On March 5, another 'Scream' was released worldwide, but this time not from the duo Matthew Bettinelli and Tyler Gillett, but from the screenwriter of the very first 'Screams', Kevin Williamson. However, the participation of the franchise's founding...

Production Hell: A Brief Overview

It became known that 'Scream 7' would happen in March 2023, almost immediately after the release of the sixth installment. But then came the Hollywood strikes, followed by key changes in the production team, which ultimately led to filming only starting in January 2025. Here's what happened and changed during the work on 'Scream 7':

The duo Radio Silence (Matthew Bettinelli and Tyler Gillett, who revived 'Scream' in 2022 and directed the sixth installment) left the seventh part of the franchise due to work on the horror film ''. One of the lead actresses, Melissa Barrera, was fired from the project due to her statements in support of Palestine amid the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Following Barrera, Jenna Ortega, the second lead actress, also left. After the two actresses, Christopher Landon (author of 'Happy Death Day'), who inherited the franchise from Radio Silence, also departed.

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In response, the studio Spyglass begins to agree to any expenses just to get the seventh part of 'Scream' back into production.

• Neve Campbell was paid her desired sum of $7 million for her return.
• The studio brought in the franchise's founding father, Kevin Williamson, to the director's chair.
• From the new-old cast, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Courteney Cox (who, according to rumors, was paid only $2 million) remained in the project.

'Scream 7' — A Film That Couldn't

At the center of attention is again Sidney Prescott, who is now Evans. She lives happily in the town of Pine Grove with her husband, adult daughter Tatum, and two younger children. The tragic events involving the deaths of young people in New York did not affect Sidney. It seemed she had managed to leave the past behind. However, suddenly the Ghostface killer returns to her life, now terrorizing not only Sidney but also her daughter. Will the famous scream queen be able to give a worthy rebuff to the villain after so many years?

Kevin Williamson was dealt a difficult hand: he had to take over the project after three directors had abandoned it for various reasons, and a new cast was required. These were challenging but not hopeless cards, which he, unfortunately, failed to play properly.

The slasher franchise 'Scream' has always been primarily a story about young people, most often teenagers (or students). It was their recklessness, naivety, and obsession with horror culture that created that unique atmosphere of witty satire on the genre that many loved about the series created by . But the seventh part abruptly changed the rules, shifting the focus to adult characters. As a result, 'Scream 7' turned out to be an exploration of their experiences, while teenagers became secondary characters who serve as catalysts for adult problems.

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Due to the shift in focus, the seventh part literally became the embodiment of serious drama in a horror wrapper. Here we have the problem of fathers/mothers and children, processing grief and trauma, reconciling with losses; characters learn to let go of the past after so many years, while the past itself actively continues to haunt them. At the same time, the drama itself is shown superficially, without delving into the characters and their pain, and the film's possible attempt to become more mature and serious fails. But because of this, the slasher immediately loses one of the main advantages of the entire franchise — humor, which was mainly provided by the youth who formulated the 'rules of horror' and mocked genre clichés.

The only scene where the spirit (rather than tired exploitation) of the old franchise is felt is the scene with the characters of Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown, where they recall the old rules of survival in the world of 'Scream' and ironically comment on classics like 'Halloween' and Jamie Lee Curtis . So don't expect any postmodernism, 'meta' or 'post-meta', self-reflection, references, homages, or dissection of modern stereotypes in horror, although there is more than enough ground for that now (from one '' it will become brighter for everyone).

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At the same time, the new part of the popular slasher tries to act young, seem relevant and modern, rather than just an anachronism of a bygone era. But it does so unsuccessfully, as it uses not characters, morals, subtexts, or new perspectives, but neural networks (this is not a spoiler; it's mentioned in the first 20 minutes).

'Scream 7' also had bad luck with the new characters — teenagers who not only feel like they are in secondary roles but are also boring in themselves, as they are function characters. They have no charisma, no bright individuality; we know almost nothing about them, so their deaths evoke no emotions. They exist only to maintain the franchise's familiar pattern of murders, where the main victims are young people.

However, perhaps Williamson's biggest miscalculation was the Ghostface killer himself. It seems the director tried to surprise us and come up with something new for the franchise. But in the end, the finale looks illogical, strange, and even, so to speak, cringeworthy. It's hard to discuss without spoilers, but one thing can be said: after such a finale, even the resolution of '' begins to seem much more successful.

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Interestingly, 'Scream 7' suddenly shares something with the later projects of the not-so-obscure superhero franchise Marvel. In both cases, the authors created stories about passing the baton to a new generation, on whose shoulders the future confrontation with the villain/saving the world rests. However, for 'Scream', this transition had already happened — and quite elegantly — in the film '' of 2022. But Kevin Williamson is no longer a young man, so he apparently forgot, or perhaps never knew, what happened to the franchise after Wes Craven's death. Therefore, in 'Scream 7', he repeats the same trick, only this time more straightforwardly, as if afraid that viewers won't get the hint.

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All these shortcomings could, of course, be attributed to production issues: Kevin Williamson, along with Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt, had to completely rewrite the script and reassemble the cast, while trying to stick to the release schedule. However, they could have at least made the characters more interesting (and generally chosen a town different from Woodsboro) and come up with more inventive deaths — after all, that's what the franchise was famous for.

There Are Some Good Things Too

Still, the film has moments that, rarely but accurately, warm the nostalgic heart of fans. First of all, it's the very careful treatment of the old guard heroines. When long-familiar faces appear on screen, the film briefly comes alive and regains its soul. The storyline with memories of Sidney's best friend from the first part (played by Rose McGowan), which Campbell's character carries throughout her life, looks very touching. Gale Weathers, played by Courteney Cox, bursts into the plot with drama worthy of the best moments of the series, and overall her on-screen duo with Neve Campbell once again reminds us why viewers once loved this franchise. However, such moments are catastrophically few.

Summing Up the Much-Suffering Conclusion

'Scream' is another franchise that fits into the current trend of reviving famous horror franchises from the 90s. It could be said that 'Scream' itself started this flash mob. Only in the case of the seventh part, there was a sad failure, reminiscent of the unsuccessful attempt in 2025 with the franchise 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (the script for the first film, by the way, was also written by Kevin Williamson). Perhaps only 'Final Destination: Bloodlines' from 2025, which had the least hope, suddenly hit the mark, all because it decided to slightly change the rules of the game and not drag all the past into the future.

You might argue, pointing to the big box office of 'Scream 7' on its opening weekend: the film grossed about $97 million worldwide on a budget of $45 million (a record budget for the franchise, by the way) in its first weekend. Such financial success can only be explained by one thing — the reluctance of numerous and very devoted fans to believe the low critical ratings. They decided (like me) to see for themselves. And, alas, this time the two worlds converged, as indicated by the second weekend gross, which fell to $17 million.

'Scream 7' is a lazy film devoid of suspense, built on templates and almost devoid of the series' trademark humor. Kevin Williamson made his only and main bet on nostalgia: all surviving veterans of the franchise were brought back on screen, while forgetting to give the newcomers at least some character arcs. As a result, the film resembles a class reunion 30 years later: many didn't show up, the rest reminisce about the past, and the new blood here is a kind of crutch that helps the old-timers still hobble on screen, but they no longer have the strength to come up with something new.