So here it is thirty years since the debut of the original Scream, and the franchise is still going strong with the latest release of Scream 7. The seventh installment follows Sydney Prescott (now Sydney Evans, and still played by Neve Campbell), husband Mark Evans (Joel McHale) and daughter Tatum (Isabel May) in their new hometown of Pine Grove, Indiana. Someone has just killed two tourists in her hometown of Woodsboro visiting the “Stu Macher House Experience”, and that someone soon calls her and threatens her and her family. The catch is that the video caller seems to be none other that Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) himself, one the Ghostface killers Sydney killed in the original. What ensues is the usual slasher string of killings, mostly Tatum’s high school friends, following the now well established Scream formula. There are appearances from former Scream survivors Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) as well as Randy Meeks’ niece and nephew Mindy (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), who as usual provide the audience with the usual self aware horror movie discussions.
The key question for longtime fans of the franchise is does the new Scream deliver the goods they all expect. The answer is both yes and no. I personally group the Scream movies into the categories of greater (Scream 1, 2, and 4) and lesser (3, 5 – 7). What’s great about the franchise is that even the lesser movies are very entertaining, competent slashers that would be considered superior examples of the genre if they were transported back to the 1980s. But there was something about the magic of the writing collaboration between Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson that elevated the greater entries to classic status. Unfortunately, Wes Craven passed away, so we probably won’t be treated to that kind of magic in the future. However, if you go into this movie with the expectation of simply getting another Scream movie that hits all of the usual notes, you won’t be disappointed.
Grade: B
