LOS ANGELES, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Scream 7, in theaters Friday, is the best Scream movie since the '90s. That's become an increasingly lower bar, but the return of original writer Kevin Williams refocuses the sequel on the original characters and themes, more so than movie references.
Sydney (Neve Campbell) is now married to police officer Mark Evans (Joel McHale). They have a teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabelle May), named after Rose McGowan's character from the 1996 Scream.
Williamson, sharing screenplay credit with Guy Busick, explores the tension between Sydney and Tatum. Sydney is pretty measured when she catches Tatum's boyfriend, Ben (Sam Rechner), sneaking in, but opening up about five previous murder sprees is less natural.
Tatum is aware of multiple Stab movies based on Sydney's experiences, two books written by survivors including Sydney's, and true crime shows still exploit them. Tatum wants to understand and the script navigates trauma, protectiveness, defensiveness, secrecy and other emotions with maturity.
As such, Scream 7 is much more about the legacy of survival than it is about its place amongst other horror movies. Horror franchises still get name checked, but to a much smaller degree than even the original Scream.
