Scream 7 is a 2026 horror-slasher film directed by Kevin Williamson and starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May, Matthew Lillard, and Joel McHale. Man, oh man, this movie was a mixed bag of feelings and emotions for me personally. The group of friends that I went to see this with (which was a pretty big one) all seemed to enjoy this one quite a bit, but it’s seeming to get pretty mixed critic and audience scores as well landing a 35% from critics & 77% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.1 on IMDb, at least currently. We went to the opening night showing so this film has only been out for 1 day and ratings can always change, but that is one of the lower rated Scream films in the entire franchise at this point. If that’s something you even care about. I will say though personally speaking, if you are a fan of this franchise then you know that with a cast like this one you probably get your expectations pretty high, and while they definitely delivered on it in certain ways throughout the movie, I also felt let down and left kind of scratching my head at certain parts of this movie as well. So, shall we get into it?
Firstly, I really enjoyed seeing my girl Neve Campbell back in the forefront of this film. Don’t get me wrong, I was getting on board with Sam & Tara, and I really like Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, but Scream is Sidney and Sidney is Scream at this point, so it just feels right with her leading the charge. The story also revolving around her daughter Tatum (nice callback) being the same age as Sidney was in the original Scream and encountering some of the same problems and experiences was a nice touch. It was very fan servicey, and there was a lot of that in this film, but that doesn’t really bother me if it’s done right. It makes some of the OG fans and followers feel happy and special for a moment, ya know? Seeing a lot of the original cast back in action, Sidney and Gale leading the way with Matthew Lillard back in the crazed villain role was just fun. It’s what fans of the franchise have wanted to see so giving that to us in at least some way is nice. It was also kind of cool as a Ghostbusters fan seeing McKenna Grace and Celeste O’Connor (Phoebe & Lucky from the recent Ghostbusters films) have roles in this movie. Felt like a strange crossover of my fandoms in a way. The kills in this film were also quite brutal. Probably some of the most brutal of the entire series actually, I’d have to give it to VI or this one so kudos to Williamson and team for upping the level of tension, violence, and terror in that aspect. If you’re one of those gore hounds, then I can pretty confidently say that your fill will be met with this one.
It’s honestly going to be a little hard for me to say what I didn’t like about this movie without spoilers so I’m really going to try and say as little as possible, but still give my thoughts and disgruntlements. The problem is though, a lot of those problems for me do come within the latter half of the movie. I was honestly really enjoying where this story was headed for a lot of the way through it, I was locked into my seat and along for the ride. It felt fast paced, like it wasn’t really letting you up, and it just hit the ground running from the jump of the film and kept you there. Then so many of the characters just got slashed away (some without even much thought) in a very short amount of time right as you were beginning to settle in with them and understand them and differentiate them a little bit more, and the characters that didn’t get sliced kind of just conveniently disappeared for the third act of the film and weren’t seen again until the conclusion. I understand the point of it was to take it back to the family aspect and Sidney’s story and to do that you kind of have to thin the herd, but it just felt done in kind of jarring and somewhat sloppy fashion to me. Also, without saying too too much, the overall Ghostface reveals were some of the weakest and most undercooked/underthought of the entire series for me. The Ghostface killers themselves were pretty awesome throughout the movie with the level of violence they displayed and the story that they were stringing along the way was one of the best since the original 2 films, but once we started getting into the final showdown and things really started to break down in the film it fell apart for me in some ways if I’m being honest.
I kind of hope they just let the series lay where it lays now though. This felt like a decent place to end it. You could continue this with Tatum now if you wanted to as this movie was also kind of her story and she had to find her inner Sidney Prescott if you will and live up to this situation, but just please don’t. If you do you know I’ll go see it in theaters and so will so many other people because Scream has a loyal following and horror fans are a bunch of whores and the studios know it, but this doesn’t need to continue at this point. Sam & Tara’s story fell apart over studio beef after 5 and 6 when they attempted to move the story in a new direction and this felt like a satisfying conclusion for Sidney’s story in this chapter of her life. Of course, it has before and that has never stopped them in the past from making more, but damn it just leave my girl alone at this point! Neve I’m sure enjoys that pay day still and she deserves it don’t get me wrong, she’s THE Scream Queen alongside Jamie Lee, but she’s done her part for 3 decades now and there’s so many stories to tell within the horror genre, we don’t need to keep beating the same dead horse. I love me a slasher film as well, that’s in part why I’m such a fan of this franchise to begin with, but we have new slashers and horror films all the time now for us fans. Scream will live on as one of the best ever, but don’t taint the legacy beyond this.
That’s all for this one though folks. Make sure to like the page on social media or bookmark the website on your computer to keep up with all my latest posts over horror films, new release movies, WWE wrestling, and more! Until next time, be good to one another!
