The actor Matthew Lillard revealed that an alternate ending had been shot for Scream 7, and, shocker, it would have been even worse than the film’s official ending.
Whether you like it or not, the project for Scream 8 is already on track. The horror franchise has proven as hard to kill as its infamous masked killer, thirty years after it first stepped into Woodsboro. The latest Scream 7, despite rather timid reviews, has also largely padded the producers’ coffers, pulling in a cool 207 million dollars worldwide on a budget of a modest 45 million.
However, according to actress Melissa Barrera, the box office numbers for Scream 7 would seem to amount to pure deception. A double whammy for audiences faced with a seventh entry that was artistically a mess, barely watchable and crowned by an ending of pure stupidity. And yet, we’ve just learned that the original conclusion of this cinematic purge nearly turned out even worse. Yes, indeed, that’s possible.
Scream War
During a panel at Fan Expo Denver, which ScreenRant attended, Matthew Lillard—who played the killer Stu Macher in the 1996 film Scream—revisited the planned alternate ending. The actor admitted that Scream 7 originally mapped out a completely different narrative arc for his iconic character, which could have earned him a big exit through the front door (or maybe not).
“I told Kevin Williamson [Scream 7 director – ed.] that we spent the whole movie proving Stu was alive, and that if the door didn’t swing open for him, the audience would be disgusted. So we shot a post-credits scene showing Stu alive, watching TV somewhere. But in test screenings, they aired it without the credits, and the reflection of my face on screen didn’t play with audiences. It’s just a testing-method issue, because with the real credits, the result would have been radically different.”
While the intent to flatter nostalgia was commendable, the result is that the idea reads as even more foolish than the final cut, which makes you feel we dodged a bullet. Beyond opportunistic fan service, it’s a misguided concept that would have finished off the franchise’s already threadbare storytelling. Worse, one could argue such an ending would have stomped on its own internal logic for easy buzz and the promise of a sequel featuring the return of a major villain.
As for the future of Scream 8, the creative horizon looks particularly murky. We already know that director Kevin Williamson isn’t expected to return to helm the next chapter. On the screenplay side, Lilla and Nora Zuckerman (Poker Face) will be in charge. Beyond that, there’s been no leakage about whether the core cast will be back, what the synopsis will look like, or even when the movie might officially arrive.
