With: Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Joel McHale, Courteney Cox, Anna Camp, Matthew Lillard, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Mckenna Grace, Asa Germann, Celeste O'Connor, Sam Rechner, Mark Consuelos, Tim Simons
Written by: Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick
Directed by: Kevin Williamson
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence, gore, and language
Strong on nostalgia, and with a few good jump-scares, Kevin Williamson's Scream 7 sadly lacks the meta-quality that made the original movie great, nor does it have the freshness of the previous "requel" entries.
A young couple (Michelle Randolph and Jimmy Tatro) book a stay at the legendary "Macher House," where the killings from the original movie took place, and are hacked up by a new Ghostface Killer. In the small town of Pine Grove, Sidney (Neve Campbell) is trying to lead a normal life, running a coffee shop, married to a police officer (Joel McHale), and raising three kids. Her eldest, teen Tatum (Isabel May) has been a handful lately, wanting to know more about her mother's past, while Sid just wants to protect her.
It's not long before Sid gets another threatening call from another Ghostface, but, strangely, this one turns out to be from Stu (Matthew Lillard), who was thought to have been killed thirty years ago. Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) arrives on the scene with her new crew, twin siblings Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), and everyone sets about trying to uncover the identity of this latest killer.
Williamson, the creator of the original Scream and the writer of the superior sequels Scream 2 and Scream 4 (director Wes Craven's final movie) returns to co-write and direct Scream 7. He clearly has a fondness for Sidney, and is interested in her relationship with her daughter, but, truthfully, he's not much of a director.
This is only his second time at the helm, and the first was Teaching Mrs. Tingle, a dud of a horror-comedy that no one remembers fondly. The best scenes here involve Sidney handling the challenges and traumas of her life — and Campbell gives a very strong performance — while the worst involves the final reveal, a huge stretch of logic that will leave most viewers shaking their heads.
For the most part, the filmmaking is functional. The Ghostface stalking sequences are fine, somewhat rudimentary, owing a great deal to the late Craven, but sometimes rather silly, as when Sidney and Tatum are shimmying through a narrow crawlspace, clearly susceptible to knives being plunged through the drywall.
But the biggest flaw in the movie is the absence of horror movie knowledge that allows the characters to stay on an even playing field with the killers. That has turned into fandom, knowledge with no practical use. Maybe that's what Scream 7 is ultimately trying to say, but its lackluster presentation feels mismatched.
Paramount's fine-looking 4K and Blu-ray release includes a Dolby Atmos audio mix and a 5.1 mix as well as multiple other languages. There are also a plethora of optional subtitles. Bonuses include "Scar Tissue: The Making of Scream 7" (21:49), "Building Tension: Production Design" (8:13), "Dance of Death: Stunts" (6:27), a music video ("Twisting the Knife") featuring Mckenna Grace (3:27), and six deleted scenes (5:09). A digital copy of the movie is also included.
