Warning! Spoilers ahead for Scream 7.

The Scream movies have always been renowned for their opening scenes, and despite its many glaring flaws, Scream 7 has one of the best opening scenes in the franchise. The original Scream film became an instant classic in its first 10 minutes, thanks to its unforgettable opening sequence.

At the beginning of Scream, Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker is home alone, waiting for her boyfriend Steve to come over and join her for a scary movie. But then, the phone rings. At first, the caller is friendly and chatty, but the conversation soon takes a dark turn as he reveals he’s going to kill Steve if she can’t answer some horror movie trivia questions correctly.

This opening scene set the stage for the Scream franchise perfectly. It introduces the series’ signature tongue-in-cheek self-awareness with an homage to When a Stranger Calls and a trick question about Jason Voorhees’ mother. It introduces its signature blend of humor and tension by combining comic one-liners, slapstick gags, and blood-soaked terror all in the same sequence.

It also told the audience they didn’t know what to expect by setting up Barrymore, one of the biggest movie stars of the time, as the main character, and then unceremoniously killing her off like Janet Leigh in Psycho. Since then, every Scream movie has started with a similar cold open combining meta comedy with genuine frights, with mixed results.

Scream 2’s opening kill at the Stab premiere, where horror fanatics cheer over the murder of Maureen Evans, was a great follow-up to the original, but Scream VI’s opening catfishing kill is a generic, forgettable horror sequence. Scream 7, for all its faults, has a banger of an opening scene.

Scream 7’s Opening Scene Is One Of The Franchise’s Best

There’s a lot wrong with Scream 7. It’s not very funny or very scary, its twist ending is tantamount to nonsense, and Stu Macher’s hyped-up return ended up being a massive let-down. But it does have one of the best opening scenes in the franchise’s history.

Scream 7 begins at Stu’s house — the site of the first film’s gruesome climax — where a Stab movie fanboy named Scott, played by Jimmy Tatro, is staying with his girlfriend Madison, played by Michelle Randolph. The house has been turned into an Airbnb decorated with Stab posters, Ghostface mannequins, and the chalk outlines of murder victims.

There’s another classic horror trivia phone call, but this one has been set up by the owners, and it ends with a message asking them to leave a review of their trip online. And then, of course, the new Ghostface killer strikes, slaughtering the couple and burning the house down. It’s a pretty perfect opening scene, with its own internal narrative structure.

Turning Stu’s House Into A Macabre Tourist Attraction Is A Classic Scream Gag

The revelation that Stu’s house has been turned into a creepy tourist attraction is classic Scream. It’s self-aware, looking at the original film’s climax from a meta perspective, and it’s slyly satirical. Ever since the first sequel opened with a sneak preview screening of a movie-within-a-movie based on the Woodsboro massacre, the Scream franchise has been using its own in-universe murders to satirize the true-crime obsession.

Making Stu’s house a macabre Airbnb where people can act out their own Ghostface nightmare satirizes the public’s interest in gruesome murders and the ability to monetize it. There’s a lot of money to be made from this morbid fascination, and turning a murder house into a themed B&B is a hilarious exaggeration of that business model.

Jimmy Tatro Is Hilarious As A Stab Movie Fanatic

Randolph gives a great scream-queen turn as Ghostface makes her own personal fears come true, but Tatro is the standout performer in this opening scene. He’s hilarious as a Stab movie fanatic giddily taking selfies in a notorious murder house, desperately trying to get his girlfriend to share his enthusiasm.

Tatro gives one of the most memorable performances in the movie, and he’s only in this one scene. This is no surprise to anyone who’s been following Tatro’s career; he’s given scene-stealing turns in 22 Jump Street, Theater Camp, and You’re Cordially Invited, and he played Alex’s best love interest (although, unfortunately, not the one she ended up with) in Modern Family.

Scream 7’s Cold Open Is Mostly Self-Contained, But It Sets Up The Movie’s Main Mystery

Like most of the Scream franchise’s opening scenes, the opening of Scream 7 is mostly self-contained. If you watched it on its own, it would function as its own little horror short. But it also sets up the movie’s main mystery when Scott floats the idea that maybe Stu survived having a TV dropped on his head in the first film.

Throughout the rest of the movie, Scream 7 will toy with the possibility of retconning Stu’s death and bringing him back. He’ll even call Sidney a few times, supposedly. Ultimately, the movie doesn’t resurrect Stu and instead reveals that the videos of him in the present were just a very sophisticated deepfake. But the opening scene planted that seed.