The reviews for Scream 7 are looking pretty scary.
The latest film in the iconic horror-comedy franchise — which has Neve Campbell reprising her role as Sidney Prescott and series creator Kevin Williamson directing for the first time — has potentially the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of the series.
With critic review embargoes having lifted early Thursday morning, the film currently stands at only 42 percent positive across its 50 reviews.
While many more reviews are sure to be added, and the movie’s average could easily still change, Scream 7 now ranks as the worst-reviewed of the franchise — just slightly below 2000’s Scream 3, which has 45 percent. The other films in the series scored a good deal higher, ranging from 2011’s Scream 4 (61 percent) to the high-water mark of 1997’s Scream 2 (83 percent).
The Hollywood Reporter‘s review was one of the more negative takes on the new film, writing, “The overfamiliarity would be more palatable if the dialogue were as fresh and funny as it was in the early installments, or if the kills were more creatively staged. But there’s a rote quality to the proceedings that makes Scream 7 feel like a slog despite its high body count and copious gore.”
The film is probably largely review-proof, with the movie expected to open around $60 million globally for the second-best start in the franchise.
But here is a sampling of some of the reviews — which are pretty wildly split. There are a couple of outright raves represented below, a couple that call the film the worst in the franchise and a bunch that say it’s rather middling.
The Daily Beast: “The worst Scream movie yet is shockingly terrible … Sluggish, unscary, and plagiaristic in not-ingenious ways, it’s definitive proof that it’s time to retire Ghostface and his gravely hackneyed games … Narratively speaking, Williamson has no tricks up his sleeve, and from a visual standpoint, Scream 7 is rife with clichés, be it three separate shots in which autumn leaves blow across lawns, or recurring showdowns in an under-construction garage full of translucent tarps.”
The Wrap: “Scream 7 may be a competent, albeit unremarkable Scream sequel, but it’s one heck of an apology to Neve Campbell. Almost every scene is about how important Sidney Prescott is, and by extension Campbell, since this series is still (occasionally) meta. No one can shut up about how weird it is that Sidney didn’t turn up in New York to fight the killers in Scream VI, or how the new horror protagonists — in this case Sidney’s daughter, Tatum (Isabel May) — should do everything they can to live up to Sidney and Campbell’s specific legacy.”
SlashFilm: “What could a seventh movie possibly hope to accomplish that hasn’t been done to death already? The IP’s usual bag of tricks has long since run dry, leaving us with a thinly-sketched bore that mostly resembles one of those in-universe “Stab” knockoffs — an impression of an impression … All of this is emblematic of a film that suffers from self-inflicted wounds at practically every turn. Lacking the cleverness of the original, the undeniable flair of the best of Wes Craven’s sequels, and the crowd-pleasing thrills of the recent revivals, “Scream 7″ is more or less dead on arrival.”
Mashable: “Scream 7 is a return to form. Between the comic relief of the Meeks-Martin twins, [Matthew] Lillard’s irrepressible energy, and the kinetic crew of new teens (including McKenna Grace, Asa Germann, Celeste O’Connor, and Sam Rechner), there’s a levity that makes this movie wildly and unapologetically fun. This frivolity contrasts all the more sharply with the intense kill scenes, making their stabs hit home all the harder.”
UPI: “The best Scream movie since the ’90s … the kill scenes are elegantly constructed and brutal. It’s still not Terrifier but this is more graphic than the garage door or TV set kills in Scream … By avoiding the labored meta-commentary of the last two sequels, Scream 7 actually feels more like a Scream movie. It is a worthwhile exploration of where Sidney is 30 years later but still acknowledges all the movies in between.”
Film Maven: “This movie, especially, doesn’t care about the rules and has nothing to say about the nature of horror franchises … Scream 7 is certainly the worst in the franchise and while an eighth installment seems like a foregone conclusion everything about this is sloppy, inconsistent and tired. By this point this is a zombie that just wants to be put to rest.”
In 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.”