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The first Scream famously made its mark by examining the conventions of horror films within the context of a highly effective horror film. The sequel then did the same thing for sequels, part three for trilogies and then part four looked at long running movie franchises. To be fair this idea was getting a little stretched by this point but then they waited a few years and brought out number five with its focus on legacy sequels. The sixth movie struggled with its mojo again and now we have the seventh. This time though Kevin Williamson, the man who started the whole thing as writer, returns and he has a brand new idea. His solution for carrying on the series that has built its reputation on meta narrative and cinematic intersexuality is to basically scrap all of that and just make a regular slasher film. The very lack of innovation is apparently its innovation. 

So has this worked? Frankly, no. Perhaps this was inevitable but the Scream series has become the very thing it was mocking. The only knowing aspect of the script here is one scene where it straight out says they are not doing the whole ‘rules thing’ this time, and the constant references to established protagonist Sydney Prescott not having been there for the last set of killings after actor Neve Campbell got in a pay dispute and elected not to be in the previous movie. She literally apologises for it about three times. Outside of this it is just a predictable, run of the mill urban psychopath story. (So predictable in fact that when I played a game with my viewing buddy to see if we could make a call on who would be the murderer and who would be the first main victim based purely on the poster I got them both spot on. I’m not gloating, it’s that obvious.)

And yet it’s not that bad. I mean, it’s fairly bad but there is still fun to be had here. The beginning and the end are particularly poor, which is as disappointing in a Scream movie as removing all the post modernism. The opening does not tie into the rest of the story at all and the same is almost true of the killer reveal with the murderer’s motivations being as weak as they were contrived in Scream 3. That third film is still my least favourite though as it tripped over itself in its plotting. This one is stripped down and does have some nice scenes. The individual components entertain and there are a couple of really effective punch the air moments. The entrance of one female character is a definite highlight and the exit of another is particularly gross but pays off on a running gag that has building across not only this movie but probably all of them. 

There are some great performances as well. It is no secret that Matthew Lillard is back as Stu Macher and he is great and Neve Campbell is so strong in this, her signature role. I didn’t miss her from the last film as Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera were a great central pairing but in their absence Scream once again hangs on Sydney Prescott. Speaking as someone that has been there from the start, seeing every movie in this series on its initial cinema release and having experienced a fair amount of my own life along the way, I also kind of love that whereas almost all of the parental figures were missing from the first one they are now the focus. I also like the fact that Sydney is still scared, that feels authentic. (By this stage she has genuinely killed more or as many people than any of the actual Ghostfaces, apart from Roman Bridger.)

One aspect that has plagued these films since it was introduced in 3 (another reason why I rail against that one) is the existence of the fictional Stab series, the movies within the movies which ostensibly tell the same story. Their inclusion has always been clumsy (except in number 5 which is one reason why I love that one). The ‘joke’ with these is that they’ve been kind of bad and the fact that there was as many as seven of them was seen as a sign of an idea being stretched too thin in Scream 4. Life is beginning to reflect art a bit here. In 2022’s Scream (the reboot and previously mentioned number 5 that briefly dropped the numbering giving it the same title as the 1996 original) the fact that Stab 8 was so awful was basically the reason why everyone was being killed. I have to say that I don’t think the world needs a Scream 8 but it’s sure to happen. Here’s hoping that it wraps everything up well when it comes. For all of this film’s little successes, that one needs to be better and it needs to be the end.