Time to hang up the mask? Why ‘Scream 7’ didn’t really need to made
When the release of Scream 7 – the latest in a long, renowned franchise – was announced, the reaction was less outrage and more exhaustion. Not because the film is terrible — it’s actually pretty good — but because it quietly raises a question the franchise has been flirting with for years: did this chapter actually need to exist?
The original Scream was lightning in a bottle. It reinvented the slasher genre with sharp self-awareness, genuine suspense, and something rare for horror at the time — heart. It also was a surprise in seeing the first victim killed off within minutes of the movie starting.
Over the decades, the series has managed to evolve, especially with the 2022 revival and ‘Scream VI’, which successfully passed the knife to a new generation while honoring its legacy. By the end of those films, the franchise had achieved something unusual: closure without irrelevance.
That’s why Scream 7 feels less like a bold new act and more like an encore nobody demanded. The stakes, once deeply personal and culturally sharp, now feel cyclical. The commentary on horror trends — once groundbreaking — has become expected. When a franchise built on deconstructing repetition begins to repeat itself, the meta joke risks turning inward.
To be fair, Scream 7 is competently made. A couple of key cast members from early on in the series, feature in the flick – namely Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott (below) and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers (above) – and their performances are solid. A couple of the newer characters – namely Gale’s podcasting sidekicks – are annoying as all hell and the film could have done without them to at least maintain a certain sense of genuine reportage.
The film’s plot is easy to follow. After years away from the spotlight, Sidney Prescott has built a quieter life in Pine Grove with her family, including her teenage daughter, Tatum. But peace doesn’t last: a new Ghostface killer emerges and sets their sights on Tatum, forcing Sidney to confront the terror that has haunted her life since the events in Woodsboro decades earlier. With personal stakes higher than ever, Sidney must draw on her past experiences to protect her daughter and stop the bloodshed once and for all. Alongside familiar faces from across the franchise and new allies, the story blends suspense, legacy and family dynamics as the characters attempt to unmask the killer and survive another deadly chapter in the Ghostface saga.
As for Ghostface, his kills are more inventive, and the pacing of the film in general is brisk. There are flashes of wit that remind us why this simply dressed killer remains iconic. But competence is not the same as necessity. The film doesn’t meaningfully expand the mythology, nor does it reframe the genre in a way that justifies reopening the story.
Franchises endure because audiences love familiarity. Yet part of what made Scream special was its understanding that horror must evolve… or die. Scream 7 doesn’t kill the franchise. It simply proves that sometimes the bravest move isn’t surviving another sequel. It’s knowing when to hang up the mask.
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