Review: 'Scream 7' brings back Neve Campbell to the 'final girl' role that made her a star, but this time nostalgia's the real killer

Thirty years after Wes Craven’s thriller “Scream” launched a meta-slasher series, the new installment “Scream 7” has become what the franchise always despised — a by-the-numbers bloodbath.

The one upside to this installment is that Neve Campbell is back as the franchise’s original “final girl,” Sidney Prescott, after the star sat out the last movie when Paramount Pictures didn’t want to pay her what she’s worth. In a sequel that constantly references back on its past chapters, Sidney’s absence from “Scream VI’s” New York misadventures gets referenced the most.

This movie’s attempt at emulating the original’s trademark opening kill gives away what director Kevin Williamson — who wrote the original, and co-wrote this one with Guy Busick — is going for here. The opener shows a dudebro (Jimmy Tatro) with a true-crime obsession dragging his girlfriend (Michelle Randolph) to stay at the Macher house, the site of the murders in the first “Scream” movie. Now a tourist trap with Ghostface Killer animatronics and posters from the franchise-within-a-franchise “Stab” films, the house, like this movie, is a nostalgia-heavy cash grab.

Sidney has holed up in a small town, where her husband Mark (Joel McHale) is the police chief. They have a daughter, Tatum (Isabel Ray), who’s 17 — the age Sidney was when the first murders happened — and resentful that Mom doesn’t talk about those horrific experiences. (Fans will note that Tatum is named for Sidney’s best friend in high school, played then by Rose McGowan, who didn’t survive the original movie.)

Tatum has friends, Hannah and Chloe, played by McKenna Grace and Celeste O’Connor, who are both familiar with the legacy-sequel money play, since they both co-starred in the recent “Ghostbusters” movies. Tatum also has a boyfriend, Ben (Sam Rechner), and there’s a boy next door, Lucas (Asa Germann), who’s a bit obsessed with Sidney’s previous exploits. Being teens in a teen-slasher movie, the audience is fairly sure these characters are suspects or targets. 

Other characters who might be carrying the knife or getting one between the ribs are: Jessica (Anna Camp), Sidney’s neighbor and friend; Tatum’s drama teacher (Timothy Simons); an orderly (Ethan Embry) at a nearby psychiatric hospital; and an ambitious local TV reporter (Mark Consuelos). Three more familiar faces — who we’re quite sure aren’t suspects — are TV reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), the only person who’s been in all seven of these movies, and her interns, twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), who have survived the fifth and sixth chapters. 

There are some other familiar faces — I won’t say who, but their appearances require more fancy writing than the script can deliver. Their presence, particularly in the grand finale, point out how desperately Williamson and company want to play the greatest hits.

Williamson does manage to stage one clever sequence — the one in the trailer, where Sidney and Tatum are in a tight crawlspace trying to elude ol’ Ghostface. But that doesn’t make up for the movie’s many killings, which range from ho-hum to tasteless. If there’s an eighth movie in the series, they should change the name to “Yawn.”

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‘Scream 7’

★★

Opens Friday, February 27, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, and language. Running time: 114 minutes.