Episode 106 – Scream 7, WrestleMania & Van Halen

The 411 From 406
Recorded: March 5th, 2026

Introduction

Chewie:
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 411 from 406. My name is Chewie, and I am joined once again by my brother from another mother, Mr. Pip. How are you, sir?

Pip:
Doing fantastic. It’s good to be back in my happy place. This is the place where I can go to escape, to talk about all the dumb stuff that I like and that you like. It’s just fun. It’s such a relief to be back. How are you? How are things?

Chewie:
I’m good, man. It’s been—let’s see. As we always do, I actually looked it up. We’ve been doing pretty good here. So this is going to be episode 106 of the podcast, believe it or not.

And we recorded our last episode—do you want to take a guess? So today is March 5th. Want to take a guess when we recorded our last episode?

Pip:
It’s March 5th… February?

Chewie:
That’s correct. I think we recorded on like—it was February. Let me think here. If I cheat and look at a calendar… was it the 12th?

Pip:
No, it was the 5th.

Chewie:
Okay. All right. I guess I should have seen where that was going.

Chewie:
So for us, that’s not bad. A month in between. That’s not bad.

Pip:
It’s not bad. And to be honest, we tried to do this last week and I pushed it out because I wasn’t feeling well. So we almost squeezed in two in one month.

Scream 7 Discussion

Chewie:
Speaking of things happening close together, this has got to be the first time we’ve had two straight months with a Friday the 13th coming up. Because next week is Friday the 13th, and last month—right before Valentine’s Day—was Friday the 13th.

When was the last time that’s happened? That’s pretty fascinating.

Pip:
That’s crazy. I don’t know.

Chewie:
Well, the fact that we didn’t chat last Thursday actually worked out for me because I went to the movies that night.

Pip:
What a nice segue. You are crushing segues these days.

Chewie:
So Scream 7 opened that night, and I went on opening night. I don’t go to the movies nearly as often as I would like, but we’ve talked about Scream 7 multiple times on this podcast.

I knew I wanted to see this one in the theater, and I wanted to get there early because I did not want to be spoiled.

And I’m happy to say I went in completely blind.

Theater Experience

Pip:
Before you start talking about the movie itself, what was the theater like? What was the attendance like?

I’m curious who goes to see Scream movies these days. Is it mostly Gen Xers like us? Or younger kids who came in around Scream 5 and 6?

Chewie:
So I went to a 7:30 showing. The theater probably had five showings that night of Scream, and there were two or three theaters within about a 12-mile radius.

Between those theaters, there were probably 30 screenings that night.

I went down to Hudson to the Regal theater.

Pip:
Is that the one where we saw Hot Tub Time Machine?

Chewie:
No, that’s Valley View. I don’t think you’ve actually been to this one.

It’s not state-of-the-art, but it has stadium seating and reserved seats. I’m at the point where I won’t go to a movie unless I can reserve a seat.

There were maybe 20 people in the theater.

There was an African-American family ahead of me—mom, two daughters, and a couple friends, probably around 15 to 18. Then a couple other couples my age, early 40s.

So you had Gen Xers and some younger fans.

It was actually a really good crowd. They laughed when they should laugh, jumped when they should jump. It was what I would call a smart horror crowd.

Trailers Before the Movie

Chewie:
Before I even talk about the movie, I have to talk about the trailers.

I had no idea there was another Scary Movie coming out. I don’t even know if it was announced yet.

But that trailer got me pumped.

They’re not great movies by any stretch, but I love the Scream franchise and horror in general, so the spoof works for me.

The opening scene of the trailer was clearly riffing on Scream 6 in the subway.

The other trailer that stood out was for a movie called Passenger. The trailer had an incredible jump scare.

Honestly, I wish they hadn’t put it in the trailer because now it won’t hit as hard in the movie.

Pip:
Did it give you any Nightmare on Elm Street 4 vibes? The looping highway scene reminded me of that.

Chewie:
Yes. It did actually. I thought about that exact scene.

Scream 7 Review

Pip:
So how do you want to do this? Do we talk metrics? The box office?

Chewie:
I saw it did just under $100 million opening weekend.

Pip:
Yeah, around $95 million.

Chewie:
Which makes it the biggest opening in franchise history. It also pushed the franchise over $1 billion total.

That’s pretty awesome for a horror franchise.

And it means we’re definitely getting Scream 8.

