largely been wiped from the slate, and the main characters are now middle-aged, albeit fan favorites. They proved willing to kill off Dewey Riley (David Arquette). The big question for this sequel was how much plot armor Sidney and Gale still have.
The Cast of Scream 7:
- Neve Campbell plays Sidney Evans (née Prescott), Scream’s original final girl. She now owns a coffee shop in Pine Grove, Indiana, and has shunned her survivor fame.
- Courteney Cox plays Gale Weathers, now an independent reporter still in pursuit of Ghostface Killer activities. She has arrived in Indiana to support Sidney… and get a story.
- Isabel May plays Tatum Evans, Sidney’s rebellious teenage daughter who wants her mother to teach her how to be a badass survivor.
- Jasmin Savoy Brown plays Mindy Meeks-Martin, a survivor of both the Woodsboro and NYC massacres. She interns for Gale Weathers and wants her job.
- Mason Gooding returns as Chad Meeks-Martin, Mindy’s twin brother. He, too, is a survivor, having been stabbed twice by the Ghostface Killer.
- Joel McHale plays Mark Evans, the sheriff of Pine Grove and Sidney’s husband.
- Celeste O’Connor plays Chloe Parker, Tatum’s best friend.
- McKenna Grace plays Hannah Thurman, a spunky actress and part of Tatum’s circle of friends.
- Sam Rechner plays Ben Brown, Tatum’s boyfriend, whom Sidney suspects as a potential Ghostface Killer, but Tatum defends him.
- Asa Germann plays Lucas Bowden, another of Tatum’s friends. He’s obsessed with Sidney’s backstory.
- Cyle Winters plays Aaron, Tatum’s shy and clumsy friend.
- Anna Camp plays Jessica Bowden, Lucas’ protective mother, and the Evans’ next-door neighbor.
- Matthew Lillard returns as Stu Macher, one of the killers from the first movie.
- Ethan Embry plays Marco, an orderly at a local sanitarium.
- Jimmy Tatro plays Scott, a Stab fan on his dream vacation at the Woodsboro house.
- Michelle Randolph plays Madison, Scott’s girlfriend.
- Jeremy Conner is the costumed stuntman portraying the Ghostface Killer.
- Roger L. Jackson is back again to portray the voice of the Ghostface Killer.
A Summary of Scream 7:
As is tradition for the franchise, we open with a killer scene. This time, we have returned to the Woodsboro House, which has been turned into a murder-themed bed and breakfast, made famous TWICE by mass murders in the Stab movies. Scott is a fanboy. Madison, his girlfriend, reluctantly joins him on his dream vacation. The couple receives a “Do you like scary movies?” call as part of their welcome to the house, which Scott thoroughly enjoys. Scott and Madison explore the house, reveling in all the memorabilia, but unsurprisingly, Ghostface is waiting for them. Death comes quickly. Why? Nostalgia. (Probably) Roll intro.
We then arrive at the Evans household. A boy arrives at Tatum’s window. It’s Ben, Tatum’s boyfriend. This echoes the Billy Loomis and Sidney Prescott scene from 1996. The tables have turned, and Sidney, now the parent, shoos Ben from the room. This embarrasses Tatum, who calls this hypocrisy, since her mother’s every youthful action is well known. With tension building in the Evans home, Sidney receives a video message from someone claiming to be Stu Macher.
Sidney dismisses this call as impossible, as Stu is dead and buried. This has to be an A.I. threat. Or is he? She kicks into her final girl mode when the maybe Stu indicates that he has tracked Tatum at her high school drama production and is going to slaughter her and all her friends.
The movie kicks into Scream mode:
Sure enough, Taylor and her friends are rehearsing a production of “The Fairy Princess.” After rehearsal, the cast and crew split up to practice, and right on cue, The Ghostface Killer has arrived to start a stabbing spree. Sidney alerts Mark, and they rush to the school, but it’s too late. The auditorium is now a murder scene with gutted teenagers proving that Sidney’s past has caught up with her.
The Evans family returns home, where Mark and his deputees search the house for intruders. They declare the house clear, but they didn’t do a thorough enough search. The killer is waiting for the family to return. Fortunately, they have a safe room, though Mark gets knocked out in a fight with Ghostface, allowing the maniac to try and kill Sidney and Tatum. Inexplicably, they leave the safety of their shelter, and flee into the neighborhood, with Ghostface in pursuit. Fortunately, the cavalry arrives, as Ghostface gets run over by Gale, driving her news SUV. Smush.
