The horror genre has been experiencing a renaissance for years, and it's been a joy for fans like me. Some of the best horror movies returned to theaters with new sequels, including Wes Craven's Scream. The seventh movie will be in theaters shortly, and is one of the most highly anticipated upcoming horror movies of the year. Scream 7 will be directed by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first few movies. And he just revealed a major change to the franchise as a whole that I'm not really loving.
What we know about Scream 7 is limited, likely in order to guard its twists against spoilers. Neve Campbell is returning as Sidney Prescott, after being noticeably absent from the last movie (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription). In an interview with Empire Magazine (via our sister site Games Radar+), Williamson revealed a huge change to the property: the new movie apparently won't have the typical meta commentary on the horror genre. In his words:
This movie doesn't really have that meta goal. It's continuing the legacy of Sidney Prescott. It's about her daughter. It's about family.
Honestly, I'm shocked. This has been an essential part of every single Scream film, starting from the 1996 original. The commentary about the horror genre and its trends have not only been fodder for the franchise's comedic beats, but also a nod to the moviegoers who consistently see scary movies. And dropping it altogether is a HUGE change that I'm not sure fans are going to appreciate.
Horror is always changing, so it's been fun to see the way Scream movies address the genre's trends. Jamie Kennedy's Randy laid out the "rules" to surviving a horror movie i the first two films. Then Scream 3 literally took the franchise to a movie set. In the last two movies, Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy Meeks-Martin followed in her late uncle's foot steps, and laid out the rules of modern horror projects. So suddenly dropping this from the seventh movie is a huge swing.
The trailer for Scream 7 showed how focused the movie will be on Sidney Prescott and her family, but I still expected to see the meta aspect included. Mindy is even included in the movie's cast, so we got another horror nerd who could help bring this commentary to the story. And it's doubly surprising that this is being dropped since Kevin Williamson's screenplay for the first two movies is hat established this essential part of the slasher franchise. We'll just have to see how this all plays out.
Scream 7 will hit theaters on February 27th as part of the 2026 movie release list. I'll be there with my popcorn... even if I'll be missing the meta aspect of my favorite horror franchise.
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