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Along with inventive Ghostface kills and whatever Gale Weathers is doing with her hair, Scream fans keep coming back to their favorite franchise for its meta-commentary on horror movies. From the very first moments of the first Scream, the Wes Craven-created films are always in conversation with the rest of the genre - part of what makes the series such a standout in the saturated field of slashers. So imagine our surprise when we heard that the next installments director and writer said the film "doesn't have that meta goal."

As you probably know by now, the writer/director we're talking about is Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first Scream screenplay and who has been involved in every Scream movie as a producer ever since. Speaking recently to Empire Magazine for its latest issue, Williamson discussed his goals for Scream 7, which sees him in the Ghostface director's chair for the first time.

"This movie doesn’t have that meta goal," Williamson told Empire, "It’s continuing the legacy of Sydney Prescott. It’s all about her daughter. It’s all about family."

Pausing here to point out that, simply by being about Sydney Prescott, Scream 7 already checks some boxes as a meta movie. We're in the age of Hollywood stars reprising roles some decades after they became famous for them - what else are people thinking about when they go to see a Scream movie starring Neve Campbell as Sydney Prescott? It's even more of a head-scratcher when you hear Williamson admit that it was Campbell who got Williamson to direct in the first place.

"Neve asked me to direct," said the I Know What You Did Last Summer creator later in the interview, "I was just so stunned and shocked. I didn’t know what to say."

'Yes,' seemed to at least be part of that answer, Kevin. 

Scream 7 slashes its way into theaters February 27. 

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's freaky forays into frightful filmology with:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.