Scream 7 is bad. We’ve covered that in our review. And while there are plenty of non-spoiler reasons given to explain that, digging into spoilers really helps solidify it. So let’s do that. Who is Ghostface? What was the motive? Were there any especially interesting suspects? Did it all make sense? Let’s break it down.
One of the very, very few things we liked about Scream 7 is the notion for the majority of the film that Stu Macher, Matthew Lillard’s character from the first film, is behind the murders. We saw Stu die. Everyone thinks he’s dead. But this is the seventh entry into a horror franchise. Maybe, just maybe, he’s not.
And the movie leans into that with the FaceTime calls he places to Sidney (Neve Campbell), showing all kinds of scarring on his face, and even a visit to a mental institution, where a character—played by a pretty famous actor who hadn’t shown up previously, Ethan Embry—claims that Stu was there. Not a red flag at all.
But if Stu is actually dead, how are we seeing him? Everyone assumes that someone is creating AI-driven deepfakes. Which makes sense. That’s timely. Plus, the film literally has Sidney’s daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), find an open, powered-on laptop in her boyfriend’s car with software open to him doing just that. Clearly, he’s the killer, right? No one is that stupid or obvious. Who leaves a laptop open in their car with incriminating software still running?
Beyond that very dumb thing, the film does an honestly kind of cool and interesting thing by unmasking Ghostface halfway through. Only it’s not Stu. It’s some random guy Sidney saw in her coffee shop. An escaped mental patient from that aforementioned institution, where the too-famous-for-a-small-role actor just happens to have all the answers.
Of course, yes, eventually we learn that Ghostface in Scream 7 is actually three people. There’s the random mental patient, who dies and is unmasked. There’s Ethan Embry’s orderly character from the mental institution and, shocker, the next-door neighbor, played by Pitch Perfect star Anna Camp. She has been on the tangents for most of the film, posing as Sidney’s friend. But, like Embry, she’s just a shade too famous not to have any point. So, she’s the big, final boss, mastermind killer.
So what does she want? What’s the dynamic? Here’s where things go from bad to worse. Now, apologies. I’ve only seen the movie once, so I might get some of this wrong. But, to be fair, it’s very confusing and happens very quickly. Basically, Camp’s character had an abusive husband, and she was so inspired by Sidney’s book that she killed her husband, got away with it, and then moved to Sidney’s town to be closer to her. Along the way, she also found herself in a mental institution, which is where she met the other two guys. Oh, and one of them—Embry’s character—used to work at Google? So that’s how they were deepfaking not just Stu, but also Roman (Scott Foley), Nancy (Laurie Metcalf), and even Dewey (David Arquette).
Let’s start there. The AI/deepfake stuff is beyond dumb. If the movie were about that in any larger context, maybe it would have had something. But it’s so haphazard that the script has to explain it in a throwaway “I worked at Google before going to a mental institution” line. Also, any kind of expertise is undercut minutes earlier by the boyfriend and his laptop. Clearly, deepfaking Stu was not a particularly difficult thing to do, and nothing else in the movie is about the dangers of technology. It’s just sprinkled in there for faint relevance.
Also, every other Scream Ghostface has had a very, very clear motive. Your mom ruined my family. You killed my son. We want to recreate the movies. I want to be famous. Etc. But the motivation in Scream 7 is that you’re such a fan of Sidney’s that you want to kill her and her daughter? That you love her so much, you want to end their cycle of trauma? That’s weak. Would you really go through all of this just for that? And why would the other two guys join up with you?
Again, maybe I’m missing one or two tiny points here that get buried in the whole “WTF” of the overall moment. But, for the most part, the three Ghostfaces here are a little too obvious and a little too confusing and lack any real imagination or thematic purpose.
Which is kind of the whole movie in a nutshell. Remember the opening? That fun little meta moment where two actors we kind of recognize (Michelle Randolph and Jimmy Tatro) go into the old Macher house, which has now become an Airbnb Scream museum? The idea of reliving moments from the previous movies is a cool tease of, “Oh, this movie is going to be about looking back.” Except Ghostface (which one? We don’t know) then kills them both and burns down the house. Is that them trying to wipe the slate clean? Does it serve literally any larger purpose besides just looking cool? Not really.
And where is the mention of Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega)? We know why they aren’t in this movie in our reality. But in the reality of this movie, it’s pretty weak that Mindy and Chad (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding) return and don’t talk about the other survivors. The film just continually refers to Scream 6 as “New York” over and over and thinks that covers it. It does not. (Plus, we’re really supposed to believe the very smart, forward-looking Mindy and Chad want to get into traditional news media? Come on.)
Oh! And were we supposed to recognize or feel any adoration for that leather jacket? What the hell was that? Okay, okay. Fine. I could go on and on about all the things this movie does poorly or flat out wrong, but we think that’s enough for one article. Feel free to expand on them yourself in the comments below.
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