Scream 7 – Review

Cert – 18, Run-time – 1 hour 54 minutes, Director – Kevin Williamson

Ghostface (Roger L .Jackson) comes back, taking on faces from the past, to once again attack Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), by also targeting her teenage daughter (Isabel May).

My views on Scream VI were that it suffered from a rushed production. It was a film that needed more than a year from greenlighting to release. Scream 7 has had a much more tumultuous production. With multiple re-writes and directors dropping out, following the firing of new franchise faces Melissa Barrera, and quitting of Jenna Ortega, following comments made by Barrera in support of Palestine, causing it to take three years to get to the screen; with Neve Campbell returning to the role of Sidney Prescott (now Sidney Evans) having not been in the previous instalment when the pay offered to her didn’t match what she believed she was worth. Also returning is original Scream (and Scream 2 and 4) writer Kevin Williamson, taking on directing duties as well as co-writing with Guy Busick who created the story with James Vanderbilt.

With Ghostface (again voiced by Roger L. Jackson) taunting Sidney and her teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), with faces from her, and the killer’s, past there’s a slight feeling of this seventh instalment clinging to that whilst being significantly less self-aware. The kills are more intense and at times in the first few instances almost feel as if they border on sadistic with how much they linger on gory details. Two early examples in particular feel as if they could be tonally better suited to Saw than Scream; as if trying to rival recent, non-franchise-threatening, slashers such as Terrifier or In A Violent Nature. Yet, it’s these sequences where Williamson feels most engaged as a director, leaning into the loudness of the moment as opposed to the soap opera-esque stylings of more dialogue-centric scenes.

As for his cast, however, whether new faces, newer faces, faces who have been with the series for the last 30 years or just Ghostfaces, there’s a consistent feeling throughout that most people we see on-screen would rather be elsewhere. It simply feels as if a number of key cast-members’ hearts aren’t in this particular film and that lack of energy comes through and dampens a film that’s already struggling to get beyond a weak script. One lacking in proper engaging actions for its characters, leaving them to feel stuck in the same rotation of scream-led chases and attacks. Amongst all of this I found myself sat simply bored, the film not pointing out its own clichés as it became focused on referencing the past with more old faces cropping up in supporting roles more than cameos.

There’s less a feeling of multiple re-writes or a story that’s changed hands and more one that’s purely weak. One that isn’t completely bought into by those on screen – the reveal of who’s behind the Ghostface mask this time leads to suddenly hammier acting than ever – and subsequently those watching. Maybe an unnecessarily troubled production led to a sense of weariness from those involved. But, there seems little attempt to cover that up on screen as actors limply fight off another, unthrillingly bloodier, Ghostface.

With ill-fitting focus on the severity of attacks and a soap opera style outside of them, Scream 7 is a weak story that it seems very few involved buy into. There’s an unengaging lack of energy on screen and an overall weariness to much that happens.