With a franchise-best $97 million debut at the worldwide box office, Scream 7 is shaping up to be a box office hit. However, it's also by far the worst-reviewed instalment of the long-running slasher series, with a dire 31% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Many fans have complained about the killer reveal, and the fact that the widely touted returns were ultimately very minor, largely meaningless cameos (facilitated by one of the new Ghostfaces ' AI expertise).
The odds were always stacked against Scream 7, in no small part due to the controversy surrounding the decision to fire Melissa Barrera after Scream 6. This latest chapter's reliance on nostalgia was always going to be either loved or hated by longtime fans, and while an eighth movie is being considered, what it will look like is a mystery to us.
Talking to Esquire, filmmaker Kevin Williamson revealed that there were originally plans for a post-credits scene featuring the resurrection of Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher. Presumably, that would have set him up as Scream 8's big bad.
"We wanted to have our cake and eat it too. I wish I could take credit for that. But Guy Busick had that in his script. He wrote all the AI stuff," Williamson shared. "The first time I read it I was like, 'How is this going to work? How is he going to be alive?'"
"Furthermore, if it is AI, will part of the audience be disappointed that he’s not real? We were playing that game. And I’d be lying if I said we didn’t shoot it both ways," he continued. "We shot a little coda at the end that we had in our back pocket. But oddly enough, the decision was that the audience wanted him dead."
Reflecting on test audience feedback, Williamson said, "It makes more sense. It’s more real. If he’s alive, that’s a big stretch. We live in a world now where with fake AI, we know that’s possible."
Praising Lillard, he added, "He’s the calmest, sweetest, most humble, lovely human being you’ve ever met. Then he just turns it on and becomes the most impulsive of a live wire onscreen. I don’t think he’s been truly tapped to the extent of what he’s capable of. He’s at a wonderful age too."
"He has history, he has texture. His DNA is in a much more mature place where he can color performances in a beautiful way. He’s very necessary. We need him in more movies."
So, for now, Stu remains dead and gone. Scream 7 features three Ghostfaces, and each was a newly created character who had only minutes of screentime before being unmasked. That could go some way in explaining why they fell flat, as fans have come to expect familiar faces or bigger surprises.
In Scream 7, when a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realised as her daughter (Isabel May) becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.
Scream 7 is now playing in theaters.