Scream 7: A Fairly Standard Sequel with a Laughable Finale (4K/Blu-ray)

The Film:

Way back in 1996, director Wes Craven & screenwriter Kevin Williamson gave us a little horror flick called "Scream," a thrilling slasher that also acted as a brilliant meta dissection of the genre. The film not only received acclaim from critics & fans alike, but was also a massive hit at the box office, leading to an inevitable sequel that was a surprisingly-decent follow-up to the original. However, after that, the series began to run into a few problems.

Despite still being financial successes, the films quickly began to drop in quality, with eye-rolling reveals that had the killers being random relatives, copycats, and even a family of a previous killer. It became quite clear that the writers were out of ideas and were just churning out anything they could think of, leading fans to wonder if the series was every going to be able to get back to the level of quality of those first two films. This brings us all the way to "Scream 7," where we find Williamson returning not only as screenwriter, but also as director. Granted, he had also returned to write the dreadful "Scream 4," but with 15 years passing in the interim, perhaps he's learned from his mistakes. Could he finally be the one to put this decades-old franchise back on track?

This latest sequel primarily focuses on Sidney Evans (Neve Campbell), who has made a new life for herself in Indiana by marrying police chief Mark Evans (Joel McHale), raising her three daughters, and running a coffee shop. Sidney receives a call from a new Ghostface and gets quite a shock when he reveals himself to be Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), who is supposedly alive & well, and threatening to go after her oldest daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Sidney is able to get to her in time with police, but not before Ghostface kills a couple of her friends. This is quickly followed by an attack in Sidney's own house that has her & Tatum barely escaping with their lives. With the identity of Ghostface in doubt, and possible suspects everywhere, Sidney must once again band together with her old friend Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) in order to track down the killer before any harm comes to her daughter.

Over the last few decades, we've seen the last several "Scream" films fall into a pretty predictable pattern. Sidney and/or others will be stalked by a killer or killers, with several friends & acquaintances getting killed along the way, all of which leads up to the big reveal of their identity & motive. For the most part, each entry will manage to have some pretty tense & exciting scenes that has Ghostface going after their victims, which at least provides some fun chills throughout each film. However, where each film after the original sequel has dropped the ball is in the final act, where we've gotten one disappointing reveal & explanation after another, which has included a jealous step-brother, a jealous cousin, and movie-obsessed wackos.

When it comes to this seventh outing, we once again find it following the rather familiar path of showing Sidney trying to get on with her life, only to be terrorized once again by a new Ghostface. To its credit, it at least tries to be a little misleading by throwing in the possibility of an old killer still being alive (though clearly an impossibility on many levels), and it does provide a number of decently thrilling chases & Ghostface encounters that bring a fair amount of tension & excitement, but sadly, any positives that the film manages to build up throughout are quickly disposed of with what turns out to be the weakest reveal the franchise has suffered yet.

In previous sequels, even when the reveal of the killer's identity & their motive was rather poor, at least they usually had something to do with the plot & characters. For this latest unmasking, you'd be forgiven for laughing out loud when it's revealed that those responsible are hardly seen throughout the film and that their motive has nothing to do with anything. This will likely be followed by another laugh when you realize that you're being asked to believe that these are the people we've seen running around and killing people throughout the film. To put it simply, the franchise has gotten to the point where the killers are just random people who don't even tangentially relate to the plot or characters. It would appear that even original scribe Kevin Williamson was so tapped for ideas that this was the best he could come up with.

Again, to its credit, it does just fine throughout as far as establishing a typical narrative for one of these films and giving the audience some thrills as the body count rises, but with a finale that crashes & burns this badly, there's not really much that can be done to repair the damage. That said, as long as these films continue to be massive successes at the box office, they'll continue to churn them out, and with "Scream 7" being no exception, it should come as no surprise that another entry is already in the works. That should at least give us something intriguing to look forward to, that being getting to see if the big reveal could be any worse. Perhaps the killer in "Scream 8" will be someone that Sidney cut off in traffic, or a server that she didn't tip properly. With Williamson setting the bar this low, the possibilities remain fascinatingly, and amusingly, endless.

Video/Audio:

"Scream 7" comes to 4K in a 2.39:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfer of excellent quality, presenting a beautifully sharp picture throughout its entire 113-minute duration, even during its multitude of dark scenes. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos audio track is marvelous, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in outstanding quality. Overall, Paramount has done a fantastic job in both areas for the latest sequel's 4K debut.

Special Features:

Scar Tissue: The Making of Scream 7 (22 Minutes): The cast & crew take you behind the scenes of the making of the film.

Building Tension: Production Design (8 Minutes): An intriguing look at the role the set design plays in the film.

Dance of Death: Stunts (6 Minutes): A featurette that delves into some of the film's intense action sequences.

Ice Nine Kills Presents "Twisting the Knife" Featuring McKenna Grace (Music Video) (3 Minutes)

Deleted Scenes (6 Sequences, 5 Minutes)

Conclusion:

"Scream 7" is, for the most part, a fairly standard entry in the long-running franchise, one that does a decent job setting up its familiar narrative and giving the audience a few chills & thrills as the body count rises throughout, but sadly it's completely undone by a remarkably laughable finale that features the series' weakest reveal yet, ultimately leaving us with another sub-par sequel that only reiterates how out of ideas the franchise has been for quite some time.

Score: 2.5/5

Available on 4K/Blu-ray starting tomorrow.

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