Scream 7

Mr. Pat

32 minutes ago

6 min read

I get up at midnight to head to work, and I try to be as quiet as possible. After I get myself together, I go and check on Lincoln, and while in his room, I heard Kaliana crying. She was sleeping in our bed next to Dear, so I figured she'd try to wake her mother. When I left Lincoln's room, the crying was much closer, and I could see the outline of her little body in the dark. When I got close to her, she raised her arms for me to pick her up and then immediately pointed to our room. I carried her back, and once inside, she immediately pointed at her mom. I set her down on the bed, and she started climbing on a sleeping Dear. I realized that Kali got out of bed for the sole purpose of having me carry her back to bed. Crazy lady! So yeah...

Scream 7 (2026)

Before we jump into this review, let me address the elephant in the room. For those new to me and my reviews, I don't use my platform, as small as it is, to talk about politics. I refuse to add my screaming voice into the void. I've been a news producer for 14 years, so I'm constantly reading and writing about whatever horrible thing is happening around the world. Not only that, I get so many "expert opinions" from all over social media, and this page is my break from all that. I watch horror movies as an escape. I much prefer simulated horror compared to the real-life horror all around us. I know it annoys some people when others won't plant their flag and support their causes, but that's not what I do here. I review horror movies. If you want to watch me write about real scary stories, just tune in to WTOL 11 bright and early starting at 5:00 AM and then on our streaming app WTOL 11+ from 7-9!

Alright, let's talk about Scream 7. The first thing that jumps out is Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott, excuse me, Sidney Evans! She's married now! After refusing to come back in the last one because they lowballed her, Neve Campbell returned to HER franchise and got a nice bag to go along with it, to the tune of 7-million money. Good for her for knowing her worth and securing a fat payday at the same time.

The movie begins with a couple driving up to the Macher house that, since the murders of Scream 5, has been turned into an Airbnb. The couple walks in, and it's a shrine to all the old murders and the Stab franchise. There's white tape on the ground in the shape of the victims and where they died, and signs that tell the guests who died there and the way they it happened. They even get a phone call from someone pretending to be Ghostface, using a different voice, to give them some horror trivia. You know what? I kinda loved the setup. It's incredibly morbid, but if I'm being honest, if it were real, I would 100% want to check that place out. While they don't spend much time in the house, and the movie puts the final nail in the coffin of the Macher house, reliving some of the highlights of the series from inside the house was one of my favorite parts of the movie.

From there, we meet a young woman, Tatum, and her boyfriend, Ben, who sneaks into her room through the window and re-enacts from when Billy snuck into Sid's room in the original. He even does the same dialogue as a joke and Tatum understands immediately what he's referencing. Before we continue, let me pause for a second because there are multiple instances of this throughout the series. Ben got this from the movie Stab, but how would that be in the movie? Only two people know what happened in that bedroom: Billy and Sidney. Billy is DED, and judging by how Sid and friends reacted to Gale in the sequel, I highly doubt Sidney worked with Gale to make that movie.

OK, let's get back to the movie. This is probably the most interesting installment in the franchise outside the original. Each one of the sequels tries to find something to make it stand out compared to the other ones. Out of all the upgrades each one tries, this one was my favorite, although it did sideline a part of what makes Scream, Scream. This movie has the killer video calling Sidney, but who is on the other end? It's Stu Macher, marking Matthew Lillard's return to the series! Or is it just a well-done AI? The movie plays with the question "Did Stu survive?" But it's still fun seeing him again.

I was a big fan of this. Not only did it match why this Ghostface wanted to make it so personal. Ghostie is targeting Sidney's daughter, and what better way to get into Sidney's head than to appear as the first of many Ghosties that she's killed. The only downside of that is that the voice of Ghostface, Roger L. Jackson, doesn't get that much screen time. Outside of Neve Campbell, his voice is the most recognizable thing about the franchise.

I liked the movie a lot more than I thought it would. It was great seeing Neve back in the role. The series doesn't feel right without her, and it's always a pleasure watching her fight and claw before finally turning the tables and defeating the baddie. She is one of my favorite protagonists because she's not beating the shit out of the baddies; she struggles and it's usually her survival instincts that get her through in the end. At no point do you watch her and slap your head out of frustration. She's smart, capable and stays strapped.

As far as the supporting cast goes... meh. None of them really stood out to me; they were just kinda there to be knife fodder. I did want one character to survive, but it wasn't because of her character; I thought she deserved to live with the fight she put up and her actual death was a letdown. As an aside, I thought for sure they were going to make Ghostface's mask have some type of metal or protective layer on it because Ghostie takes several shots square in the face with all kinds of weapons, even a metal baseball, and then bounces back up like nothing happened. I get Ghostie is wearing body armor to protect from gunshots, but that's just a thin strip of leather going up against a fire extinguisher.

Of course, the movie brought back franchise regulars like Gale Weathers and, ugh, the twins, Chad and Mindy. While I laughed out loud at the absurdity of Gale's big entrance, the latter two just seemed to be fan service because they serve no purpose in this movie at all. They could be taken out, and you wouldn't lose a single thing. It seems like Chad's only purpose is to get stabbed and then show up at the end alive. This dude has more holes than swiss cheese and always bounces back. They did dial Mindy down a lot, so it was an improvement, but she is by far my most disliked character in the series.

This is getting a little long, so let me talk about the baddie reveal. It is, BY FAR, the worst reveal out of all the movies. I was able to pick out both of them, and that's not a flex if I'm able to pick them out; you made it too obvious. For starters, you can figure out one of them because, to get the high body count the movie wanted, it killed off every character that has a line of dialogue. You know it has to be this person because everyone else the movie spent any time on was dead. Then there's the other killer, who I was able to figure out the second the introductory scene was over.

So, not only were they predictable, but their motives were terrible. I get it can be hard to find new ways for these killers to have a connection with Sidney somehow, but my goodness, this ain't it. It was a perfectly enjoyable movie up until the Ghosties took off their masks. After they do the really interesting thing with the phone calls and the setup, the reveal goes over like a lead balloon. It wasn't enough to ruin the movie, but it did lose Dr. Chainsaws because of it.