Movie Review: Scream 7

By John Corrado

Ghostface is back in Scream 7, the latest film in the meta slasher movie franchise that revolves around copycat killers putting on the mask to recreate the original murders in Woodsboro, California.

I promise not to get into spoilers in this review, but without burying the lede, Scream 7 is fun. This latest instalment arrives a full thirty years after the 1996 film that started it all, and puts Neve Campbell back in the leading role, after the fifth and sixth instalments served more as soft reboots centred around a fresh cast of characters.

Campbell, who sat out the New York-set sixth instalment in 2023 (don’t worry, we get meta references to that decision, too), is now back as original “final girl” Sydney Prescott. Only Campbell’s Prescott is now Sydney Evans, married to police chief Mark (Joel McHale) in the quiet town of Pine Grove, Indiana, where they are raising their teenaged daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Tatum is at that age where she is becoming more curious about her mother’s highly publicized history, but Sydney is reluctant to talk about it.

That is, until a new Ghostface killer emerges in the town, and forces a hard conversation about her past. This draws back reporter Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), who is still chasing that “exclusive interview” with Sydney. Gail is now working with pop culture-savvy siblings Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), who are returning from the last two films.

This brings us to addressing the elephant in the room, which is that Scream 7 switches focus from those fifth and sixth instalments that helped relaunch the franchise, with Melissa Barrera being dropped by the studio, and co-star Jenna Ortega leaving in solidarity. This forced Scream 7 to diverge somewhat from the new direction being forged in these soft reboots, and go back to the original timeline, if you will.

Regardless of how certain fans feel about this decision (I won’t get into the politics behind it), there is an enjoyable sense of inevitability to seeing Campbell back in the leading role, and we can tell that she is relishing the opportunity. She delivers a strong performance, and this also leads to some self-referential commentary on if she is too old and washed up to still be a “final girl,” something that Campbell’s character flatly rejects. As her daughter, May does a solid job of holding her own, and proves herself to be an engaging addition to the franchise.

This latest film comes to us from original screenwriter Kevin Williamson, who co-wrote the script with Guy Busick (2022’s Scream, Scream VI) and also directs for the first time in franchise history. It’s no surprise that Williamson is so attached to his own lore, with Scream 7 playfully referencing many beats from the first film.

The real fun part of these films not only lie in all of the twists, fake-outs, and “everyone’s a suspect” storylines, but in the sense of playfulness behind them. Williamson obviously knows this formula well, enough for Scream 7 to play around with whether or not it is actually retconning the entire franchise and burning it to the ground, or still playing within the confines of it. It’s a clever enough gambit for a series that still needs to find ways to stay fresh, in an era of lazy nostalgia-bait and, worse, deep-faked AI slop.

Sure, it’s maybe not quite as inventive as previous entry Scream VI, which really let loose in New York City, and can feel like more of a straight-forward legacy sequel built on fan service. It’s also debatable whether or not the payoff and reveal fully lives up to the buildup. But Williamson still delivers the meta commentary, callbacks, and gory kills that the franchise has become known for. Guided by a “shoot him in the head” motif, Scream 7 certainly isn’t lacking in terms of blood and guts, including a sequence in a school auditorium involving a swinging safety harness that adds new meaning to the phrase no guts, no glory.

In true Scream fashion, we also get an opening sequence that plays like its own mini-movie, in this case a funny, subversive bit involving Michelle Randolph and Jimmy Tatro that really leans in to the horror comedy aspects of the franchise. As a whole, Scream 7 works as an enjoyable, back-to-basics slasher movie that mainly serves to pay tribute to the original.