By Simon Thompson
To put the longevity of the Scream franchise into perspective, it has been around for five US presidents, nine UK prime ministers, five generations of video game consoles, and the last few years of The Simpsons being funny. As far as long running iconic horror franchises go, the Scream series has seen off its competitors Friday The 13TH and Nightmare On Elm Street (the two franchises it was created to make fun of in the first place in 1996) and is to the horror genre what John Lewis is to online retail – a living reminder of a previous era.
Bringing back the franchise’s regular protagonist Sidney Prescott (who was noticeably absent from Scream 6 due to a salary dispute between Paramount and Neve Campbell), Scream 7 picks up with Sidney having built a new life for herself with her husband Mark (Joel McHale) and daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Unfortunately for Sidney, a new Ghostface has emerged to upend the newfound tranquillity that Sidney has built for herself. Sidney’s worst fears are realised when this new mystery Ghostface begins to target Tatum.
Directed and co-written by franchise old hand Kevin Williamson, the script for Scream 7 is a self-congratulatory echo chamber suffering from a level of pleased with itself smugness that puts Lewis Hamilton and Will Self to shame. There is a semi-interesting point that Williamson and co-writers Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt try to make about the rise of true crime as a kind of morbid cottage industry, but it’s sidestepped in favour of obnoxiously inserting nostalgia ploys almost every second scene instead.
I will give Williamson some credit however, because he does understand the basic concept of set up and pay off, and there are two set piece kills which, without going into specifics ,are genuinely well shot and creative. In addition to the self-satisfaction , what the script really suffers from above anything else is predictability – culminating in a final act which would be classed as too hacky even for an episode of Scooby Doo.
From an acting point of view, Neve Campbell gives a reliably solid performance as Sidney (a part that she has played so much she could probably do it in her sleep), Courtney Cox brings a nice dose of snark in her reprisal of long running series character Gale (when she’s able to emote through several layers of plastic surgery) and as a huge fan of Community it’s always nice to see Joel McHale getting work, but the rest of the supporting cast are absolutely dreadful. While Tatum, undergoes a character arc throughout the movie, the vapid group of what some out of touch Hollywood marketing people think Gen Z teenagers are like are skin crawlingly irritating, which has the knock on effect of you not caring at all about what happens to them. The worst offenders however are the sibling duo of Chad and Mindy (Mason Gooding and Jasmine Savoy Brown) who are the smug, quippy, personifications of the script’s pleased with itself tone.
Overall, Scream 7 is a lacklustre entry into a franchise that has run out of ideas and is resorting to cheap nostalgia. If you’re a fan of Scream you’re probably going to go and see this anyway, and if you’re not familiar with the previous movies or are on the fence in any way, then frankly don’t bother.
Scream 7 is now in UK cinemas.
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