MOVIE REVIEW: SCREAM 7

 

When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, she must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

Director: Kevin Williamson

Cast: Neve Campbell, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Courteney Cox, Isabel May, Anna Camp, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Mckenna Grace, Asa Germann, Celeste O'Connor, Sam Rechner, Mark Consuelos, Tim Simons, Joel McHale

Release Date: February 27, 2026

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, and language.

Runtime: 1h 54m

Review:

Scream 7 boast the return of franchise star Neve Campbell and the original writer, Kevin Williamson, behind the camera but this entry lacks any scares or tension while providing plenty of unintentional laughs.  There’s plenty of nostalgia and Easter Eggs thrown onscreen right off the bat which leads you to believe that Williamson intimate knowledge of the franchise and character would lead to something interesting and engaging.  Instead, we get a fairly straightforward take of Sidney as an overprotective mother who has a daughter that’s starting to resent her.  It is interesting enough, initially, thanks to a committed turn from Neve Campbell who jumps back in with relative ease but Williamson doesn’t take full advantage of it by breezing through their relationship before the entrails start gushing.  It’s a shame because Isabel May and Neve Campbell work well together onscreen but the hackneyed, non sensical script fumbles it all away.  Clocking in at nearly two hours, you expect a bit more time would be spent developing a least one or two of the new characters thrown onscreen instead of the paper-thin characterizations we get.  As a result, they barely register onscreen and having Isabel May play an insecure type who ends up in a dog costume in the school play while she looks like a super model is more than a little bit of a stretch.  Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, returning from the previous entry, fare far better by bringing some life to the screen when they pop up with Courteney Cox about halfway through the film.  Their natural charisma and energy shines through so much that you wish Williamson would have taken better advantage of them.  Cox can play this role in her sleep by this point but she’s seemingly begging for something more interesting and impactful to do which is hinted at but never explored.  All of this would be easier to shallow is the film was actually scary which it isn’t as all the kills are and set pieces come off as goofier than tense, eliciting more laughs than anything else especially when the final revel occurs.  Scream 7 probably isn’t the last entry in the franchise but it’ll need some serious course corrections if it doesn’t want to slip further into a parody of itself.

C-

MOVIE REVIEW: SCREAM

 

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.

Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Cast: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Dylan Minnette, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mikey Madison, Sonia Ben Ammar, Marley Shelton, Skeet Ulrich, Heather Matarazzo, Roger L. Jackson

Release Date: January 14, 2022

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references

Runtime: 1h 54m

Review:

Wes Craven's original Scream was a nice bit of self referential satire on slasher films.  It's the type of film that would have been better served if its subsequent sequels never existed.  It's heavy meta approach wasn't ever all that clever, Craven had done it before with his series send off for Freddy Krueger with New Nightmare.  As the film's have progressed the self reflection and satire has slowly devolved into self parody.  This fifth entry from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett is unintentionally funny in parts and rarely if ever scary to any tangible degree.  The script riffs on elevated horror here and there while being a prime example of why most of the slasher genre is dead and buried.  They are clearly fans of the genre but they deliver some uninspired, bland and mildly boring bits of what can barely be called horror.  The kills are fairly rudimentary with them choosing brutally over creating any palpable sense of tension.  David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox all return with varying degrees of impact with even certain moments that should register emotionally falling flat.  Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega and Jack Quaid do the heavy lifting for the better part of the film with Quaid being the only who seems to be having a good time.  Barrera is surprisingly flat with her eyebrows leaving the biggest impression on the film.  The who done it at play here sadly isn't all the complex or terribly intriguing as it tries to make a point about toxic fandom.  This fifth entry feels like it should be the last in the series and probably for good reason.

D

Movie Reviews: HAMLET 2

Friday, August 29, 2008
Movie Reviews: HAMLET 2
IN THEATERS




HAMLET 2

In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Cast: Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, David Arquette, Marshall Bell, Melonie Diaz

Director: Andrew Fleming

Opened August 22, 2008

Runtime: 1 hr. 32 min.

Rated R for language including sexual references, brief nudity and some drug content

Genres: Comedy

Review:

Hamlet 2 is an uneven but sometime inspired absurdist comedy that keeps you waiting for it to hit its stride but never does. Director Andrew Fleming does a good job of keeping a brisk pace throughout but that doesn't keep the film from lagging, mainly because of misses on the comedic end. Steve Coogan turns in a fun performance even if he over do it on a few occasions. Coogan give his loser actor a sense of contained lunacy mixed with naivety and aloofness. It's pretty much his show from start to finish and the result is uneven much like the entire movie. Supporting turns from a variety of actors and actress help Hamlet 2 even if they weren't used to their fullest potential. Catherine Keener is superbly venomous as Coogan's on screen wife, she really shows off her comedic timing in delivering some really funny and terribly mean spirited dialogue. Elizabeth Shue has a fun little cameo as herself. She's given up acting, which she was only interested in because she liked making out with her co stars, and works at a sperm bank. Shue has fun with the small amount of screen time she has but, like Keener's character, I wish we saw a lot more her. By the time the film reaches its climax, Hamlet 2 the stage play is a great send up of the cutting edge broadway shows excess and the reaction they cause, it's delivered enough laughs to make the experience worthwhile but the promise of the concept isn't fully realized even if you do leave humming the strangely catchy Rock Me Sexy Jesus.

C+