Scream 7 Continues the Most Irritating Trend of the Franchise (And It’s Starting to Ruin the Movies)

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Movies rely on our willingness to overlook unrealistic events and convenient plot twists that keep the story going. The trick is to not push it too far. If a movie asks us to believe something completely unbelievable, it breaks the immersion and it’s hard to get back into the story. The Scream franchise was once very good at walking that line, but recent installments have been pushing it too far. While the 2022 Scream movie was somewhat forgivable, Scream VI started to feel ridiculous, and now Scream 7 has asked viewers to accept something so silly that it’s simply too much to handle.

When we talk about suspending disbelief in this situation, we’re really noticing how many characters are still alive. This is especially noticeable with two characters who, realistically, should be dead by now.

Naturally, heavy spoilers for Scream 7 follow.

Who Lives in Scream 7 & How Have the Stakes Plummeted?

Plot armor is a storytelling technique where a character avoids harm that would typically be fatal to others. In the Scream movies, three characters consistently benefited from this: Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley. Because audiences loved them, the films allowed them to survive unbelievable situations – like Dewey walking away from a knife attack in Scream 2 and surviving being stabbed and impaled in Scream 3. We readily accepted these moments because we wanted them to live.

When Radio Silence took over the Scream franchise, they moved away from the formula established by Wes Craven, and it generally worked well. However, the latest film might have spread the protection usually given to main characters too thinly. While it made sense to keep the Carpenter sisters safe, the decision to keep both Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin alive felt like a missed opportunity. They’re both great characters and it’s good to see them returning in Scream 7, but if the movie really wanted to feel more dangerous, one of them should have been killed off.

Chad’s survival in Scream VI doesn’t make sense. He was brutally attacked – essentially impaled – by Quinn and Ethan. Plus, he was seriously injured in the previous film, so to see him unharmed is unbelievable. The Scream franchise has always been willing to kill off characters, famously including Drew Barrymore early in the first movie and Jamie Kennedy’s Randy in the second. These deaths made the danger feel real and gave the story emotional weight.

The surprises weren’t limited to just the first two films. Scream 3, which is actually holding up pretty well now, cleverly made Parker Posey’s character, Jennifer Jolie, seem like a key player alongside the main group, only to unexpectedly kill her off. It probably led some viewers to believe she’d survive until the very end.

Even though it was later changed, those who saw Scream 4 on opening night remember being shocked when Charlie stabbed Kirby. While some might say Kirby was protected by the plot, it still made sense she could survive – a single stomach wound isn’t always fatal. Compare that to Chad in Scream (2022) and Scream VI, who was stabbed around seventeen times total. That’s far more than even Dewey could realistically survive.

Look, as a huge fan of the Scream movies, it really hurts to admit, but Scream 7 feels like the franchise is starting to run out of steam. If they decide to make more, they need to bring back the unpredictability of anyone being a potential victim. Right now, it’s become too easy to guess who’s going to survive – it feels less like Scream and more like a Friday the 13th movie, where you pretty much know who’s a goner by the first act.

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2026-03-01 01:42