Thirty years after Ghostface first struck, Sidney Evans has built a quiet life in Pine Grove, Indiana. But when Ghostface returns, targeting her 17-year-old daughter, Sidney must fight to protect her family once again.
In 1994, Kevin Williamson took the outline of a script to Miramax based on actual events of the Gainesville Ripper, Daniel Rolling, a man who murdered 5 students over 4 days in Florida in 1990. Horrific events then and would still be now, the Scream franchise however was born. The first of this, as mentioned in my review of the last Scream film, rewrote the slasher rule book and reinvigorated the ‘horror franchise’, giving it fresh new life – so to speak.
After the initial success, an exciting new trilogy was now on the cards. Neve Campbell was quickly asked back after her other comparative success of another much loved film The Craft also in 1996. The now iconic Ghostface character was created. Originally intended to don a white robe – this was retracted as producers felt it was a little too on the nose – the now infamous hooded black gown was used with a contorted face created through the inspiration of Edvard Munch’s painting of what else but ‘The Scream’ finished the scary, hidden identity image. Voiced by actor Roger L. Jackson; who has been present through all films, provides once more a presence that does leave you tense although over time has somewhat been diminished. Remember the tension with Drew Barrymore in the very beginning?
Strictly speaking, the Scream films are part of their own trilogies. The first three mostly highly regarded films landed in quick succession, a gap, then our current final three with the below box office par of Scream 4 in between. However, with the recent events in Gaza and the much talked about Melissa Barerra comments, this third film was required to go through a $500k rewrite to exclude Barerra and also disappointingly, Jenna Ortega, whose own career has flown with the Netflix smash Wednesday.
With the required cinematic history to bring us back up to speed, Neve Campbell was brought back with a healthy $7million paycheque after a well known previous salary dispute and is now once more the face and linchpin to this whole growing nostalgia based premise. Sidney, exactly three decades on has moved away from Woodsboro and is living a comparatively peaceful though quite rightly paranoid life with her sheriff husband Mark Evans, played by Joe McHale (Community) and more importantly, her daughter Tatem Evans, played by Isabel May, of Netflix’s outback western “1883”. Scream plays on several tropes that on the whole, work. The initial ‘arrive late’ opener which once again lasts 12 minutes, seemingly disconnected from the main film which ensues, is of course the set up to what lies beyond.
Sidney’s daughter Tatem – lovingly named after the character mauled in the garage door in the first film – and husband Mark, are still wary of a killer who is hell bent on destroying their lives and those in her immediate vicinity. Married to a police officer, for the additional feeling of safety, Sidney is running her own coffee business though still fears her own shadow as the killer or killers emerge once more. New characters and red-herrings are introduced to give us our answer or mislead us as the case may be, including Tatem’s boyfriend Ben Brown (Sam Rechner), and Courtney Cox as Gale Weathers – still finding her acting feet. Keeping up with the times there is an element of A.I., however this works as a blunt tool which tries to make this film different although unfortunately we quickly fall into the same cliches of the past that are now wearing extremely thin. The production, as with previous Scream films is excellent and the acting really isn’t the issue here, it’s the script that leaves us once again desperately wanting something new. Take us back to the bright lights and backdrop and Brownstone of New York City of the last Scream and keep us there, and forget the overused sleepy suburban towns.
Scream 7 seeks to round up what has now become a slightly messy horror show that seems a little unsure of its own future with its well documented and recent shaky past. Should it hark back to the golden past and rely on Matthew Lillard’s much loved Stu Macher, or go in another direction and seek comparatively new actresses such as the likes of Mikey Madison, Jenna Ortega or Melissa Barerra. Surprisingly, the previous 6 films had so far failed to break through the almighty $1billion box office mark that other larger films have managed like the massive Spider-Man: No Way Home or Top Gun: Maverick in a single outing. True, the budgets are much lower here but the want should be there all the same. Although horror films as a whole are regarded as the ‘ugly cousin’ in the cinematic world finding themselves being overlooked within the global awards season. This seventh film however has now broken the magic figure to place it up there with the best of the rest, surprisingly possibly even surpassing the original box office of ’96. Developments are already in place for the next instalment of the franchise and Neve – now back in her own words as ‘Mama bear’, has brought new ideas for Scream 8 which may even be released as soon as 2027.
Is there a want to see the next instalment? Very probably. Will it give us anything new? We do hope so.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
