If you like your horror as campy and referential as you do bloody and gory, it’s been a busy week. Replace Clint Eastwood with a murderous masked serial killer, Eli Wallach with a scream queen, and Lee Van Cleef with studio politics, and it’s all been the good, the bad, and the ugly. First, the good: Katheryn Newton, with heavy horror experience from Paranormal Activity 4, Freaky, Abigail, and Lisa Frankenstein, is joining Ready or Not 2. But in horror, things never stay good for long.
Next up, the bad – David Arquette is returning for Scream 7. The next Scream movie, which should be riding the high of Scream 6’s critical and commercial success, not to mention the fact we’ve just had our first Ghostface Oscar winner in Mikey Madison. Instead, the film seems like a mess with several actors not returning, a directorial shuffle, and the minor issue that Arquette’s character gruesomely died on screen in a way that cannot be undone. Why is all of this happening? Now we come to the ugly.
The Horror Domino Effect Of Melissa Barrera Leaving Scream
The face of the two recent movies has been Melissa Barrera, whose role of Sam Carpenter has modernised the franchise and given it a new edge in a way Scream 4 never could, while believably teasing an eventual Sam as Ghostface arc. Unfortunately, Barrera will not be returning for the movie having been fired for her social media posts accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing”. This left a major hole in the franchise, and that canyon has only widened.
Shortly after Barrera left, it was confirmed her on-screen sister Tara (played the biggest star in Scream’s arsenal, Jenna Ortega), would not be returning. While the reasons for Ortega departing were unclear, and were likely linked in part to her much busier schedule and rising salary demands, the timing was seen by some as support for Barrera. Christopher Landon, who was set to direct Scream 7 after 5 and 6 were helmed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, called the project a “nightmare” after the script needed to be retooled to remove Barrera and Ortega, before eventually quitting himself.
Given the controversial nature of her exit and her continued support of Palestine, much of the media attention has fallen to Barrera. Already a horror fan favourite, she starred in horror-comedies Abigail (alongside Newton, and directed by Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett) and Your Monster. However, Abigail was a commercial failure, bringing in just $43 million on a $28 million budget. Your Monster was far smaller, an indie movie made for just $300,000. While Barrera is a large reason the movie got any traction at all, low budget indie films should not be her ceiling. She should instead be the face of Scream 7. But she might yet have the last laugh.
Scream 7 Does Not, And Cannot, Make Any Sense
I don’t think Scream 7 is going to be any good. Leaving aside how you feel about Barrera and the circumstances around her exit, I don’t think the movie itself can possibly justify its own existence. We’ve had two movies not only built around Sam and Tara’s relationship, but specifically about Sam’s connection to Ghostface. What’s more, Dewey died. On screen. We all saw it. Amber stabs him brutally, ripping his stomach open with two knives. He is canonically dead, and the impact of that is felt in Scream 7. It happened.
This leaves us with two choices. Either it didn’t happen, or he faked his death. Neither are satisfying. If Scream 7 will tell us Screams 5 and 6 were fictional even within Scream’s universe and were a screenplay or novel someone (possibly Sidney) wrote, that’s stupid. I wish I could be more verbose, but it’s just stupid. Scream 5 does not work as a concept if it is not real, as the whole premise is that the killers were obsessed with a movie that is fake to us but real within the Scream universe. Also, it features people we know from the first four movies who are real people, apparently played by themselves? No. Silly.
If he faked his death, then a) why do it at all, b) why remain fake-dead for Scream 6, and c) why would Amber help him, which can be replaced by d) if Amber didn’t help him, how did he survive? And I don’t really need the answer to these questions because I know they don’t exist, and the answer is ‘all the other actors left so we gave David Arquette some money to come back because you guys like him’.
Melissa Barrera For Ready Or Not 2?
So where does Barrera come in? To get this answer, we have to go back to the good news. We know that alongside Newton joining the cast, the OG star of Ready or Not (who also appeared briefly in Scream 7), Samara Weaving, is also coming back. Another returning face – faces, really – will be in the director’s chair – again, chairs – in the form of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The duo obviously has a great relationship with Barrera, who has already set up a crossover.
In Abigail, there’s an easter egg in the form of a portrait that references the murderous family from Ready or Not, implying the films take place in the same universe. That means while an Abigail sequel is unlikely given the box office returns, Barrera’s character could pop up in Ready or Not 2 to reprise her role. When the sequel was announced at the end of 2024, Barrera praised Weaving’s work in the original, and said she “would do anything” if Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett were directing. The stars seem to be aligning, and for Barrera, the best revenge might be living well.
