Sidney is back! After skipping the New York detour in “Scream VI” due to a salary dispute, Neve Campbell (“Skyscraper”) is more central to the seventh part of the cult slasher series than she has been since “Scream 3”. But probably (almost) just as important for fans: With Kevin Williamson, the actual inventor of the series is also returning, who first came up with the idea of making the “Scream!” originally titled “Scary Movie”. to populate it with all kinds of genre experts and thus spice up a classic whodunit plot with self-referential meta elements. The rest is horror film history – thanks, of course, to Wes Craven’s brilliant direction.
Williamson is not only involved in “Scream 7” as a co-writer, he also took a seat in the director’s chair for the first time in the franchise’s history. However, the “Dawson’s Creek” and “Vampire Diaries” creator wasn’t the first choice. Instead, the production suffered even more than “Scream VI”, which had to be rewritten at short notice after Campbell’s cancellation, from staff shortages: first Melissa Barrera was fired because of Gaza postings, then Jenna Ortega left the project – officially due to scheduling problems – before the intended director Christopher Landon (“Freaky”) finally pulled out. This eventful production history is definitely noticeable in “Scream 7”. A lot of things seem inconsistent, especially tonally – right down to the surprisingly bland resolution this time.
Neve Campbell is back in “Scream 7” – and plays a more central role than she has in a long time!
Speaking of returns: In the obligatory pre-credit sequence we also go back to the murder house from “Scream” and “Scream 5”. This is now an Airbnb for true crime aficionados – including an animatronic Ghostface killer. Just like the unsuspecting pair of victims, “Scream” super fans can hardly get enough of the iconic setting: Here Sidney transported Stu to the afterlife with the TV, there Amber Freeman burst into flames on the stove. But what you also notice straight away is that it all drags on quite a bit until Ghostface finally shows up – and promptly delivers his first memorable kill with the help of the chandelier.
After his unfairly flopped grotesque “Kill Mrs. Tingle,” “Scream 7” is only the second film directing effort in Kevin Williamson’s long career after a 27-year break. It’s no wonder that he simply doesn’t have the same sense of timing and atmosphere as Wes Craven once did – or at least the same restless power as Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who took over for two films after Craven’s death. Instead, it becomes clear: Williamson was probably primarily responsible for the allusions, humor and teenage trauma back then, while Craven contributed the consistent tension with his precise production.
Sidney Prescott 2.0
After the Manhattan massacre in the previous film, this time we don’t go back to Woodsboro, but to a comparable small town where the autumn leaves always have that perfect color that you only know from TV Christmas films: Sidney now lives here with her police chief husband Mark (Joel McHale) and their three children. The two younger ones are currently with their grandmother, but 17-year-old Tatum (Isabel May) is now the same age as her mother was when the first series of murders occurred. Sidney wonders whether it is right that she constantly shields her daughter from everything bad – or whether, on the contrary, she should have prepared her better for the worst. So is Tatum an anti-Sidney – or more of a Sidney 2.0?
In any case, the mother-daughter story gets so much space that there is little room for the other new additions such as neighbor Jessica (Anna Camp), true crime nerd Lucas (Asa Germann) or would-be pizza baker Chloe (Celeste O’Connor) to shine. Especially since in addition to Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who makes a first appearance worthy of applause, Matthew Lillard also returns. Finally, the killer no longer hides his face, but reports via video call with the scarred visage of the original Ghostface killer Stu Macher. But can it really be that he is still alive – or is it just AI progress?
Will Tatum (Isabel May) follow in her infamous mother’s footsteps?
After half an hour, it briefly seems as if Kevin Williamson and Guy Busick, who also wrote the scripts for the two direct predecessors, are turning the entire concept of the “Scream” series completely inside out – and thus possibly setting off for a really big hit. But puff cake! On the contrary, it has probably never been as easy as this time to predict the resolution – and that is not the only reason why it seems rather inconsequential. Williamson also oversteps the mark here and there when it comes to humor – without the corrective counterweight from Wes Craven:
So the self-absorbed theater teacher (Timothy Simons), after one of his students has just been disemboweled on stage by Ghostface, asks how anyone could do that to HIM, since there isn’t even an understudy. The “Scream” movies have always been funny, too, but the role is sharply bordering on caricature, the kind you’d more likely expect to see on a TV sketch show.
Less pace, similar amount of gore
The same applies to a particularly boozy kill in a bar, which, in its absurd exaggeration, is more reminiscent of 1980s slasher cinema. But apart from that, Kevin Williamson is not sloppy, at least when it comes to gore: While a knife shoved into the skull in the pre-credit opening looks conspicuously like CGI, a short time later there is a particularly nasty and detailed kill during a Peter Pan interlude.
And after almost 30 years of preaching that you have to shoot them in the head if you don’t want someone to get back up, in “Scream 7” this good advice is taken to the most grotesque, bloody extreme possible…
Conclusion: Even the weakest part of the series so far still has amazing entertainment value – so nothing stands in the way of “Scream 8”, and hopefully this time with a slightly less eventful production history.