Review by Tim Robins
Scream 7 is the latest entry to the Scream franchise begun with Scream (1996) and now thought to have grossed over $1 billion at the box office world-wide.
The new film has been fraught with controversy. During production, Melissa Barrera, a star of Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023,) and an intended star of Scream 7, was sacked by Spyglass, the films’ production company since Scream V.
Spyglass accused Barrera of making anti-Semitic remarks when she publicly described Israel as committing genocide in Gaza*.
The production, already delayed by COVID-19 and industrial action in Hollywood, also saw the departure of the directorial team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the well-received Scream V and VI. Barrara’s sacking also led to calls to boycott the new film. Some have.
On Scream 7’s release, more opprobrium has been heaped on the shoulders of its co-writer and director, Kevin Williamson. This is surprising considering, it was Williamson who first pitched Scream and went on to write the screenplay of Scream 1, 2 and 4, working alongside director Wes Craven.
In a way, Williamson’s latest script is analogous to Star Wars: The Rise of Sky Walker, in that it incorporates fan-pleasing legacy characters, but in a way few fans want to see.
Actress Neve Campbell, with five previous Scream movies under her belt, returns as celebrity author Sydney Prescott. Sydney has documented surviving various killers, all wearing ghostface masks, in a series of books beginning with Out of Darkness. These, in turn, have been made into the Stab film franchise.
Scream 7 is nothing if not self-referential. Indeed, the film opens at the familiar location of Woodsboro, where the house of Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), one of the ghostface killers who died in the first movie. The house has been turned into a Stab-themed Airbnb, complete with Stab, which is to say Scream, memorabilia. We meet a fan couple vacationing at the house, only to find its display of memorabilia seems to have become a little too interactive…
Cut to yet another leafy suburb – Pine Grove, Indiana – where Sydney now works as a barista. I’ll admit this is a somewhat baffling occupation for the former trauma counsellor and one that, unsurprisingly, attracts a lot of unwanted attention to her from the general public. When Sydney answers a video call, she comes face to ghostface with Macher. Yes, somehow, Macher has returned, but in a way no-one wanted.
As Scream 7 progresses, it turns out that “Out of Darkness” is something of a Chekhov’s paperback. Soon Sydney, her husband, Mark Evans (Joel McHale), their daughter, Tatum (Isabel May) and Tatum’s classmates and boyfriend, Ben (Sam Rechner) are being targeted by ghostface.
It’s clear that a lot of thought has been put into the script. There’s a running theme involving the next generation’s fight to take their own place in the sun. For example, this is the basis of a mostly played for laughs conflict between the intimidating reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox on excellent forms) and two younger reporters, who vie with her for exclusive coverage of the new ghostface killings.
I’ll admit there are some excruciatingly stupid moments in Scream 7 that actually had members of the audience gesticulating with frustration at the cinema screen – not least when Police Chief Evans has a ghostface in his clear sights and could easily save Tatum with a headshot. But, to me, the audience’s frustration also indicated their involvement in the film.
The film also has some cool moments of liminal horror. Particularly unnerving is the way we glimpse the ghostface mask to the left of the screen, pressing against plastic sheeting hanging in Prescott’s garage to loom over the Evans who is blissfully unaware of the impending attack. There are also a couple of gruesome deaths, including one where a student’s head becomes stuck on the handle of a beer pump.
It helps that the “Ghostface” killers are more fun to watch than the grotesque antagonists of other slashers from the Eighties’. Unlike Halloween‘s Michael (‘The Shape’) Myers, Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street) Kruger, or Friday 13’s Jason Voorhees, the “ghostfaces,” are neither super strong nor supernatural. Instead, they stumble about the place in pursuit of their prey. Yes, they still manage to survive multiple gunshots, but that’s because they wear bullet proof vests, ok?
A lot of the disappointment comes from the failure Scream 7 to pick up from Scream VI, which tore up the rule book by relocating Ghostface to New York and giving the character a shotgun. More significantly, the new film doesn’t really offer a meta commentary on any particular aspect of Hollywood movie conventions.
Still, I enjoyed the film but was taken aback to learn that it made over 97 million dollars in its opening weekend – the best in the franchise’s history. But, before you could say “take that, critics!” there was a drop of 74% in the second weekend – the worst in the franchise’s history.
Scream 7 remains stabby fun, but I suggest Scream 8 could be a lot bolder than this outing. Barrera’s sacking demonstrates that the context of Hollywood film production is much wider than the franchise has imagined. So are the possibilities for meta commentary. But any direction I suggest would just be a stab in the dark.
Tim Robins
Scream 7 is in cinemas now | Official Site: screammovie.com
Dear reader, a review is an opinion. Other opinions are available, including yours
* Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds | OHCHR
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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