“Scream 7” has officially dealt the final blow to the flailing franchise. The movie is not only a disservice to a legendary horror franchise, but also should have never been made.
Even before releasing on Feb. 27, 2026, the film was in hot water with fans and critics due to the firing of “Scream” (2022) and “Scream 6” star Melissa Barrera.
Barrera was set to co-lead a trilogy concluding with the seventh installment until she was fired from the already-announced film by production studio Spyglass Media Group due to pro-Palestine social media posts at the beginning of the Oct. 2023 Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The production of “Scream 7” continued to fall apart when the film’s director duo, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, also decided to exit the film. Many other actors and writers became detached from the project over the next few months, including co-lead Jenna Ortega and “Happy Death Day” director Christopher Landon.
When “Scream” (1996) writer and teen TV legend Kevin Williamson was announced to be writing and directing the seventh Ghostface slasher, it seemed like the film could still be salvaged. Still, after Barrera’s firing, many fans chose to boycott the film in solidarity with the actress.
As a lifelong fan of the franchise, I went into the film with low expectations, which were raised slightly by the laundry list of returning cast and production members from previous films.
I was excited to be sitting in an early screening of the film at the Normal AMC with my large popcorn, a Dr. Pepper and a hot dog. Sadly, my concessions were the best thing I consumed that night.
While a little predictable, the film’s opening scene, a staple of the “Scream” franchise, featured entertaining performances from “Landman” star Michelle Randolph and “Home Economics” alum Jimmy Tatro.
As revealed in the film’s trailer, Ghostface delivers the couple to their brutal fates, then burns down the infamous farmhouse belonging to the family of Stu Macher, one of the original Ghostface killers.
However, the opening is as endearing as the movie gets. The new cast lacks characterization that quickly hooks audiences, unlike the casts of the previous installments. Characters are unofficially given vague attributes like “creepy guy” or “theater girl” before facing quick and meaningless deaths.
Isabel May’s performance as Tatum Evans, Sidney Prescott’s daughter, was lackluster and ill-fitting as a convincing child of one of the original “final girls.”
Too much of the film is dedicated to the poorly written mother-daughter relationship between Sidney and Tatum, or rather, the lack of one.
Tatum spends most of the movie whining that Sidney never shares anything with her about her past. This would be fine, except that the character refuses to see how the few things she does know about her mother’s past (namely that her boyfriend tried to kill her and her best friend, the woman she is named after, was murdered) factor into how her mother has opted to raise her.
There were a couple of times I considered walking out of the theater, one being when Tatum complains that she was named after someone who “didn’t fight,” a tasteless and objectively incorrect insult about a girl who resorted to trying to crawl through a cat door to escape from Ghostface after punching and throwing glass bottles at him.
Another big question leading up to “Scream 7” was how multiple returning characters (including deceased Ghostface killers) would be brought back and what purpose their presence would serve.
While the plotline had potential, the technicalities and purpose of using the former killers as psychological weapons against Sidney were never explained and ultimately just served as seat-filling bait.
The movie’s red herrings are either so transparent or poorly set up that even if you don’t know who the killer is, you know who it’s not, and the final reveal of the film’s killer is definitely the weakest of the franchise and is somehow even more exposition-heavy than that of “Scream 3.”
The final scene is really what broke me. The acting was terrible, the writing was terrible and I felt stupid just watching it. When the credits finally rolled after a grueling hour and 54 minutes and Kevin Williamson’s name flashed for three separate titles, I simply thought, “At least I know who to blame.”
Final Rating: 1/5 stars.
