Scream 7 Is the Franchise’s Rise of Skywalker

Here we are, at the first Scream movie that feels like it was crafted solely to make money. It goes so out of its way to please fans that it ultimately does the opposite. It’s pandering, it’s bland, the Ghostface reveal is a whiff, and the highly publicized returns of (deceased or seemingly deceased) franchise veterans don’t play nearly as well as the movie seems to hope they will. Is it entirely without merit? No. The opening scene is pretty good, and it features arguably Neve Campbell’s best acting in the franchise thus far. But is it the lowest of the Scream movies? Undoubtedly. It’s not even close.

Those last five words are more or less directed at those who rip on Scream VI. And that includes Scream 7 itself.

Spoilers for Scream 7 follow.

How Does It Play Things Too Safe?

We’re going to dive right into Scream 7‘s Ghostface reveal so, seriously, if you don’t want spoilers, turn back now. Alright…the reveal.

Scream 7 has one Ghostface die about midway through the movie. His name was Karl Gibbs, and he was a resident at an institution. Sidney Prescott-Evans and Gale Weathers investigate said institution and meet Ethan Embry’s Marco Davis, who tells them that Stu Macher, who is apparently alive and scarred, showed up a few years back as a John Doe.

The truth is that Stu (thankfully, points to Scream 7 on this) is dead as disco. Marco is one of the Ghostface killers as is Anna Camp’s Jessica Bowden, Sidney’s neighbor.

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In spite of Embry and Camp’s efforts, and they are worth mentioning, Jessica and Marco are the worst Ghostfaces of the saga by a country mile. Marco’s motive is basically “Jessica told me to” while Jessica’s two motives are far more emblematic of how this thing plays like a cash-in instead of an active attempt to move the franchise forward. Even Scream 3 was trying to move the franchise forward.

One is the fact that Jessica is obsessed with Sidney and loved her book, Out of Darkness. The message Jessica got out of that was that if you kill the people who are damaging your life, that’s how you get, well, out of darkness. There’s half a good idea there: people get whatever message they want out of works of art. Fair enough.

The other part of Jessica’s motive is that Jessica was super bummed when Sidney (slash Neve Campbell) sat out the murders in New York. That is supposed to mirror the feelings of the fanbase at large.

The issue with that is the fact that, even without Campbell, Scream VI was far from a disaster. Some people don’t like it, but even then it’s not as divisive as the gold standard of divisive franchise fare, which is Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Scream VI is no The Last Jedi (provided you’re part of the crowd who firmly believes it does not function as a Star Wars movie). It wasn’t as energetic and noteworthy as Scream (2022), and it does lack the fun spirit the franchise is known for, but that’s not a death sentence for it. It still functions as a Scream mystery chiller. It still has self-referentialism, it still has twists, and it still knows how to be an intense movie. In fact, there is no Scream movie that has its characters feel in danger more than Scream VI. In the end, plenty of them live, but the first time seeing it in theaters in 2023? No one felt fully safe. In Scream 7 the plot armor surrounding Sidney, her daughter Tatum, Mindy and Chad, and Gale glimmers in the sun.

Even if every devout Ghostface fan audibly hissed at the mere mention of Scream VI, Jessica’s “I missed you” motive would still be a shrug. Why? Because it’s still been only four years since we last saw Sidney Prescott take on a masked maniac. She may not have been the lead of Scream (2022), but her presence was felt. You have to be separated from someone for a while to really miss them, and it hasn’t been long enough for the audience to through and through miss Sidney Prescott.

There aren’t any moments in Scream 7 that feel particularly intelligent. There are no set pieces that really get the hairs raised on your neck, like Gale avoiding Ghostface in the sound room in Scream 2. There are no moments that really shock, like Charlie stabbing Kirby in Scream 4. And, while Scream VI gets bashed for being too serious, at least that’s what it was going for. Scream 7‘s tone is slightly lighter, but if it was going for meta humor at any point it was hard to tell.

The simple truth is that Scream 7 is an extra button on a garment. It’s good to see Sidney again, but her narrative really did conclude with Scream 3. As for the Carpenter sisters, their arcs got a bow tied on them when Sam dropped that Ghostface mask on the street in the final moment of Scream VI.

Even as a die-hard fan of this franchise it’s hard to see why this one really needed to come our way, much less any others in the future. And, given its opening weekend haul, this could go the way of Friday the 13th (2009) and we’re still getting a Scream 8. Since that’s become something of an inevitability, let’s just hope it gets back to a place where it’s trying to advance the saga, not just be as safe as possible to please fans, because the Scream audience is smart enough to want more than pandering.

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