Melissa Barrera’s character, Sam, was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air’s in the horror genre, particularly in this franchise, which hadn’t move on from Sidney, but now had that opportunity with Sam, and her unique story line, which was open to go many different ways at the end of Scream 6. Barrera was fired from returning to the project, due to some of her social media posts about the genocide taking place in Palestine. It was then quickly announced not long after that Jenna Ortega wouldn’t be returning either, and the director followed swiftly. It was then clear there was a little bit of a panic as Neve Campbell was quickly announced to be returning once again, and that writer of the original first 2 was going to be directing as well this time.
Scream 7 sees a new Ghostface killer pop up in Sidney’s new home town, threatening both her and her daughter, and her daughter’s friends. Is it one of her daughter’s friends with a vendetta, or someone from Sidney’s past out for revenge?
With the whole Barrera situation, it left a bad taste in the mouth of many, including mine, and I wasn’t excited for this installment at all. Bringing back Sidney, felt like the easy way out for the studio to try and win back some fans, and even more, so by bringing back Kevin Williamson, who was such a vital part of the original couple of films. The trailer’s didn’t stand out as anything particularly special either, and helped sell the film for what it ultimately is…generic and bland.
I imagine a big reason specifically Kevin Williamson was hired to return to the franchise was so they could rewrite it relatively quickly or maybe even while it’s filming. Obviously this film had to have a major change from the initial plans, and it just ultimately feels rushed, it feels like this was the first idea Williamson had when he took over, and adapted whatever script he was given to work with to fit it. It’s almost like a fan film. Specifically Sidney in this film, reminds me of Laurie in Halloween Ends, where it feels like we’ve seen everything we can of this character really and if the franchise is going to continue then it needs to move on, ironically something that this franchise was doing with Sam, and now must do again in order to stay relevant, and be better, rather than feeling like any other standard horror.
The film does have a couple of decent kill sequences. Scream is known for it’s cold opens, and this is a relatively fun one, of a couple (neither of which are known actors, so they messed up that bit) renting out the original house which has been turned into an Airbnb tribute, to the events that have taken place. A couple of other decent ones throughout the film, but they’re also inconsistent. You get some characters that are stabbed once and die, and then others which are stabbed repeatedly and left for hours and are alive. It’s little things that add up and make the film feel like there’s no stakes.
The new characters don’t particularly offer anything new we haven’t seen before. I think there’s an interesting idea to explore around Sidney and her daughter, and that’s the story that should’ve been told, and tries to tell but fails, by keeping them apart for most of the film. Her daughter is poorly written, coming across as extremely annoying, naive and not understanding, something I wouldn’t have expected from Sidney’s daughter.
Overall, Scream 7 as a generic horror is okay, but because it’s part of this franchise it feels like a much bigger failure. Scream is one of my favourite films of all time, and for this franchise to continue it’s going to need some major changes, either to bring back Melissa Barrera (something I don’t think will happen after she refused to meet up with the studio) or go in a completely different direction. Horror is at one of it’s biggest peaks with the likes of Weapons, Sinners, Longlegs, The Substance, all films which do something different, Scream can do that, and that’s the expectations this franchise has set for itself, or it needs to be put back on the shelf.
What did you think of Scream 7?
This review is the 1st of 6 films that I watched over the last 2 days, and was just the one I felt the most need to talk about asap. 5 more to go, so to be sure not to miss out on those follow me on social media @floodersfilms or the buttons below.
Flooders Films 
Leave a comment