Scream 7 in 4K - The Return of Sidney Prescott

With Scream 7, the saga brings Sidney Prescott back to the center, entrusting Kevin Williamson with the task of relaunching the franchise after the turn taken by recent chapters. The choice to bring back the series' iconic face works especially on an emotional level, even if it's not enough to give solidity to a story that struggles to find a convincing direction.

Williamson demonstrates confidence in the sequences dedicated to Ghostface. Some murders are effectively constructed, and tension emerges repeatedly, confirming his knowledge of the saga's language. Nevertheless, the film alternates moments of strong impact with less inspired ones, which slow down its progression.

More solid technically than narratively

The story accumulates references to previous chapters without truly exploiting them, often relying on nostalgia rather than concrete ideas capable of renewing the franchise. The characters introduced to support Sidney are unimpressive, and even talented performers like Mckenna Grace find limited screen time, while Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox try to sustain a narrative structure that rarely showcases them.

The pacing also suffers from this setup, with a central part that loses momentum and makes the film less engaging than expected. For long-time fans, Scream 7 retains some of the charm that made the saga famous, but overall it represents one of the less inspired chapters of the franchise, leaving the aftertaste of a partially missed opportunity. Here is Elisa Giudici's review.

Digitally shot at native 8.6K resolution (Sony CineAlta Venice 2) and finalized on a 4K master, which was used to create this excellent UHD edition. Image format 2.39:1 (3840 x 2160/23.97p), HEVC encoding on a dual-layer BD-66. Especially with native 10-bit screens, one realizes the very high level of video rendering.

Dolby Vision enhances contrast with bright whites, deep blacks, and excellent management of night scenes, always keeping details in the shadows legible. The color scheme is rich and intense, with warm colors and natural skin tones, while detail remains extremely defined on costumes and sets. Only on rare occasions is there slight aliasing and negligible posterization, defects that minimally affect the overall quality.

The centralization, as usual, has constrained the audio encodings outside the original, here too with the Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) barely acceptable for dynamics and soundstage, although the narrative requires a presence of a completely different level. To ignite the scene and deliver all the adrenaline of the moment, there's the English Dolby TrueHD 7.1.4 (+11 objects) ATMOS, which despite being 16-bit knows how to entertain. Wide soundstage, sound effects continuously utilize front, surround, and overhead speakers, creating an immersive sound environment.

The extras offer an interesting, though relatively brief, in-depth look. The main contribution is the making-of of about 22 minutes, with contributions from part of the cast and crew. The edition is completed by 2x featurettes on set design and stunt work, the music video "Twisting the Knife" by Ice Nine Kills, and a short collection of 6 deleted scenes, mostly extensions of sequences already present in the final cut rather than totally unreleased content. Subtitles in Italian. Splendid limited edition steelbook for collectors.