Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott in another entry in the Scream franchise. So then: top form, or tired of slashing? Where are you, then, on the Scream franchise? Little argument over the strength of the original trilogy. Scream 4 was a fun swansong for Wes Craven, who’d directed the first four. Few would ... Scream 7 review | Can Neve Campbell’s return save the franchise?
Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott in another entry in the Scream franchise. So then: top form, or tired of slashing?
Where are you, then, on the Scream franchise? Little argument over the strength of the original trilogy. Scream 4 was a fun swansong for Wes Craven, who’d directed the first four. Few would call the most recent two films ‘necessary’, but they’ve been successful enough. And Scream 7? Well, how wrong can you go with a classic killer, iconic final girl and a bunch of teens, written into the script just to be murdered?
Really wrong, it turns out.
Scream 7 arrives, notably, with the baggage of a troubled production history. The star of Scream (2022) and Scream VI, Melissa Barrera, was fired for political reasons and co-star Jenna Ortega left on her own account soon after that. Next departed director Christopher Landon, who had taken over from previous directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. A film that was due to have been out a year or two ago had to be basically restarted from scratch.
But still: you can only judge what did make it to the screen. And in this case, Neve Campbell was brought in to save the day, after missing Scream VI over a salary dispute. With Campbell coaxed back thanks to a bigger pay cheque, her Sidney Prescott character is once again going face to face with the Ghostface killer.
This time, though, she’s a mother and her previous experiences with homicidal maniacs has made her a touch overprotective, leaving her daughter Tatum (Isabel May) annoyed and distant.
A mother-daughter story gives the series something a little different, but the rest goes exactly the way you’d think it would. Ghostface appears, multiple people are given motives for murder, there’s a lot of screaming and a decent amount of teenage blood and guts.
Screenwriter of several Scream films, Kevin Williamson, is directing here. He’s not helmed a movie since 1999’s Teaching Mrs Tingle (a so-so flick), and both on the page and on the screen, he struggles to inject much into the film. Has the franchise just simply run out of steam? That’s the film’s biggest sin; it’s not just not scary, it’s dull. We’ve been asked, rightly, not to give spoilers away, but it wraps itself in so many knots that a BA (Hons) in Tenet would be useful for the assorted reveals.
A teacher of mine once described horror as “the cinema of the body” because it’s trying to get a physical reaction, like a jump or a scream, out of the audience.
Yawning certainly counts as a physical reaction, but probably not the one Williamson was looking for.
Watch: Ghostface tried to kill us!
For me – outside of story and character – horror films have to be one of three things to be successful: they need to be genuinely scary or anxiety-inducing, have excellent jumpscares – there’s a real art to them! – or there needs to be enough gore for you to forget that there’s neither of the first two.
Scream 7 has none of those. The first few kills hints that we might be in for a particularly brutal Scream, but the slashing soon has to make way for Sidney and Gale Weathers’ (a returning Courtney Cox) troubled relationship. Expect a lot of hugs. Similarly, Sidney and Tatum’s relationship is put through the wringer as the duo fights a masked killer. At times it feels like Scream 7 might have worked better as a straight-forward drama than a horror film. Who needs Ghostface when you’ve got generational trauma?
There’s still plenty of that Scream meta charm here, but it’s watered down by the film around it. Part of the franchise’s fun has always been the reveal of the killers, but somehow, Scream 7 has made even that utterly forgettable. It doesn’t make sense and even if it did, not a whole lot of time is devoted to it. Somehow, at nearly two hours, Scream 7 is too long, but too rushed.
Check out Modern Horror Screams, a special podcast covering the entire Scream franchise!
Thinking back, there’s a moment in Scream (2022) when it’s addressed just how disappointing the latest entry in a horror franchise has been. That, and how in need of fresh inspiration it is.
Turns out it was a premonition. Scream 7 is a franchise low, and a very long way from where all this started.
Scream 7 is in UK cinemas 27th February.
