Scream 7 is a box office hit, earning a franchise record-breaking $97 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Scream 7 got to that big number by marketing itself as a direct sequel “event” that saw franchise star Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott) take on the leading role for the first time since Scream 4 (2011). It was clearly enough to get fans back in theaters to see Sidney (and her teenage daughter) take on the Ghostface Killer – but once again, it’s a divisive turn for a classic franchise that’s trying to stay relevant.
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While viewers seem to be embracing it, Scream 7 holds the lowest critical rating of any Scream movie – and is a major drop-off, critically and with viewers, from Scream VI. There will be a lot of debate about whether or not Scream 7‘s box office record was built on the goodwill generated by Scream VI; more interesting is the conversation about where the franchise goes from here because Scream is far from being “so back,” even if the seventh installment is a success.
Scream 8 Can’t Be A Scream 7 Sequel
Let’s be very upfront and clear about something: getting Sidney Prescott back for Scream 7 came at a cost – and we’re not talking about salary. It’s clear in the first half of the film that Campbell and director Kevin Williamson are more concerned with a Sidney Prescott character study than any of the traditional Scream movie staples. In fact, it’s hard to call Scream 7 a Scream movie, since so much of it focuses on Sidney and her midlife struggles as both a mom and a survivor, with little to no meta commentary on legacy sequels, aging ‘scream queen’ icons, Sidney being a piooner of the ‘final girl’ archetype in the ’90s – or anything else of cinematic significance.
That’s not a narrative approach that can continue into the next film, or the franchise will no longer be Scream in any recognizable sense. To their credit, Campbell and Isabel May (who plays Sidney’s daughter, Tatum) were a fine pairing in Scream 7; that said, the film didn’t make enough of a case for ‘the continuing adventures of Sidney Prescott and family’ feel like a compelling enough sell for the next film. Nor does it seem like Neve Campbell has any burning desire to keep going with the character. Compared to the performances she’s giving in shows like Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer, or Peacock’s Twisted Metal game adaptation, Neve Campbell looked like she was only half-interested in playing Sidney again. At this point, she’s more than done her duty to fans, and Scream 7 feels like it should be the last time she has to carry the franchise’s water/.
So if Scream 8 can’t hinge on the continuing story of Sidney Prescott (or Tatum Evans), but the box office receipts call for another installment, what is the franchise supposed to do?
Scream Needs To Kill the Past (Literally)
Scream 8 needs to fake everyone out with a shock that will have viewers sitting up in their theater seats and distressed: killing Sidney Prescott. Neve Campbell has done it all in the Scream franchise, save for the one thing that other actors get to enjoy and bond over: getting an epic death scene. Ghostface’s brutal chasing and killing of victims i is one of the distinguishing features of the Scream franchise; Campbell deserves one of the most epic.
We’d go so far as to really set a brutal tone for Scream 8 by having Sidney’s entire family get taken out by a team of Ghostface killers, after a valiant battle in the opening sequence. Don’t stop there, either. Whether it happens early or happens late, Scream 8 needs to be the end for Courtney Cox’s Gale Withers, as well. The seventh film already set up Gale’s successors as the franchise throughlines in twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy), the only characters to cross back over from the aborted trilogy that was supposed to be Scream 5, 6, and 7. Gale’s overstayed her welcome (after what would’ve been an epic death in Scream VI), so let’s clear her out, as well.
It would be the literal and figurative killing off of the past franchise, clearing the way for a new era to truly begin, after two attempts (Scream 4 and Scream 5) to reboot the franchise with Campbell only half-in. It would also clear space to do one of two things to push the franchise forward…
Finish the Trilogy or Reboot Back to the Meta Roots
Scream 8 can rebuild the franchise in a post-Sidney era via one of two ways: finishing the ‘Carpenter Sisters trilogy’ started in Scream (2022) and Scream VI, or reboot the franchise again for a new era.
The former is hard to envision in this moment: Scream 7 is arriving on a tidal wave of controversy surrounding the Paramount corporation and its political ties. The franchise was hit with a shockwave when Scream VI star Melissa Barrera was fired for posting political views on the war in Gaza, which started a domino effect of Barrera’s co-star (and onscreen sister) Jenna Ortega also exiting, and directors att Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka “Radio Silence”) also jumping ship, and doing their own 2024 vampire horror project with Barrera over at Universal (the very underrated Abigail).
Everyone has since moved on, with Ortega’s fame exploding thanks to Netflix and Tim Burton’s Addams Family spinoff, Wednesday (Season 3 in production); Radio Silence has a highly anticipated survival-horror sequel, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come hitting theaters in a few weeks, while Barrera has had TV and film roles and is now taking a starring role as Rose in a Titanic Broadway show. Safe to say, none of that former cast is begging for another chance at Scream; if they ever did return, it would likely only be to finish their trilogy for the fans. And that’s sidestepping all the obvious hurdles of Barrera, Ortega, and co. working with Paramount again.
The safer, easier, and (frankly) cheaper bet would be to reboot Scream again. Get back to the series’ meta roots, and use Sidney Prescott’s iconic status as the root of a new story. Times have changed drastically: horror is big business, and the new “indie” pursuit for edgy teens and college kids is creating content out of real life; true-crime stories, podcasts, documentaries, etc. The franchise can introduce a new set of characters (young actors, lead final girl) who endeavor to solve Sidney’s murder, thinking it would be premium content that secures their career as content creators and influencers. Instead, they end up inspiring the new Ghostface(s) to create ‘kill-for-clicks’ content, straight from murderer to consumer. You can already see the ways that a smart Scream script would have so much to say about our culture in that context. It could be brutal, wittily honest and observant, and just fun again. Everything Scream (1996) was, and Scream 7 was not.
What do you want to see after Scream 7? Let us know on the ComicBook Forum!
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Courtesy of David Production
