It may be odd to say about a horror film but Scream 7 is all about relationships…more Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) relationships.
There is the 30-year frenemy bond with tabloid journalist Gale Weathers (Gale Weathers) and the extremely fragile connection she has with her teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Weathers is once again there when Sidney needs her the most but her arrival is also a painful reminder to Sidney that the loyalty, support hasn’t always been reciprocated, especially with all that shit going down in New York recently.
Tatum, named after Sidney’s best friend who got squashed in an automated garage door in the very first movie, lacks confidence and somewhat of a backbone since mom has been a helicopter parent, shielding her from the world unlike Halloween’s Laurie Strode who toughened and battle-tested her daughter Karen to face Michael Myers for when he would inevitably come calling. Then again, Strode lost custody of her daughter so perhaps Sidney knows best. Sidney avoids her past so much that Tatum has had to turn to the Stab movies and other sources to learn about what her mother went through.
Sidney’s domestic bliss (which includes Chief of Police husband Mark Evans played by Joel McHale) is shattered when a new Ghostface comes directly for her and her family though Tatum’s friends and others are also attacked. If you roll things back afterwards, that kind of doesn’t make much sense when Sidney, her family, are the clear pinpoint targets here.
Once again, Sidney, the most unluckiest final girl in the history of horror, is a victim of fate with her past coming back to haunt her again but this time fate takes a detour on the way. The road to vengeance isn’t a straight, direct as it usually is in the Scream movies leading to perhaps the most disappointing and weakest killer or killers identity reveal ever in the franchise. I liked the idea that Ghostface is a family curse or sorts for Sidney and her loved ones. It is something they cannot escape and is now being passed down, revisited on her daughter, the prodigal final girl.
The shallow unmasking is surprising since Kevin Willliamson, the writer of the original Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 4, not only penned this sequel but also directed it too. Williamson has a bit of fun though with his original characters and some of the iconic scenes but he doesn’t go far enough like David Gordon Green did with his trilogy of Halloween movies. This is quite frustrating as a horror fan. If you are going to play off the original film, dive right in, don’t linger around the shore.
Ghostface roams quite a lot in Scream 7 at times chasing victims through a secluded town under curfew sort of like Williamson’s Fisherman or Hook from I Know What You Did Last Summer, which he also wrote. At times, Ghostface’s handywork is especially vicious this time around. Usually, he or she just does the stabby-stabby deal and slits the occasional throat along the way but there are a couple of the deaths, especially one involving flying rigging used in a stage play, that are far more gory than anything that has come before in a Scream movie. I chalk this up to the influence, the rise of the splatter horror genre, with Terrifier leading the way.
Being the brains behind Dawson’s Creek and The Vampire Diaries, Williamson is a veteran at portraying real people doing and saying realistic things, especially teenagers, so everyone here gets their scene, their time in the sun and the characters are as detailed as much as they need to be, which is more than you will see in most slasher movies. You can tell he has a real affinity, a love for the core of Sidney and Gail though. They have a lot of great lines and great scenes together, some are emotional and tense though, including Gail FINALLY getting THAT interview she has always wanted.
I did enjoy the fact that Tatum isn’t a Mary Sue. She is unsure of herself, as most teenagers are, and has to undergo some serious on-the-job training to survive Ghostface. One of the best parts of the movie is Sidney frantically and remotely conveying instructions over the phone as Tatum faces off against Ghostface in real time.
While that use of technology is thrilling some of the other portrayals, especially one that is important to the entire storyline, are from a “boomer” perspective. The kind of person who used to call the internet “The Information Superhighway”, back in the day. The depiction is a bit cartoonish and a bit farcical, which could be or might be a point of contention with many fans.
Scream 7 is more than the sum of its parts. If you can get past its multitude of imperfections and immerse yourself in the decent main character work, the engaging relationships, you will appreciate this new beginning, new course for the Scream franchise.
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