Scream 7 Review

Scream 7 Review

Sidney Prescott and the Scream franchise are back this weekend with Scream 7. A film that had a very troubled production with the firing of the stars of the previous two films. And having Neve Campbell and Kevin Williamson return to the franchise. How is this movie? Is it any good? Let’s talk about it!

The Good

For me the best thing about this movie is that it’s great to see Neve Campbell back as Sidney Prescott. I’m not a horror expert, there’re franchises that I haven’t seen. But of the franchises and final girls that I’ve seen, I think Sidney Prescott is the best one. She’s a strong character and it’s been really cool to see her evolution over this franchise. In this film, we see her at a very different point in her life. She has a daughter and she’s trying to connect with her daughter. The daughter is the same age that Sidney was when the original film took place. Seeing her from this high school girl to this mom trying to save her daughter is a very cool journey. Sidney’s arc in the film and where we see her has a lot in common with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode in Halloween (2018). She’s trying to protect her daughter and Sidney is this urban legend. The dynamics with her daughter, there’s a lot of similarities between the two. It’s not a total one to one comparison, both films are very different but there are similarities here. It’s a cool arc to see her. 

Another strong element here is Kevin Williamson as the director. It’s a bit weird that Kevin Williamson directed this movie but didn’t write the film. Williamson wrote the first four films, the films that were directed by Wes Craven. I was a bit curious as to how he’d do as the director of the film. I’ll say, he did a pretty good job with this film. There’s some really cool and creative imagery that has a bit more spark to them then I think some of the past films. Since Ghostface’s outfit is this black robe with this white mask, the characters and the audience would see the mask first. They use that in several of the sequences. Where you don’t see the body but all you see is the mask in the shadows and I loved those touches about the film. It’s not like this is one of the best directed horror films of all time. But the Scream movies aren’t known for having top notch direction, and I’m not saying this film is. But it’s solid direction with some creative visual touches that I hadn’t seen in a Scream movie before. 

The other thing about this film is that this might be the most violent Scream film. I didn’t rewatch the previous films prior to this film. So I don’t know if that statement would remain true if I rewatch the previous six films. But as of right now, based on my memory this is the most violent film in the franchise. The kills here are very well done, there’s two kills in particular that I think are very cool. The one that I think is going to get the most people talking is one at the bar. If you’ve seen the film then you probably know what I’m talking about. But it’s a gnarly kill that the imagery of it and the way that it’s done is so violent and had my audience reacting. The other one that I haven’t heard as many people talk about is one involving heights. That’s all that I’ll say, I don’t want to give anymore or hint at who the character is. But once again if you’ve seen the movie you know what kill I’m talking about. That second kill is another really violent and brutal kill and the final hit that kills the character is something. The opening sequence of the film has even more violent kills. If you go to the Scream franchise for their violent and over the top kills, you won’t be disappointed with this film. 

Finally, I was never bored with the film. From beginning to end, the film was entertaining and kept me engaged. While the final answers and reveals didn’t fully deliver the journey overall kept me engaged. The film of course starts off with this cold open and it never lets up until the credits roll. What’s interesting about this movie is that several of the sequences are fairly long so it moves really quickly. 

The Bad

Unfortunately, while there’s interesting ideas and solid moments here. The overall film wasn’t great and left a lot to be desired. One of the things that’s most fun when it comes to a Scream film is the final reveal as to who Ghostface is. With this movie, the final reveal as to who Ghostface is didn’t work at all. Throughout the film I was feeling frustrated with the film. Once the film reveals who Ghostface is, it was a mix of being predictable while being so left field that it didn’t make any sense. It’s a very weird mix of things that made the Ghostface reveal not work at all. What doesn’t make it about it, is that the motivation is so unclear. Leaving the theater I was so uncertain what exactly the motivation was. A popular film critic on YouTube, described it as “word salad”. Where it was cobbled together from a mix of words and ideas that didn’t really make anything. I Googled afterwards what the motivation was and it wasn’t at all what I got from the scene where it was revealed. The character that was revealed to be Ghostface, there was a rumor circulating for a while as to who this character is and how they’re connected to the franchise. Seeing the movie and hearing that rumor, it might’ve made that Ghostface reveal better. But with that rumor being false, it’s clear that it didn’t work at all. I thought the movie was heading down that direction based on some of the clues and hints they were given. 

One of the things that movie was marketed as was being this nostalgia play after the Scream was in trouble with the firing of Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega leaving the project. That’s when we got Neve Campbell and Kevin Williamson returning. We also got news that Matthew Lillard and several other past cast members were coming back. The movie was marketed and sold to the fans as this nostalgia play to win people over. The way they use the nostalgia elements and bring people back felt very lazy and weird to me. It’s tough to explain why it didn’t work because that would be spoiling it. These characters returning tie into the Ghostface motivation, and it just didn’t work for me. It felt like a cheap way to get audiences back but didn’t actually have anything fun or interesting to do with them. It’s doing a similar gimmick as to why Marvel Studios is doing with Avengers: Doomsday and I think Doomsday will tackle it better. Their inclusion feels so forced and like they had a general idea of what they wanted to do, but didn’t actually execute very well on those ideas. I think it was a mistake to put them in the marketing and announce them ahead of time. Because they’re used so little in the film but they were used as a big marketing gimmick. 

Finally, the film often strains an enormous amount of credibility. Where the only reason why certain things happen is because the movie needs them too, or otherwise the film wouldn’t continue. Some of this are due to the rewrites of the film. The film originally starred Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega but after they left the project they changed to Neve Campbell in the lead. You can tell where the rewrites were and which characters were added in. The film basically takes place in this small town (not Woodsboro) which means that there are cops all around. But at the times when the cops are needed the most, nobody shows up but if the cops had showed up then the movie would be offer. Even the ways in which characters come and go is very weird. Courtney Cox comes in about 25-30 minutes into the film, she then has a 10-15 of screentime then disappears for a large chunk of the film. Why? I don’t know. It feels like she was added in last minute and they didn’t know what to do with her. It’s such small mistakes that they made that easily could’ve been fixable if they had another draft of the script. But because they were trying to get this movie out as fast as possible with the rewriters of adding in Neve Campbell it meant the script wasn’t as strong as it should’ve been. 

Final Thoughts: While my excitement wasn’t super high for Scream 7, this was still a big disappointment that could’ve and should’ve been so much better. It’s great to see Neve Campbell back, there’s some fun kills in here as well. But the script and story as a whole wasn’t great and the way they brought back past characters really brought the film down. The online discourse surrounding this film is going to be very interesting this weekend. Scream fans are going to be polarized. 

The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)