The Boneyard 3/6/26
Generational screaming.
I wasnāt going to do a post this week. Iāve seen a couple of newer things, but Iām not sure what we will be getting into and what we wonāt on Werewolves next weekend as of yet. The older stuff Iāve been watching is Leoneās āMan With No Nameā trilogy and Iāve got to be the last person on Earth anywhere near my age to have never sat and watched them all the way through, so Iām not sure what Iād even say. I also never intended for this to be a weekly thing I do, but Iāve been having fun with it, so Iāve wanted to keep posting. I thought about taking a week off, but then something happened Tuesday afternoon.
My 17 year old came home from school and asked me if I knew Scream 7 was already on the internet, to which I curiously said ānoā, and she proceeded to tell me about how someone in one of her blocks was watching on their phone and she watched it too. She was careful to not spoil anything as she knows Iām a fan of Scream, but she also liked it quite a bit and was excited to talk about it. This child has little interest in movies, even less so in horror, and has never seen a Scream film before. She literally began with Scream 7. I have since seen it, in fact Iāve seen every Scream in the theater, and I have my opinions on it for sure. I obviously will not be going into any sort of spoilers or specifics in this writing, however I may offer up an opinion or two on it along the way. Before I get into any of that, a little backstory on my history with Scream, a franchise I enjoy but I feel like will forever fail to live up to itās first entry.
Wes Cravenās Scream would release in late December of 1996, my senior year in high school. Without going into a ton of personal detail, at that time in my life I had responsibilities (not just school related) that did not afford me many opportunities to hit the theater. Over the weeks, I watched from the sidelines as it went on to gross over $170 million worldwide, revitalize the slasher genre (while simultaneously making fun of it), and give us a new horror icon in Ghostface. I could not wait for the home video release so I could see it. Thankfully back then every house didnāt have the internet, and we definitely didnāt have computers in our pockets that also occasionally received phone calls, so avoiding spoilers wasnāt all that difficult.
As it turns out, I wouldnāt have to wait that long. Someone actually had the good sense to at least give an attempt at opening a theater in our little town. Sure, it was a drive-in, and it only showed second-run stuff, but for a town full of people with not a lot to do other than drive to other towns on the weekend, it was pretty great. I would find myself there a lot over the two years or so it stayed open. Memories that stand out off the top of my head are Small Soldiers, Twister (first movie the theater ever showed on opening night), and a double feature of Tim Burtonās Mars Attacks followed by Beavis and Butthead Do America. My favorite though, was Scream. It was I believe March but may have been late February when the drive-in screened it. I had gotten into an argument with my then girlfriend, and to get away alone for a while, I went to the theater. I pulled my old gray F-150 into a spot right in the middle of the lot, I was one of maybe three cars there, and was beyond excited to finally see what everybody had been talking about. Obviously I loved it, there is nothing I can say about Scream that hasnāt been said, but what made it even more memorable for me was that at just about halfway in, it started to snow. If you read last week, you know how rare that was for our area. Sitting alone in my truck with the heat on while Ghostface did his thing and snow flurries came down all around me is a memory I will never forget.
As we now know, the franchise would go on to spawn 6 sequels (so far) with varying degree of success, as well as a tv series (that I never watched). One thing is for sure though, no matter how you may rank them, or how āeyerollā worthy a Ghostface reveal may be, Scream puts asses in seats. As of this writing, itās one of only six horror franchises to gross over one billion dollars worldwide at the box office, with The Conjuring Universe, Alien, Resident Evil, It, and Saw rounding out the list. Scream 7 opened with over 97 million worldwide (64 million domestically) and that puts it at the highest grossing opening of any film in the series. Despite doing the research to spout these numbers to you, I am not one who keeps up or really even cares about box office takes, boycotts, rotten tomatoes scores, or any shit like that. Iām just pointing out that this is a series that is important to a lot of people. I was always going to go see Scream 7, Iāll go see the inevitable Scream 8 too. This is the stuff I love and I believe itās important to support it.
I knew the movie wasnāt being particularly praised, especially by fans who create horror ācontentā, I watched a couple of videos, agreed with some points that were made, not so much with others. For me personally, I found it to be a pretty middle of the road sequel. It felt rushed, thereās a lot of āwhy the fuck did they do THAT?ā moments, but also some fun kills a couple of great sequences leading to the kills. Thatās enough for me to say I at least had a good time with it, I also understand fans who wanted more from it. What prompted me to want to talk about it was my daughterās excitement.
Whereas I was looking at the reveal like āwhat in the absolute fuck?ā, her response when telling me about it was āmy jaw went ALL the way to the floor when they took the mask offā. And I stopped and thought about that for a second. How cool is it that she wasnāt worried about 30 years of history? It didnāt matter to her that she didnāt know who any of the ālegacyā characters were, she learned as much as she needed to know about them from this movie. She was invested in the characters this movie focused on (no matter how insignificant or unimportant they may be to those of us who have seen every Scream multiple times) and she had a great time watching Ghostface dispatch them. Then she still got the excitement of the red herrings, being convinced she knew who it was on more than one occasion (all while having no clue there tends to me multiple Ghostfaces), and having the reveal blow her mind. Isnāt that what brought most of us to this franchise in the first place, and has kept us coming back all these years? Iām not saying Scream 7 is anywhere close to Wes Craven and Kevin Williamsonās masterpiece, but what I am saying is that I think itās pretty awesome that in 2026 a new audience, a new TEEN audience, is getting to experience something at least a little close to what we did in 1996.
Iām well aware that wonāt be the case for everyone, but it at least made me think, and Iām actually looking forward to revisiting 7 when the 4k comes in. My daughter also wants to go through the entire series now, which is a great thing for those of us who want to see more of them in the future. Every franchise needs new fans, not just old, entitled grumpy ones. I know this was a little different than my usual posts here at The Boneyard, I thank anyone who read and allowed me the trip down memory lane and subsequently a second to stand on my soapbox a little. Iāve got some movies lined up Iām excited to get into next week, and we also get our second Friday the 13th of the year, so things should be going back to normal. Until then.