Scream 7 is packed with crowd-pleasing moments, but its heavy reliance on nostalgia and a cowardly elephant in the room behind the scenes make it hard to recommend to anyone beyond the most passionate fans.
The murder mystery franchise wrapped in a blood-soaked slasher package has always been the perfect metric for assessing the status of the horror genre with any new release. Wes Craven’s original satirical masterpiece was released at the pinnacle of the slasher craze, just as audiences were growing weary of seeing Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees mutilate yet another group of helpless teenagers.
Many of those iconic, once seemingly endless horror sagas have now been dead and buried for some years, with just the odd Halloween revival rearing its head to remind everyone of Jamie Lee Curtis’ scream queen status.
The Scream series therefore feels more essential than ever as fans are now struggling to decide what they want from horror. More moody, ‘elevated’ fare from A24 and the like (Longlegs, Weapons etc), or knowingly trashy, splatterfest send-ups like The Substance or the latest Final Destination?
Another Ghostface killer is on the prowl (Image: PARAMOUNT)
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Unfortunately, it’s become quite obvious that the creatives behind Scream 7 – with writer of the original 1996 hit Kevin Williamson returning to write and direct – don’t know either.
After Sidney Prescott’s (played by Neve Campbell) supporting turn in the surprisingly refreshing 2022 revamp and her absence in the less successful but still entertaining Scream 6, she’s finally back at the heart of the franchise, having built a new life for herself in Pine Grove, Indiana after putting years of trauma behind her. But, the ghosts of her past refuse to stay dead and she’s forced to protect her family from yet another Ghostface attack.
Originally a reliable sounding board for contemporary horror trends, Scream 7 feels reluctant to gesture to anything going on outside the world of the film, lest it draw attention to its own meta-narrative that has a not insignificant portion of fans protesting and boycotting the latest release.
Sidney Prescott returns to show us how its done (Image: PARAMOUNT)
It’s impossible to ignore the controversy surrounding the new entry in the stab-happy slasher after former lead Melissa Barrera was dropped from the franchise after posting in support of Palestine on social media, swiftly followed by Jenna Ortega exiting in solidarity.
The Carpenter sisters, Sam and Tara, are now conspicuously missing as the focus shifts jerkily over to Sidney’s full-throated return, now settled as a wife to husband Mark (Joel McHale) and mother to teenage daughter Tatum (Isabel May), both clumsy additions to her story who were not mentioned in the previous films.
The Scream series’ dwindling connective tissue has never felt more apparent than it does here. With Sam and Tara now out of the picture, only bickering twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) remain from the so-called ‘core four’, and their inclusion feels more like obligatory, extended cameos than a genuine presence.
Sidney must protect her daughter Tatum from yet another attack (Image: PARAMOUNT)
After their return, along with Courteney Cox’s still brilliantly icy Gale Weathers, generates a brief moment of elation, they’re soon relegated to the sidelines, occasionally peddling the expected meta exercises that once felt fresh and inventive but now feel embarrassingly cute. At one point, Mindy even admits they “don’t really do that anymore”. So much for Scream’s biggest selling point.
For the studios who fired their lead actress for taking the merest of political stands on social media, Paramount and Spyglass’ latest attempt to continue the Scream legacy feels fittingly toothless.
Rather than any attempt to either reinvent the franchise or take a stance on horror cinema itself, Scream 7 is the biggest culprit so far of cashing in easy nostalgia points, with most of its biggest twists simply cribbed from previous instalments.
Lead actors Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega have been dropped from the franchise (Image: PARAMOUNT)
Although it finally tackles some theories fans have been speculating and arguing about for years – including a suitably nutty performance from a ‘surprise’ returning star everyone could see coming a mile away – it all feels too little too late.
The newcomers are also disappointing, including Sam Rechner as Tatum’s boyfriend Ben, Mckenna Grace as her friend Hannah, and Asa Germann as creepy neighbour Lucas, who all feel like thinly-drawn afterthoughts and, while there are some deliciously creative kills scattered throughout, it’s nothing we’ve not seen before and it’s difficult to muster much sympathy for Ghostface’s latest knife-fodder.
The Meeks-Martin twins’ return feels like an afterthought (Image: PARAMOUNT)
As a die-hard fan who ranks the original Scream as top-tier horror, it’s hard to be totally objective, and there were still elements of the new sequel to be enjoyed, primarily Sidney and Tatum’s genuinely sweet relationship and a handful of suspenseful moments that were at least somewhat visually interesting. Sadly, the narrative is far too generic and its twists fall too flat to stand out among the more refreshing chapters in this long-running series.
Overstuffed and frequently dull, with awkward sidestepping from the thread of its two predecessors and cheap ploys for nostalgia, the latest Scream confirms the well of ideas has officially run dry. Time for a lengthy hiatus to see what better horror filmmakers cook up next before Ghostface’s inevitable resurrection to take them down a peg.
Scream 7 is in UK cinemas from Friday, 27th February.