Scream 7 is about to hit theaters, and it is, perhaps, the most pivotal installment of the series yet. The team that brought Scream back for the 2020s with Scream (20222) and Scream VI exited the franchise, after star Melissa Barrera was fired (for political views) and her co-star Jenna Ortega dropped out. Scream 7 is in the hands of franchise writer Kevin Williamson, who is stepping into the director’s chair. The film is also bringing back some major legacy characters, including Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, and former Ghostface killers Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) and Roman Bridger (Scott Foley).
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The return of seemingly dead killers from Scream‘s past has raised a lot of questions about Scream 7. Theories have gone so far as to predict that the film has an entire meta layer to it, wherein Scream‘s movie-within-a-movie, Stab, could offer an opportunity for actors like Lillard and Foley to play versions of themselves. However, now that theory seems to be getting debunked, as Williamson is claiming that Scream 7 is abandoning the franchise’s main staple.
Don’t Expect Scream 7 To Be Meta
Kevin Williamson was speaking to Empire during their feature on Scream 7. During that interview, Williamson tried to manage fan expectations by teasing that the film won’t have the “goal” of weaving in a satirical meta-narrative into the subtext.
“This movie doesn’t really have that meta goal,” Williamson explained. “It’s continuing the legacy of Sidney Prescott. It’s all about her daughter. It’s all about family.”
The storyline of Scream 7 catches up with Sidney when she is now a mother to her own teenage daughter. “When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney 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, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.”
Based on that synopsis and the quote from Williamson, it seems more and more likely that Scream 7 will be a more straightforward and character-focused slasher-horror movie. The legacy of Sidney Prescott, as well as the mental and emotional scars she’s accumulated, seems to be the real point of interest for Williamson, and likely for Campbell too, as an older, more experienced actress. There has been a trend of it too, in horror: Jamie Lee Curtis returned to play an older and very traumatized survivalist version of Laurie Strode in Universal’s Halloween (2018) reboot; Sidney Prescott is arguably the biggest female horror icon besides Laurie Strode or Alien‘s Ellen Ripley, and Campbell (who was once often criticized for her acting) has more than earned the chance to go deeper with dramatic legacy peformance.
If anything, the “meta” nature of Scream 7 could be reflected through Sidney. The previous two installments of the series created a motif where the “final girl” (Barrera’s Sam Carpenter) experienced dark visions of her father, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich); Sidney has plenty of bad memories that can manifest as visions or dreams that are disrupting her daily life and role as a mother. That would allow for a layer of meta-awareness when people like Stu Macher appear onscreen, while keeping the main narrative more dramatic and character-focused.
Perhaps more concerning, though, are Williamson’s later comments about how much blood there is not in Scream 7. “We said, ‘We’re gonna be less bloody,’” he said. “We kind of screwed up with that. I said, ‘I think we need more blood.’ And Neve was like, ‘I think you’re right.’”
Scream 7 is thankfully rated R. It will be released on February 27th. Discuss your theories with us on the ComicBook Forum!
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