The mask is familiar, the rules are rewritten, but does Scream 7 still cut deep or just scratch the surface?
Sydney Prescott (Neve Cambell) is back once again: this time in Pine Grove, living a peaceful life with her husband, Mark Evans (Joe Meldale), and her daughter, Tatum Evans (Isabel May).
Sydney was the first “final girl” after her mother, Maureen Prescott, was brutally murdered by Ghostface in the first movie. With her past resurfacing, she must figure out how to stop Ghostface to protect her daughter.
Sydney started receiving digital threats targeting her daughter from Ghostface: Jessica, Sydney’s neighbor. She created a plan with Marco, whom she met in Fallbrook, and Carl, a patient whom Marco met while working as an orderly at Fallbrook Psychiatric Hospital. They used an AI deepfake of Stu Macher (Mathew Lillard) to exploit the murders and to kill Sydney in front of her daughter, forcing Tatum to be the new “final girl”. Sydney becomes determined to find out who is terrorizing her family and stop Ghostface to put the horrors of her past to an end.
In 1996, the first Scream movie was released, rapidly becoming the new inspiration for the slasher genre. With the seventh installment of the franchise coming out this year, fans are wondering if Scream is long past its prime, or is it because of behind-the-scenes drama? Melissa Barrera, who played Sam Carpenter in Scream 6, was fired by the Spyglass Media Group due to her social media posts about the Israel-Hamas conflict; the studio viewed this as antisemitic.
Allegedly, Jenna Ortega (Tara Carpenter) also didn’t return to Scream 7 because of scheduling conflicts with Wednesday. Reportedly, her leaving was directly influenced by the situation with Barrera. Christopher Landon, who was hired to direct Scream 7, exited the project as well because of the aggressive online threats and abuse Barrera received.
Some believe that the chaos going on behind closed doors was the cause of the movie’s atmosphere change. Fans question whether or not this release was a nail in the coffin for the franchise; Scream 7 was initially supposed to be centered on Sam Carpenter’s spiral after Tara was murdered, leading to a psychological dark conclusion.
With Ortega and Barrera leaving, the script had a massive rewrite focusing on Sidney’s life as a mother and wife. “This is a movie that ran into countless issues doing pre-production, which has evidently led to its apparent failure,” said Soundsphere. Scream 7 has a storyline that came out of thin air; it is inevitable to notice the drawbacks from production issues. Despite having Kevin Williamson returning to the Scream franchise, there was no saving what was left.
Scream 7 felt like it had to be pushed out; changing the atmosphere from a more personal, intense, nostalgic horror experience to a faster-paced, back-to-basics approach threw off the plot. Changing the favorable original feel to the movie redirects the theme from what Scream is known for. “I thought that Scream 7 was okay, there were a couple of interesting scenes, but it didn’t compare to the earlier movies. I didn’t like who ended up being Ghost Face, as the characters were pretty irrelevant leading up to their reveal,” said Kayla Herr, senior. It seemed that the movie had to be released to maintain the title Scream has made for itself, which has dimmed the franchise’s spark.
With this new release, fans question how much longer this franchise will go on or if it will eventually be able to stab back again.
