NOW IN THEATERS! “The attack in New York… You’re lucky you sat that one out. It was brutal.” – Courtney Cox addressing Neve Campbell with the great news that she made the right choice in foregoing an appearance in Scream VI. Or maybe it’s Gale Weathers telling Sidney Prescott. That’s the beauty of the meta genre: you can just slap a “Why not both?” meme over it and call it a day. The self-mockery, which can sometimes be tiring, is the best thing about this latest installment. For those feeling nostalgic, we also see the debut of original Scream writer Kevin Williamson in the director’s chair for Scream 7.
Back when the kerfuffle was happening over Campbell refusing to sign on for Scream VI and “sitting it out,” I thought that would’ve been the perfect meta-move to mirror in the movie. Neve sits it out. Sid sits it out, only to surprise everyone by appearing half-way through. It would’ve been genius. Sidney shows up near the end to say, “You didn’t actually think I would let you guys die out here like this, did you?” Fans in theaters on opening night go crazy, sparking an unprecedented number of articles talking about it after hitting theaters, resulting in a huge box office bump beginning the next day. Unfortunately, Neve was not in the New York state of mind, and her refusal to sign on was real, leading to one of the most misguided films in the series. A Scream sequel without Scream queen Neve Campbell – What were they thinking?
But the franchise hit some near series-ending bumps in the road even earlier than that. After Scream 4 (AKA: SCRE4M), we lost Wes Craven, original director of the series. Everybody assumed this would be the end of it all. But, there was still money on the table. So they added new directors and writers, and carried on with the stabbiness.
On to 2026 with Scream 7, and the return of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)… Err, I mean Sidney Evans – Sid’s married name, as of Scream 5. People keep getting mad every time someone calls her Sidney Prescott in this movie, although I’m not sure why. Her husband Mark Evans is portrayed by comedic actor Joel McHale, but he espouses (“spouse” – Get it?) no comedy in this role. This is the episode in which we give in to fan demands and try to bring back old characters who are no longer alive, ie: Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), one of the killers from the first film. Sid, who now runs a coffee shop, begins receiving video calls from Stu, claiming he’s alive and coming for her and her daughter. But is it really Stu? Or is it an AI deepfake video? And if it isn’t, who is pretending to be Stu?
Ghostface getting ready to light it up in Scream 7
“Sid, who manages a coffee shop, begins receiving video calls from Stu, claiming he’s alive and coming for her and her daughter…”
This latest installment features a scene which Gale and Sid try to lure out Stu by doing a live television interview and asking him to call and tell them what he wants. I thought this would’ve been a much more effective and entertaining scene if they went live and just started lambasting him in a humorous manner – Sid: “You know who was the most pathetic out of all of these attempts to kill us?” Gale: “Definitely that Stu dork. What a p***y.” Sid: “Talk about bringing a spork to a knife fight. I’m surprised his mom didn’t name him Hot Topic.”
Some more great meta-commentary occurs in a bar scene with someone asking, “How could Stu Macher really be alive? Where’s he been? Under a rock? Nobody recognized him for 3 decades?,” to which another character replies, “That’s a ridiculous retcon for any franchise.”
As far as I’m concerned, the only character who needs to be brought back from the beyond in the Scream franchise is Randy (Jamie Kennedy). Randy was the best character, and they did him dirty. They could do it in a humorous and believable way by having Kennedy play Randy’s twin brother instead. Here comes Randy’s twin brother Andy to seek revenge for his brother’s death!
As an aside, I do have a question for the producers – What’s with the inconsistent stylization of the film titles? Beginning with Scream 4 (Stylized as SCRE4M), the series began creatively inserting the sequel numbers into the titles. But in Scream 5, they dropped the number and just called it Scream, the same title as the first movie. Why not 5CREAM? Then for Scream 6, they added the number back in, this time in roman numerals, stylizing “VI” into the M at the end of the title. Since we can’t do that with text, we just type it as Scream VI. Now with Scream 7, stylization has once again disappeared. Will the next installation be “8CREAM”? Maybe one of these days, they’ll take my advice and make the “STAB” movie, the fictional movie within the movie.
Anyway, if you’re a fan of watching endless people dressing up as Mr. Scream (AKA: Ghost Face) and getting offed by Sid and her merry band of brooders, check it out. One does not require cinematic genius to have fun, and this movie is indeed fun.
"…The self-mockery, which can sometimes be tiring, is the best thing about Scream 7..."
