David Arquette knows why the Scream franchise works

Two decades and (soon-to-be) seven movies in, you can bet your Ghostface mask that the Scream franchise still resonates (the latest just got a trailer you can see HERE!). And while they haven’t all hit the mark, people are still heading back to the theater, Phil Stevens and Maureen Evans style, for more. So what makes the Scream franchise work? For that, we go to one of the series’ stalwarts: Dewey Riley.

David Arquette played Riley in the first five Scream movies, finally playing the sacrifice in 2022’s entry. And while we know he is returning for next year’s Scream 7, for him, the draw of the Scream franchise goes back to the core. “I think it had a really unique take. I think Scream really understood something ahead of its time. It knew that fan culture was the future. It was also ahead of the curve of being a horror movie that had a self-referential element to it. It balanced horror and comedy in a way that hadn’t been done before.”

While the horror genre had done meta before the Scream franchise came to be (heck, even Wes Craven did so with New Nightmare), it truly was the 1996 film that changed the horror landscape. It came at the perfect time, too, helping revitalize the slasher subgenre while also tapping into the generation that adopted wicked irony, biting criticism and cultural awareness.

Stepping behind the camera for the first time in the franchise will be Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two Screams and Scream 4. On teaming up with him in this capacity, Arquette said, “I was really excited to work with Kevin Williamson again. I mean, he’s the writer of Scream, and he’s directing this one. It’s a really great 360 moment. I can’t really say too much about the movie, but I was really excited to work with Kevin. We’ve had such a history, and he wrote the original and created this entire world, and he just knows it better than anyone.” At the very least, Arquette will be joined – at the very least – by the likes of Matthew Lillard (Stu Macher) and Scott Foley (Roman Bridger), two former Ghostfaces.

Scream 7 is due out on February 27th.

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