Summary
Kevin Williamson is preparing to directScream 7, with shooting set to begin sometime this year, for a potential release in theaters in 2025. It’s been nearly 30 years since Williamson wrote the originalScream, with the remote locations used in the movie adding to the tension. In 2022, Williamson wrote the tense slasher,Sick, directed by John Hyams, and the remote setting was reminiscent of the vibe created inScreamin 1996, with a house in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a wooded area, with a killer on the loose.
Kevin Williamson has written a string of successful slasher movies dating back to the 90s, withScreamlaunching his career in 1996. He followed this up withI Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, The Faculty,andWilliamson also wrote a Halloween sequelin 1998. Williamson spent the next chunk of his career in television, creating a string of hit shows, includingThe FollowingandThe Vampire Diaries, before he returned to the slasher genre withScream 4. After another long break from slashers, he wrote the screenplay forSickwith Katelyn Crabb in 2022, and it was a joyous return to the sub-genre that launched his career.
Sick
Starring
Gideon Adlon, Bethlehem Million, Dylan Sprayberry, Marc Menchaca, Jane Adams and Joel Courtney
Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb
Directed By
John Hyams
Sickis set in April 2020, at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic,and college student, Tyler Murphy is shopping for the essentials, when he receives creepy messages from a stranger. He is then attacked in his dorm room by a masked maniac, who brutally kills him.
Parker Mason (Gideon Adlon) and Miri Woodlow Bethlehem Million) are heading to a remote lake house to quarantine together in the midst of the pandemic, when Parker starts receiving similar creepy messagesto the ones Murphy got before his death. On their first evening at the lake house, they are visited by Parker’s on/off boyfriend, DJ, who gives them an unintentional scare when he lets himself in via the backdoor. He confronts Parker about an Instagram post he saw of her at a party kissing a boy called Benji, with Parker insisting she can do what she wants as they aren’t exclusive.
The group is then attacked by a masked intruder, who steals their phones and wakes them up with loud music, before killing DJ in brutal fashion, leaving Parker and Miri desperately trying to escape the location in their car, but the tires have been slashed. Parker manages to kill the intruder by bludgeoning him to death, (or so she thinks) only to discover there is a second killer who attacks her. Miri ends up finishing the first killer off when he regains consciousness.
Parker is trying to escape down the highway when the second killer attacks her, but she fights him off and flags down an approaching car. The woman in the car insists Parker wear a mask before she enters, and provides her with one, which is laced with chloroform, and knocks her out. The driver and the second attacker take Parker back to the lake house and do a COVID-19 test on her.
The killers are revealed to be a husband and wife called Jason and Pamela, while the other intruder was their eldest son. They reveal Benji, who Parker kissed at the party, was their younger son who died of COVID-19 three days after the party.The COVID-19 test confirms Parker has tested positive and Jason and Pamela blame her for Benji’s death. Turns out, the opening kill, Tyler Murphy, had infected Parker.
Miri is hiding out in the kitchen and tries to contact the police from a laptop, but there is no signal, and Jason ends up smashing the Wi-Fi router when he realizes it’s being used. Miri manages to creep up on Pamela and hits her over the head with a bottle, and Parker pushes her through a window.Jason chases after Parker and Miri up the stairs, but they throw him over the banister and impale him on a pair of deer antlers, and he dies.
Parker and Miri head to a nearby barn, and find a vehicle to escape in, but Pamela turns up and fights back.They cover her in gasoline and set her on fire, and she runs out onto the road and dies, as the police turn upand Parker and Miri watch on as Pamela burns in the middle of the road.
Kevin Williamson
The remote setting ofSickcreates a very claustrophobic feeling which adds to the tension in the movie, andScream 7would benefit from copyingSick’s remote setting to ramp up the tension forSidney Prescott and her family.Due to the multiple attempts on her life, the chances are Sidney might’ve opted to relocate to a remote area during the events ofScream 7to escape from potential Ghostface killers.
Scream 7should copyScream 3with its remote settingthat sawSidney living in an undisclosed area before she was coaxed out of hiding to help Gale and Dewey defeat Ghostface in Hollywood. Even if Sidney and her family aren’t living in a remote area at the start ofScream 7, there is a chance they will escape to a remote area to stay safe. Gale tells Sam and Tara inScream 6, that Sidney, Mark and the kids have retreated to somewhere safe until the murder spree is over, and this could be the same place they go to during the events ofScream 7.
The originalScreammovie was terrifying because Sidney and her friends were being hunted down by Ghostface in the middle of nowhere, at Stu’s house in the Woodsboro countryside.The lake house and wooded area inSickwould be a perfect setting forScream 7,with the lack of contact with civilization making it difficult for Sidney and her family to call for help.There was a rumor circulating thatKevin Williamson’sScream 7was scouting for a remote wooded area to shoot the movie in.If true, this would add to the tension inScream 7, and it could recreate the uncomfortable vibe in Williamson’s last movie,Sick.
