Scream 7 is the seventh installment in the iconic fourth-wall breaking horror franchise. This time, the story brings us back to the town of Woodsboro and follows franchise vet, Sidney Prescott, as she now has to defend her family from the infamous Ghostface killer who seems to be a ghost from the past this time around. This film features everything you’ve come to expect from a solid Scream film. The suspense associated with a Ghostface phone call, the visceral brutality of our mysterious antagonist who always ends up being someone familiar under the mask, and its commentary and self awareness of the horror genre as whole from the characters themselves. In terms of this film in particular, I do like the character growth of Sidney throughout the franchise and how her many experiences with the Ghostface killers prove to be both beneficial and detrimental to those around her. However, besides the performances from the cast, the creative practical effects used for some of the film’s more action-packed set pieces, and welcome references to characters and aspects from the franchise’s past, missing characters from this particular installment left story threads from the past couple of films completely abandoned, and Scream 7 didn’t exactly do enough that was narratively new to warrant a sequel to its predecessor. A fun watch, especially for fans of the franchise, but just something we’ve seen before. Score: 5/10
Noah Robinson 