The seventh installment of the “Scream” franchise was released February 27 and despite receiving only 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, it has quickly become the most profitable film of the series making over $200 million at the box office.
At the release of the cast list, fans were ecstatic to see Neve Campell would be not only returning as Sidney Prescott, but she would have a starring role in the film. This marked a change from numbers five and six in the series, and they barely featured Campbell. Additionally, Courtney Cox, who plays Gale Weathers, also returned and held a starring role in the film.
However, the cast also included some new characters, one of the most intriguing being the introduction of Tatum Evans, Prescott’s daughter, played by Isabel May. Despite this promising lineup, the film did not live up to the legacy of the original “Scream” trilogy.
The plot, while attempting to harken the roots of the franchise by bringing back the figure of Sidney and following her and her daughter through her own experience of the terror of Ghostface, falls short of the nostalgia the film makers promised. This could be due to many reasons, however the one I propose is that the screen play was written by AI, because that can be the only explanation for the poor quality of the plot.
Spoilers ahead.
The film opens, as most “Scream” films do, with the murder of a couple, this time the murder takes place at one of the locations featured in the original 1996 film. This gave me hope that the movie would return to the beloved roots of the franchise, however by the time the first victim met their end, so did my hopes.
As the body count grows, suspects are introduced and the viewers are given the opportunity to speculate and form theories on the identity of the new Ghostface killer (or killers). However, before I had the chance to fully form a theory, over half of the cast was killed in one scene, leaving me flabbergasted.
Just when I thought that the film could not get any worse, the killers were revealed to be insignificant side characters that barely had ten minutes of collective screentime. However, the poor plot quality was not the only aspect of “Scream”7” that caused complaints from fans.
The film has been received with much controversy, as the movie originally planned to star actress Melissa Barrera who was fired in 2023 for her pro-Palestine social media posts. Barrera had previously played the starring role of Sam Carpenter, and so her termination sent shock waves through the cast, causing her co-star Jenna Ortega, who played her sister Tara Carpenter, to resign in support of Barrera.
The outcry surrounding Bareera’s termination did not remain restricted to the cast however, and a social media led boycott movement of the film began to grow in scale at the news of the movie’s release. The hashtag, #boycotscream7 gained popularity on social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram and X, and even led to protests surrounding the premier location of the film in Los Angeles California.
Despite the controversy and dubious quality of the film it will go down in history as one of the most profitable, and hopefully final installment of the “Scream” franchise.