Everything old is, inevitably, new again. That is certainly the case with Kevin Williamson’s sequel Scream 7. The original trilogy of films ran from 1996 to 2000, with direction by Wes Craven. Craven returned in 2011 to direct Scream 4, which was one of the first ‘legacy’ sequels to hit Hollywood, and then in 2022 Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media collaborated in reviving the franchise again. Scream 5 and 6 were both sizeable hits under the direction of Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and a seventh instalment was predictably ordered in 2023.

Scream 7 has endured a fairly rough ride from commission to production. Contracted star Melissa Barrera was fired by Paramount after posting pro-Palestine social media posts, prompting many fans to propose a boycott of the finished film. Co-star Jenny Ortega resigned, citing scheduling conflicts. The planned director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) also resigned due to a concerning number of death threats resulting from Barrera’s firing. All a bit of a mess, really.

Paramount’s solution? Hire original Scream writer Kevin Williamson to direct the new sequel, back up the money truck to original star Neve Campbell – who had sat out of Scream VI over a pay dispute, and develop a revised screenplay that abandoned Barrera and Ortega’s characters in favour of another legacy-themed sequel.

Original Ghostface killings survivor Sidney Prescott (Campbell) now lives in Pine Grove, Indiana, with her husband Mark (Joel McHale) and teenage daughter Tatum (Isobel May). When a new Ghostface emerges, they waste no time in targeting Sidney and her family all over again.

The nostalgia runs heavily over Scream 7. The screenplay directly references the 1996 original – which does seem in keeping with the franchise’s 30th anniversary – as well as elements and characters from the previous sequels. Musical cues hark back to earlier films, as do key set pieces and pieces of dialogue. There is perhaps less visceral violence and gore than Gillett and Betinelli-Olpin’s two sequels, which is not surprising given Kevin Williamson’s return to the series. Much of the film returns to a well-established formula: there’s a new cast of teenage protagonists, each of them a potential suspect. The small town setting shifts the series back to the mode of the first, fourth, and fifth films; Scream never really felt comfortable in big city settings.

Scream was always relatively unique among slasher series, in that it followed the heroes from film to film rather than the villains. It seems to have ultimately been to Scream‘s benefit that Campbell sat out the sixth film, because it has creatively re-energised the treatment of her character in the seventh. This is Sidney Prescott in the mode of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode in Halloween (2018). Unlike Curtis’ character, however, Sidney is not portrayed as emotionally damaged or obsessive. She has genuinely attempted to move on with her life, and in particular to shield her daughter Tatum from the horrors of the past. There is a palpable sense of weary resignation on Sidney’s part when the bodies begin to pile up, and that feeling of fatigue is played up in many of the film’s funnier moments. Campbell is at a franchise-best here – as she should be, with 30 years of screen experience between the first Scream and the seventh. She represents the single-best reason to experience this latest sequel.

Other performances are generally strong, particularly May and McHale as Sidney’s new family but also across Tatum’s group of friends and teenage murder suspects. Oddly it is the other returning faces that struggle to make a positive impact. Mason Gooding and Jasmine Savoy Brown don’t really have a reason to be in the film. Courteney Cox – I think the only actor to appear in all seventh instalments – receives her best-ever entrance, but then tends to flounder as the film fails to find a fully justifiable purpose for her to be there. By the final act she disappears almost entirely, as if Williamson forgot she was in the story at all.

This is, all in all, generally effective stuff, and viewers who willingly watched the previous six films will have little trouble finding things to enjoy in the seventh. Yes the franchise creaks with over-familiarity and routine, but this part at least manages to pull through on the back Neve Campbell’s performance. Viewers debating whether or not to reward Paramount after its unjustified firing of Melissa Barrera should follow their own conscience. It is an entertaining movie, but it isn’t unmissable.