SCREAM 7

The Scream franchise is now thirty years old, and sees its seventh film releasing in this milestone anniversary year. Having been a film that tore up the rule book to rewrite it back in 1996, it's deflating to see a once incredibly inventive franchise start to lose its once fearless bite.

When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, she must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

Scream should have ended after the fourth instalment, which was the last one directed by horror maestro Wes Craven. In 2022 though, Radio Silence found a way to bring it back to life and make it feel fresh for a whole new generation. Now on the seventh instalment, directed by the man who wrote most of these films along with other horror films, Kevin Williamson, that life is slowly fading. The cold open to Scream 7 is killer, and so promising for what's to come, as a couple visit the original Macher house that now runs as an Airbnb. It's tense and keeps the audience on their toes for a prolonged period, before literally setting fire to remnants of the past.

It's a shame that Williamson isn't able to maintain this level of intensity throughout, the film slowly becoming a bit of a slog. Yes, there's some interesting kills scattered throughout and this entry is particularly brutal, but the film's weakest moment is the killer reveal its been building to. These films hinge on that moment and it's the worst of the franchise when the masks are eventually taken off. You could sense the feeling of frustration from the audience at this exact moment. Also, Scream is at its best when Ghostface is being hit back in an almost slapstick fashion, not the superhuman killer they've turned into over the past few instalments.

Side note; you don't get to claim AI is the downfall of humanity early on in your film, only to have it play such a pivotal part in all of the shenanigans later on.

Neve Campbell returns after missing out on the New York killings, and even she feels as if she's going through the motions here. The maternal side of her character feels wasted with a weak script that reduces her to telling her daughter to stop seeing her boyfriend over and over again. There isn't any spark felt between the cast to make this an exciting thriller, familiar faces in the franchise even failing to show up and make a meaningful mark.

There comes a point in a franchise where everyone involved should take a step back and think, "Do we make any more?", to which the answer for Scream right now would be no. This seventh instalment is running on the fumes of the franchise, the underwhelming killer reveal being the biggest tell of all that ideas are running very thin.

Verdict: ★★½