The horror genre has been experiencing a thrilling renaissance, one that brought some of the best horror movies back to theaters with new sequels. Chief among these titles was Wes Craven's Scream, and the last two movies (which are streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) were quite successful. But Scream 7 has gone through some growing pains, and former director Christopher Landon recently opened up about the "dark" time he has working on the upcoming horror movie.
What we know about Scream 7 is limited, but fan excitement for the slasher seems to be high. In August of 2023 it was revealed that Landon was going to direct, taking on the reign from the duo at Radio Silence. But a ton of complications happened, and he ended up leaving the Scream sequel. While speaking with Variety Fair about his new movie Drop, he shared how emotional that experience was, offering:
Scream was a very dark and tumultuous experience. I was gobsmacked and in shock for a while, but I’m at a place now where I can talk about it ’cause I was able to use that unpleasant experience and turn it into something positive. And that was Drop.
Talk about silver lining. Given Christopher Landon's experience in horror with the Happy Death Day franchise, as well as his love for Scream, he seemed like a great choice to bring the seventh movie to life. Unfortunately things went awry shortly after he got the gig.
The drama surrounding his take on Scream 7 began when Melissa Barrera was fired from the role of Sam Carpenter over comments she made on social media about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. This started a big debate online, and Landon ended up being blamed and experiencing a scary amount of hate online. As he shared:
People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved. I got messages saying, ‘I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder.’ The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary.
What a nightmare. While landing a role directing Scream 7 was likely a dream come true for Landon, the reality of the situation he was involved in was complicated and scary. One can only imagine how terrifying that was for him and his family.
For his part, Christopher Landon maintains it was never his decision to part ways with Barrera for Scream 7. After all she was the lead of the last two movies. He spoke to the same publication about the backlash he received about this casting shakeup, saying:
I did not fire her. A lot of people think I had something to do with it, and it was not my doing. I had no control of the situation at all. I think in the absence of people understanding how Hollywood works and what the hierarchy is, the fans were like, ‘that’s the guy.’ And so they came for me, knives out.
Ouch. Amidst this drama surrounding Melissa Barrera's firing (as well as Jenna Ortega's departure as Tara Carpenter), Landon still attached to Scream 7. He revealed that the studio asked him to start fresh, and offered context about his decision to step away. As the acclaimed filmmaker shared:
They wanted me to continue on. They basically said, ‘You can restart it. You can figure it out.’ But the amount of abuse that I had to deal with—I decided I didn’t want to give any part of myself to that. For me, it was not worth it. I would rather put my efforts into something else, where I could feel appreciated and respected. The hate and abuse really spoiled it for me, and I lost my love for the idea of going forward.
As he explained, this was not an easy decision. He had to grieve the loss of a true dream job, while also dealing with the online hate and threats he experienced during his time developing Scream 7.
In the end OG Scream writer Kevin Williamson was brought on to direct the next movie, with Neve Campbell returning as Sidney Prescott. As for Christopher Landon, he seems thrilled with the chance to work on Drop as a result of this change. That horror flick hits theaters April 11th as part of the 2025 movie release list. As for Scream 7, that's currently expected to follow suit on February 27th.
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