The blade is duller than ever in "Scream 7," the pained seventh entry in the 30-year-old horror series, which has never felt less consequential than it does during these dour 114 minutes.

To be fair, expectations should be low for any seventh entry in a horror franchise. But "Scream 7's" ineptitude can't be squared off as some clever horror in-joke, and it's worth noting that both "Halloween" (with 1998's "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later") and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1994's "Wes Craven's New Nightmare") were in better spots when it came to their seventh go-rounds.

The "Scream" movies have always been fueled by their reflexivity, their way of looking inward and outward at the horror world and commenting on the very tropes they're in-turn using for thrills. But that house of mirrors is now just all broken glass: at the point in the movie where the know-it-all starts commenting on which horror rules are and aren't being broken during the very situation the characters find themselves in, the others in the room quiet her and stop her Big Speech short. Even they don't want to hear it anymore.

How did things get this sluggish in this once smart, clever franchise? "Scream 7" marks the return of creator Kevin Williamson, who wrote 1996's original "Scream," as well as chapters 2 and 4 in the series. He writes and directs here and brings the story back to Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, who aside from surviving a whole lot of attempts on her life isn't all that interesting of a character. (Due to a contract dispute Campbell was entirely absent from 2023's "Scream VI," and she wasn't missed.)

She's now mom to a daughter, Tatum (Isabel May), who is the age Sidney was during the first "Scream." She's named for Rose McGowan's character in the original "Scream," and the script makes it seem like Sidney and Tatum were way better friends than was ever shown on screen.

After a seemingly disconnected opening bit, it's not long before ol' Ghostface shows up and starts slicing and dicing. Everyone's either a suspect or a potential victim, including Sidney's cop husband Mark (Joel McHale), Tatum's boyfriend Ben (Sam Rechner), local TV host Robbie ("Live With Kelly and Mark's" Mark Consuelos), strangely menacing drama teacher George (Tim Simons) and anyone else who happens to cross paths with Sidney, staring at her dead-eyed for an extra second or two.

One of the chief suspects is Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), who died in the original "Scream." Or did he? Oh boy, here we go: Sidney is receiving menacing video calls from someone who certainly looks like a modern-day Stu, but no one's sure if it's really him, you know, because deepfakes. But here's one for the detectives to figure out: Who would be deepfaking Stu Macher and also aging his likeness 30 years after his death? If they were going to fake him, wouldn't they do it according to his looks when he was a teen, the way he was remembered?

Let's not ask too many questions, although the question "why are you here?" gets asked in several different ways of Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), characters from the last two films who are brought into the fold here, and no one seems to know why, themselves included. Also hanging around is Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), still salivating for that interview with Sidney that the rest of the world seems to have moved on from.

It's a "Scream" movie, so of course there are plenty of gruesome murders, the most creative of which involves turning a victim into a spout of blood and beer. Drink up! The problem is it's not any fun whatsoever, and the revelation of the killer (or is it killers? I'll never tell!) is so laughable it makes the villain unmaskings on an average episode of "Scooby-Doo" look airtight.

There are some digs at previous non-Williamson "Screams" ("you're lucky you sat that one out, it was brutal," Gale tells Sidney of the New York chapter) that seem misplaced given the context here. This "Scream" is the dregs — a cold, tired, dreary slog through overly familiar territory. No use checking for a pulse, this victim is lifeless.

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'SCREAM 7'

Grade: D

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence, gore, and language)

Running time: 1:54

How to watch: Now in theaters

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