It took a while for this series to bottom out, as Scream 7 marks the low point thus far. This is exhausted by its own meta nature, unimaginatively derivative of the 1996 original, and filmed on such generic studio locations and sets (we’re talking Friends’ Central Perk coffee shop) that it almost had me begging for some green screen. Speaking of Friends, Courteney Cox reprises her role as reporter Gale Weathers, but more notable is the involvement of Neve Campbell as Sidney, the series’ original final girl. Now the mother of a 17-year-old (Isabel May) who is the same age Sidney was during the first Ghostface killings, Sidney’s overprotective instincts are put to the test when a new Ghostface shows up. (Aside from a few awkward references, the New York storylines of 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI, along with stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, are mostly forgotten.) Kevin Williamson, screenwriter of the original Scream, serves as co-writer and director on Scream 7, but aside from a mildly clever prologue involving a Stab-themed vacation rental (Stab being the series’ movie-within-the-movie), the thrills here don’t have much pop. In a year when a filmmaker like Jane Schoebrun, with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, plumbed new levels of emotional authenticity and creative ingenuity within the meta-slasher subgenre, it feels like the Scream series has nowhere else to go.
(10/26/2026)