Overall Thoughts on the Movie

Chewie:
My overall impression: I thought it was good. I thought it was entertaining.

They had some creative kills. They leaned heavily on nostalgia. Some of it felt unnecessary.

I didn’t really need to see Roman Bridger or Dewey again.

Once I figured out how they were bringing Stu back into the story, I realized that was the approach they were going to take.

But I definitely felt the loss of Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera.

We talked a lot about the previous movie and how it was pushing the franchise in a good direction.

This one played it really safe.

They brought back Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, but they didn’t take any big risks with the story.

Courteney Cox didn’t really add anything for me.

Neve Campbell’s character was written better than in Scream 5, though.

They recreated the opening of the original Scream, but this time with Sydney as the mother instead of the daughter.

It was basically shot-for-shot.

Killer Reveal

Chewie:
I was a little underwhelmed by the killer reveal.

Ethan Embry was one of the killers, and I figured that out pretty early.

He shows Sydney a picture of Matthew Lillard and claims he knew him. That felt like a giveaway.

If we’re only seeing Stu on video, then he’s clearly not alive.

Pip’s Reaction

Pip:
My one-word review was satisfying.

Not perfect. Not franchise-defining. But satisfying for fans.

I also figured out Ethan Embry early.

And the other killer—Anna Camp—I suspected her too.

Once the exposition dump starts happening in these movies, you know that character is involved somehow.

Nostalgia vs Story

Pip:
The thing that bothered me most was that the killers had no real connective tissue to the original story.

The movie leaned heavily on nostalgia—Stu’s house, old characters, callbacks—but the killers themselves had no connection.

It felt like nostalgia was just bait to get Gen Xers back into the theater.

Chewie:
I think you’re right.

Once the real-world situation happened with Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera, they were stuck.

They had to rewrite the movie.

They probably had to bring Neve Campbell back and rebuild the script around her.

Sydney Prescott Discussion

Pip:
The one thing I disagree with you on: I thought Neve Campbell was actually really good in this movie.

The character finally matches where she is in real life.

She plays the mom role really well.

Chewie:
That’s fair.

But if I’m Sydney Prescott and I’ve been targeted six or seven times, I’m losing my mind.

Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween 2018 was completely traumatized.

Sydney feels way too normal for someone who’s been hunted by serial killers this many times.

Favorite Kills

Pip:
My favorite kill was the pizza parlor scene with the beer tap through the head.

It was campy, but fun.

Chewie:
That one stood out.

I also liked the scene with the girl suspended in the stage play.

That actress—McKenna Grace from Ghostbusters.

Pip:
I didn’t even recognize her.

Franchise Future

Chewie:
If they removed the Stu elements from this movie entirely, I think I would have been really disappointed.

Which makes me think we might see Stu again in Scream 8.

Pip:
We’re getting to the point where there are almost no characters left from the original movie.

Unless they bring Stu back, there isn’t much connective tissue left.

Monday Night Raw

Pip:
Let’s talk wrestling.

I went to Monday Night Raw in Indianapolis.

I took both my daughters. Olive loves wrestling. Cece likes it, but not as much.

Cece had an amazing time. She was jumping out of her seat, fist-pumping, covering her face during crazy moments.

It was awesome to see.

We saw CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Rhea Ripley, Gunther, Seth Rollins, Logan Paul, Penta, Dominik Mysterio.

The show was stacked.

WrestleMania Build

Chewie:
Did you watch Elimination Chamber?

Pip:
I did. It was fine. I’ve seen better.

I loved the finish of the men’s match and Randy Orton winning.

Van Halen Rumors

Chewie:
You mentioned Van Halen earlier.

Alex Van Halen recently said he’s working on music for a new Van Halen album using Eddie’s archived guitar recordings.

He’s added new drums and possibly Wolfgang Van Halen bass parts.

But they don’t have a lead singer.

They apparently approached Paul Rodgers and maybe even Robert Plant.

Neither worked out.

Pip:
Michael Anthony said it should just be an instrumental album.

Chewie:
Honestly, that might be the best option.

Closing

Pip:
I’m really excited for WrestleMania weekend.

Coming to Cleveland, watching the show with you, hanging out—it’s going to be a blast.

Chewie:
I can’t wait.

All right, on that note…

That’s Mr. Pip. I’m Chewie.

And this has been the 411 from 406.

Pip:
Adios.