‘Scream 7’: The Return of Neve Campbell Fails to Sharpen a 30-Year-Old Franchise Left on Dull Autopilot 

Alci Rengifo

After controversial changes in cast and switching directors, “Scream 7” arrives with hopes of convincing fans that there is still some life left in this franchise. This year marks three decades since the original “Scream,” directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, premiered to instant cult status. Williamson returns to co-write and direct this seventh installment; even still, it proves that sometimes certain forms of movie magic just can’t be repeated. After two successful legacy sequels, “Scream 7” becomes a vehicle for precisely the kind of clichés and illogical twists this franchise originally mocked. A big fan draw is the return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, surely one of the most traumatized scream queens of all time at this point. But star power is not enough this time to make the screeches work.

A rather hilarious opening finds a couple (Jimmy Tatro and Michelle Randolph) getting slashed by a new Ghostface at the house of “Scream” psycho Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), which has been turned into a true crime museum. Williamson then basically abandons the plot threads from the last two movies, shifting the lens to Pine Grove, Indiana, where Sidney runs a coffee shop, lives married to cop Mark Evans (Joel McHale) and has a teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Life for the teen means existing under the shadow of her famous mom. She can’t even let her boyfriend, Ben (Sam Rechner), sneak in through the bedroom window without Sidney having PTSD. When Sidney receives a facetime call from an apparently undead Stu (who you may recall had his head smashed by a TV in the ’96 movie), she goes into full combat mode. Unsure if this Stu may be an AI creation, what Sidney has no doubt about is that someone is targeting Tatum. 

“Scream 7” has all the marks of a hastily put together plot. The franchise fell into chaos when original legacy sequel star Melissa Barrera was fired after making public comments against the genocide in Gaza. Co-star Jenna Ortega swiftly bowed out as did director Christopher Landon. As a result of all this backstage drama a pay dispute with Campbell was suddenly resolved. As if to wipe the slate clean, Williamson does away with the arcane mythology the movies have been building over the last three decades. There are some passing references to the various twisted family members and offspring, and barely any mention of the New York events from “Scream VI.” But for the most part this is a self-contained screamer where Sidney spends most of the movie getting threatening calls (voiced once more by Roger L. Jackson) or speeding down streets. The movie trivia fun of the originals is gone as well as the brilliant self-consciousness of the first movie. By now it is almost long forgotten that the fun of “Scream” was how it served as a commentary on teen slasher movies, with the characters being aware they were players in a plot. 

Williamson’s screenplay, co-written with Guy Busick, simply introduces characters in a story that never gains any momentum. A key mistake is that instead of letting a new generation of teens take over and become the focus, as in the last film, this one unconvincingly keeps it all about Sidney and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), who we learn is freelancing now after having her show cancelled. Twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), from the last two movies, are back as Gale’s camera crew. Everyone’s function isn’t to advance the narrative so much as to stand around lamenting how “this has to end tonight,” etc. The high schoolers have potential, like Lucas (Asa Germann), a socially awkward true crime obsessive. The rest are not even worth mentioning because Ghostface annihilates them all in one swift attack at the pizza parlor where they gather, turning one victim into a human beer tap. Tatum has less lines than her mom, though she gets to run a lot through hallways and small corners, despite Sidney telling her, quite hilariously, that she should stay out of this latest plot because “you don’t have the skill sets.”

As any “Scream” fan knows, we are expected to spend most of the movie attempting to figure out who the new killer is. The payoff this time around is absolutely aimless. Even the lesser sequels have found some kind of wild, though entertaining, logic to whoever decides to put on the Ghostface costume. “Scream 7” concludes with such a random reveal that we really must wonder what Williamson was thinking. There are also small bits of commentary on AI, deepfakes and true crime culture that go nowhere, as if the writers were finding any buzzwords to momentarily toss into the blender. The killings also struggle to find new ways to disembowel someone, including a drama student left hanging over a stage. If “Scream” was a commentary on its genre, “Scream 7” defines everything its predecessors were making fun of. A small saving grace is the soundtrack, which here and there has a few good needle drops, but the killer’s knife has become very dull.

“Scream 7” releases Feb. 27 in theaters nationwide.