Hello, Sidney. Glad to see you back on the big screen again. That’s right, Scream 7 is here for more bloody slicing and dicing. Prior to the film’s release, news that several past characters were returning sent the fandom into a frenzy. Why? Because all of these people were dead. Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley were set to return as Stu Macher and Roman Bridger, respectively. They were both Ghostface killers who died. And David Arquette would also return as Dewey Riley, Sidney’s long-time confidant and Gale’s former husband who died in Scream (2022). But how did dead Ghostfaces and a dead hero factor in Scream 7? The answer is quite simple.
No, Stu Macher Is NOT Alive in Scream 7
A large portion of the film’s premise was trying to determine if videos that Sidney was receiving from the killer were real or not. In the clips, someone who looked like an aged and scarred Stu taunted Sidney about her life and family, promising to destroy them. And trailers even hinted at a possible Stu return to the Scream franchise by saying that this killer was tied to Sidney’s past. But this simply was not true.
Stu Macher is confirmed to be dead in Scream 7 and the videos were deepfakes by Marco, a Fallbrook psychiatric hospital supervisor who is a whiz at AI. That’s how Stu returns and people will certainly have mixed feelings about it. I always maintained that Stu was dead and I am glad that is the case, even though I love Matthew Lillard very much.
Stu, Roman, Dewey, and (Surprisingly) Mrs. Loomis Appear in Deepfake AI Videos in Scream 7
While Stu appears in several videos targeted at Sidney, he is not the only one in the final video. Tatum is taken back to the Evans household after an intense chase scene by two people wearing Ghostface costumes. We later find out they are Jessica, Sid’s neighbor, along with Marco. Sidney goes into the house and a video appears on one TV inside the Macher home.
It starts with Stu but then rotates around to several others, including Roman, Dewey, and Mrs. Loomis. We were not expecting Billy’s mom to show up. They all strike different chords with Sidney emotionally, from shaming and blaming to sadness. So no one rose from the dead nor did these actors come back to play other characters. And there was no de-aging, thankfully. The deepfake videos imagined them as they would’ve aged.
Will the AI inclusion of dead Ghostfaces and Dewey go over well with the fandom? We will have to see as people continue to tune in.