[Series Minded is an irregular feature here at T&KSD, wherein we tackle the entire run of a film, TV, or videogame series in one fell swoop. Kent tackled the first five entries of the Scream franchise three years ago and now follows-up with the next two entries in the first-ever Series (re)Minded]
Scream VI (2023, d. Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin - Crave)
Scream 7 (2026, d. Kevin Williamson - in theatre)
At this point with the Scream franchise I get very unenthused with its formulae. I was already pretty tired of it by the time I did my "Series Minded" write-up of it three years ago.
"There are definite elements I like to the series, but the samey-ness of the series gets tedious when watching back-to-back-to-back(-to-back-to-back-to-back)."
"The "whodunnit" of the sequels are diminishing returns."
None of that has changed. I had gotten tired of the killers who are obsessed with the mythology of the franchise (or the meta "Stab" franchise, in-universe) in my binge watch of the prior films, and the sixth entry didn't change that tune.
Scream 6 opens with Samara Weaving waiting for her blind date at a bar when she gets a call. We know where this is going. When she's dead in a back alley at the hands of a Ghostface killer, he steps back, looks at his handiwork, and then pulls off his masks revealing it's Tony Revelori (I knew I knew that voice). I was ready to accept a different type of Scream movie, one where we already know who the killer is, and know that he's after the survivors we met in the prior film. That's different, way outside the nor...oh and now he's dead by another Ghostface. Fine, back to business as usual.
It doesn't take long before sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) and friends are deep in the mix of murder. I did like what Sam was wrestling with in the film, a bit of bloodlust from her own genetic mental health disorder, but also being the subject of conspiracy theories that, as the biological daughter of Billy Loomis, she's actually the mastermind behind the last batch of Woodsboro murders. Pretty much every other character here, though, doesn't have such inspiration backing them up.
The film makes it clear early on that Sam cannot even be a suspect in any of this so the conspiracy is toothless, holding no weight beyond our sympathies. The film doesn't give the characters much time to feel any of the weight of what's happening to them (again) though.
It took me a while to remember what happened in the previous film, but the script gives us more than enough prompts and reminders to piece it all back together. Generally I liked the "core four" of the film (Barrera, Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding) both as characters and performers enough to root for them not to die.
The film manages to drag Courtney Cox's Gail back into the scene, but it feels as disingenuous here as it did in the previous film, and even more empty without Dewy as part of the duo. They position her as "the legacy character to kill off" but don't fully commit. In fact the film doesn't fully commit to killing any of the majored players.
Kirby (Hayden Pannetiere in another boss-ass haircut) also returns (last seen in Scream 4) likely as a sub for an absent-due-to-contract-disputes Neve Campbell, but I was psyched, and while she's not an active part of the film as much as I'd have liked, she's still my favourite character of the franchise. I want to see a Kirby
 |
| KIRBY!!! <3<3<3 |
spin-off series, each episode hunting down a serial killer in a new amazing haircut.
The reveal at the end of Scream 6, like all but the first Scream seems as flawed as all others in the series (save the first film) where the script and story are basically pointing fingers at everyone meaning that trying to suss out suspects as an audience member is a futile effort. Once they get to the reveal, it doesn't really matter who's under the suit(s) or why they're doing what they're doing. It all feels pretty contrived.
I said about the reveals and the story being so intricately tied to the characters and obsession with mythology, well, that continues to hold true. But what's the alternative, that it's just a crazy killer, or two (or three) that almost randomly want to kill Sydney/Gail/Sam/Tara/etc? Because that's what Scream 7 ostensibly does, and it sucks just as much as you think it would.
(I really don't like saying anything "sucks", as it's so pedestrian and inconsiderate a critique, but truly, the reveal moment of Scream 7 does, in fact, suck.)
There's really no way for the franchise to succeed in its killer reveals at this point. It's either got to be connected, or it's got to be random, and the former is played out and the latter is utterly uninteresting. Just one of the many reasons the franchise needs a very, very long rest.
Due to some really gross political posturing shit, Barrera was unceremoniously kicked off the series, and I think Ortega left in solidarity. (Ortega has a good career going, she could take the hit, Savoy Brown and Gooding could very much not and return here as Gail's assistants). As such, the studio backed up the dump-truck full of cash to Neve Campbell's door and got her back on board. It was really their only move, other than capitulating to being dumbshits and hiring Barrera back).
Williamson's latest sticks to the tropes of horror but tries to abandon franchise formulae which, at times, makes Scream 7 feel like it's too far apart from its own series, and yet, escaping the franchise formulae also seems virtually impossible.
Here, the Ghostface killer has come for Sydney in her new home, targeting her daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). When the killer makes the calls, though, it's calling now using a facetime-like app and we see the scarred visage of one Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). The big question that the film wants you to puzzle over, that really wants you to invest in is..."Is it really him?" But eagle eyed viewers will note neither Sydney nor Gail ever truly believe it despite what someone else in the film might try to convince them of. (My kid had a very good point in that the Stu Macher here seems more like how he might be characterized in the "Stab" movies, in-world, rather than the actual Stu, who Sydney knew personally for years. Sydney *could* have played a "tell me something only Stu would know" game with him, but that would give the game up too quickly...and this film, and this series, is all about playing games).
Where Scream 6 very much felt like a franchises coasting on fumes, but still moving forward, Scream 7 is the series in neutral coasting down a slight slope, about to come to a complete stop at any moment, no inertia left. The cast of Scream 7 is doing their best to sell that there's still some juice left, but it's only half convincing when everything around them seems so tired.
Campell, looking fantastic, completely comfortable in Sydney's shoes, and owning a no-bullshit attitude, looks strong pushing this stalled-out franchise just a few more feet forward. She works well with everyone on screen on screen. She's still a star, but clearly doesn't give a shit about what that means.
I'm at the point with this series where the very idea of anyone putting on a Ghostface costume is just the height of absurdity. I balk a the whole "Ghostface" thing that opens every film, the phone call and the impossibility of being in two places at once or even as two people, coordinating and orchestrating. Ghostface has moved beyond two doofuses surprising people in a killing spree to being far stronger and more resilient than any regular human. The Ghostface that kills most of the people in a film is not the same as the one, two or more people revealed to be the killer at the end of the film, and it's so hard to ignore.
The series has also lost its ability to really have meaningful kills. Being stabbed once is like a slight nick, easy enough to keep going, while being stabbed four or five times doesn't mean much if you've got the right plot armor. The certain characters that get to still be alive after violent stabbings in each of the sixth and seventh entries of the series just undermines the stakes of the series. You basically know who is going to get it and who they wouldn't dare kill off before the first act is finished.
The most daring thing the next Scream film could do is to disconnect itself entirely from everything else in the franchise, just a Halloween-style psycho killer out on the prowl, but, I dunno, in a shopping mall like Dawn of the Dead. Being meta by mixing plots, rather than remixing itself.
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Ranking Screams
- Scream
- Scream 4
- Scream 2
- Scream (5)
- Scream 6
- Scream 7
- Scream 3
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