They unmask the killer, and realize, nope… not Stu Macher. Because this is a Scream movie, none of the experienced survivors believes there is only one killer, as past experience has proven that there is always at least one more partner. They trace this attacker back to a local mental institute. Now the chess board is formally set up. Gale and Sidney start an investigation. Tatum and her remaining foolish friends ignore the curfew and try to solve the mystery. (It’s not a particularly effective curfew.) There are plenty of suspects, and many of the familiar motives are in play.
Guaranteed: Ghost Face is still out there and won’t stop until he kills Sidney and her family. That’s the formula. You can take it to the box office bank.
Evaluation of Scream 7
I was on board with the movie for the first act. It was good to see Neve Campbell back in the lead role, and she still has gravitas. The production value of Scream 7 is solid as well. I thought the intro kill sequence, despite some logistical nonsense, was pretty entertaining and appropriately meta. The cinematography is a notch up from most indie productions, and it stages some elaborate sequences that are entertaining. And that’s about it for the positive feelings.
For a story from Kevin Williamson, and with the assistance of solid writers like Busik and Vanderbilt, this plot is weak. The logic systems break down in a hurry. The characters in Scream should be more aware of their environment, and not venture into dumb trope moves, which is the bane of the movies that it references. Most damningly, the explanation of who Ghostface is stinks of desperation. You have to mine the movie’s secondary characters, as the film tries way to hard to try and keep you guessing.
By the time most of the main suspects become victims themselves, the running tab of characters who have appeared in the movie become the only potential killers. It doesn’t work. The Ghostface Killer should be physically able to perform the villanous actions during the killing spree. Once the rando maniac who gets unmasked is dispatched, it becomes the responsibility of the “other” killer(s) to be plausibly powerful. It fails that test. It also fails the motivation test. The plot makes no damned sense.
The Future of the Franchise (Minor Spoilers)
The franchise faces a fork in the road. Does it try and continue on with the story of the Evans family? Those dynamics seem to have been played out. Is Gale a truly viable character anymore? I would suggest she is not. The framework for this franchise isn’t set up well for middle aged characters with seven films worth of plot armor. As initially fun as it is to see old favorites on the screen, the nature of a slasher film usually is the provenance of youthful characters, though Jamie Lee Curtis may wish to argue that point.
The problem is, as it is for all slasher franchises, is that the protagonists often get mowed down in great numbers, and that holds true here as well. Is Tatum going to find a new batch of friends to get carved up? Scream almost managed to bridge this gap, but losing Barrera and Ortega has forced another casting reset, and I don’t know if it can hold up with another revision.
Besides Gale and Sidney, only the Meeks-Martin twins have any continuity with the other films at this point, and they are largely a Rosencrans and Guildenstern pair of cyphers. Their role in these films is to comment on the meta aspects of the movies, and to get stabbed at some point in the movie. That’s three films in a row, that they have been attacked and survived the trauma of encounters with various Ghostface Killers.
Scream 7 also exposes the weakness of switching up who is under the mask. At a certain point, you run out of plausible antagonists. Slasher franchises depend on recurring villains. Freddy. Jason. Art. Michael. They are supernatural creatures. Ghostface is a human copycat killer. Trying to come up with a backstory that feels resonant is proving to be difficult. This was a low point for the series in that regard.
Concluding Thoughts:
There will be another Scream. The movie has made too much money not to. However, it faces serious diminishing returns. There is a reason why slasher films burned out in the eighties. The formula got stale. The original Scream was Wes Craven identifying the weaknesses in the formula, as beloved as the formula is. Even with Williamson writing it, Craven’s touch and deep understanding of the medium is missing now.
All of the Easter Eggs and cameo appearances aren’t enough. Scream (2022) was a reasonable attempt to reset the table. I didn’t find the new cast particularly appealing, but I can respect the attempt.
Also, I can’t let go of some logistical major flaws:
- If a 130 pound body falls on you from fifteen feet up, not only will it badly damage the person falling, but it will badly injure the person who absorbs the fall. (watch the trailer)
- Ghostface suffers serious villain diminishment syndrome. Once you realize who the killer is, there’s no way that they would be able to pull off the kills they made. The teenagers would be too big and strong to be manhandled like that.
- Mark is a really sloppy sheriff. How he managed to keep his job is beyond me.
- If the killer changes in every movie (even gender), why does he have the same voice in every movie?
Scream 7 is available streaming on Prime. It is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, and language. This movie is geared towards a younger audience, and will probably appeal to teenage horror fans, even if they (technically) shouldn’t see it without supervision. (Do the sleepover thing, kids! That’s how we did it back in the day.) Better yet, watch the first three films in the series. They’re better than this one.
Review by Eric Li
