Stab Or Kill: The Twisted Anatomy of Scream 7

Scream 7 is directed by Kevin Williamson and stars Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Mason Godding, Ann Camp, Matthew Lilliard, and more.

The film follows a new Ghostface killer who targets Sidney Prescott's daughter.

Set the Controversy Aside

Scream 7 was nearly not made when Melissa Barrera was fired for her comments of the Pro-Palestine, and Jenna Ortega was let go after a dispute over her salary, and Christopher Landon exited after their creative choices were turned down, and with those two away, Landon decided to exit the series. Kevin Williamson, the original writer of the first Scream is brought back to direct and also writing the script, and that was a choice.

But set the controversy aside, because the movie has his good moments. The story feels nostalgic. The film also introduces the archetype of how hard it is to balance the new teen characters with the original ones, and it‘s true. Sydney is the heart of the franchise, and Neve Campbell gives her best work to date.

The Killer Reveal and Motives

The main problem of the film is the killer reveals, one might think that the killers are actually surprising and the motives are logical, but it is not. The worst part in their reveals are mostly underwhelming. The characters that are the new Ghostace are unknown to the plot, not Sydney related, and honestly, their motivation to stalk her again is mediocre. For a Scream movie, I have never seen something so uninspired and dull. Kevin Williamson managed to do something truly unmistakable, but what can you do?

The performances are strong, every actor that appears on screen, no matter how irrelevant, or that they don‘t do anything, they are really good on screen. The sharp cinemaotgraphy, the gory scenes are well made. The killings are creative, on the nose and unexpected, but nothing compared to Scream 5 or 6.

The incorporation of legacy killers is one of the film‘s risky bold choices. On paper, it‘s smart, but on film, it was dumb to even announce the return of certain characters.

It Needed The Clear Direction of Radio Silence

Kevin Williamson is an accomplished writer in his own terms, but as far as directing and setting the scene, he made terrible choices to the way to the final reveal, it felt rushed, while the Scream movies are not made to be a serious horror movie, the plot started strong, leaning into the meta “Stab“ movies.

You can sense there were a lot of rewrites in the final 20 minutes of the film. Radio Silence were the directors of the previous 2 movies and they understood the assigment with the franchise.

Conclusion

Scream 7 is not as bad as everyone is saying, there‘s some really great moments, good callbacks, but the way it was handled was bold and risky. It has some of the best kills in the franchise, but what keeps this movie afloat is the performance of Neve Campbell and her insane presence on screen, is something truly remarkable.