Screaming in Instagram Stories
Who knew Melissa Barrera had so many fans? She wasn’t that good in Scream ’22 or Scream VI, and when she was fired for posting about Palestine in late-2023, I wasn’t surprised. If you’re in Hollywood, and you touch the third rail, you’re gonna get ZAPPED! Plenty of celebrities are openly pro-Palestine, and some sign petitions, but most of them still work. Why did Barrera get canned? Because she’s young and hasn’t done that much. She was expendable. The corporation producing the Scream series didn’t share her views, and, as is often the case with anything related to Israel/Palestine, there were no warnings or forgiveness. So everyone dug their heels in and made Barrera their movie martyr, “speaking truth to power” and handicapping her career in the process. Barrera is free to say whatever she wants, and shouldn’t be stifled; at the same time, when you’re working in Hollywood, what do you think is going to happen? You could’ve called it the day she was fired: a cause célèbre that’ll define the actress, who’ll possibly remain a name albeit without practicing her craft as often, if ever—the Colin Kaepernick of scream queens.
Another call: Neve Campbell will return once Spyglass ups their offer. Indeed she has, and Scream 7 arrived last weekend just under three years since the Manhattan-set Scream VI starring Barrera and Jenna Ortega. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, Scream VI was the best sequel in the series since 2000’s Scream 3, and Ortega distinguished herself unlike the flat Barrera. It’s a drag that she left the series, too, because none of the kids in Scream 7 are that compelling. There’s also nothing like the bodega shootout from the last movie, where Ghostface blasts his way through a corner store looking for a terrified Ortega; I still remember that close-up as she screams under shattered glass and toppled tortilla chips. Kevin Williamson, creator of the franchise and screenwriter of three previous installments, directed this one, and he doesn’t do a very good job. It’s serviceable, but it’s obviously a screenwriter directing his own material: zero visual, no memorable images, a camera that stays at eye level for nearly two hours. Williamson should’ve kept Christopher Landon on.
Maybe not: Landon got death threats after Barrera was fired, even though he’s just been hired and had nothing to do with the situation: “People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved. I got messages saying, 'I'm going to find your kids, and I'm going to kill them because you support child murder.' The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats.”
Do these people care about Berrera or the Scream movies that much? Of course not; most are probably children and teenagers with no foresight, but the number of adults who’ve made Palestine their life is not zero. You’d think these people would try something that would actually affect the situation, like running for office or going overseas, but instead they pick pop culture proxies that just so happen to align with their viewing habits.
Scream 7 opens just like every other Scream movie, but everyone gave up trying to top the opening after Scream 2. Drew Barrymore gets killed before the opening credits in the first one, amazing—how do they follow it up? Omar Epps getting stabbed in the ear in the bathroom at the premiere of the Stab, a diegetic film and franchise standing in for Scream and one of the only elements to recur in every sequel. You’ve got the Ghostface mask, the opening set piece, the voice of Roger L. Jackson, and the Stab movies, a convenient generator of new killers that will keep both franchises alive in perpetuity. Scream VI proved you don’t need Neve Campbell or David Arquette to make a good Scream. They fucked up Courtney Cox pretty bad, but she survived and made it to the next one. Most people acknowledge that the series blew its load in the second movie by killing off Jamie Kennedy, too valuable a victim in a few respects: he was a more engaging screen presence than everyone who followed, and he was the most articulate character when it came to all of the metafictional elements that make Scream the most interesting, and often the most exciting, American horror film series.
Scream 7 isn’t that good, but it’s not a failure or an embarrassment, and while the reviews are horrendous, the box office is boffo; Scream 8 is already in development. Campbell and Cox will return, likely same time next year. Even if some are “review-bombing” the movie for… Palestine?… the filmmakers don’t care, nor should they. This is Scream 7, not UNICEF. Go to the nearest soup kitchen and stop demanding your celebrities act like politicians. Campbell and Cox aren’t bitter—they didn’t retcon the last movie completely. At one point, Cox’s hands start to shake, Campbell notices, and Cox sighs, “I still have some nerve damage from the attack in New York. You were smart to sit that one out.” That tiny bit of bitchiness (from Williamson and his co-writer Guy Busick) makes Scream 7 more interesting than most horror movies you’ll see this year. Even if this installment isn’t the best, Scream remains the most exciting horror franchise in American cinema, or, at the very least, the one with the most potential.
—Follow Nicky Otis Smith on Twitter: @NickyOtisSmith