With the latest installment of the Scream franchise, Scream 7, came lots of mixed feedback from fans. Although some thought it was a creative and nostalgic addition to the franchise, many felt that the film fell short of the classic Scream elements that fans love. With one of the most disappointing killer reveals in the franchise and tons of wasted potential, this film was not all it was made out to be.
Scream 7 hit theaters on February 27th and did noticeably well on the box office opening weekend, setting a new record for the franchise and surpassing all the other Scream installments. That being said, numbers only mean so much. This film had a low Rotten Tomatoes score, only reaching a disappointing 34%.
One of the biggest setbacks of this film was the Carpenter sisters’ absences. Sam and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega), the two main characters of the 5th and 6th installments, were written out of the film after Barrera was fired by producers for speaking out about Palestine. After hearing the news, Ortega saw herself out of the production in protest of her close friend and co-star. It was rumored that Sam was initially going to be Ghostface in the original script, which would have been something new and cool to see.
This film brings back the franchise’s main final girl, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), as the main focus again. She is now married and has a daughter of her own, whom she named after her late best friend, Tatum, who was killed in Scream 1996. Tatum is the same age that Sidney was in the first film. Ghostface is back and has convinced Sidney and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) that Stu Macher (the first ever Ghostface, along with Billy Loomis) is back through AI FaceTime calls. Throughout the film, Tatum and her friends are being targeted. The killers end up being Jessica Bowden (Anna Camp), Sidney’s neighbor; Marco Davis (Ethan Embry), a mental institution orderly; and Karl Allan Gibbs (Kraig Dane).
My biggest issue with this film was the killers. Not only were they random and had very small roles in the film, but they also had no valid motives and an overall boring reveal. After bringing such a famous and fan-favorite character back into the picture, they missed the opportunity to have Stu be the killer. Other than the reveal, the film was good, not great. It had some creative kills, good chase scenes, and creative ideas. In my opinion, this film wasn’t bad, but it is definitely at the bottom of my ranking and was major nostalgia bait. With the cool opening sequence at the Macher house at the start, the film sparked my interest, but overall left me mildly disappointed.
