SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers regarding Ghostface’s identity in Scream 7. Please watch the movie before continuing if you don’t want to know who the killer isn’t.
Considering what happened at the box office, I was far from the only person hitting up the theater to see Scream 7 this weekend, and while I understand why critics didn’t exactly think it was a franchise-best (our own CinemaBlend review of Scream 7 gave it just 1.5 stars out of 5), I had a lot of fun and wasn’t able to suss out who the killer was. In fact, I didn’t even try, because I was so convinced I’d figured it out, based on just how criminally underused one actor was.
Timothy Simons Was Barely In Scream 7
I was delighted when I learned that Timothy Simons was joining the Scream universe for the franchise’s seventh movie. I have been a fan of the actor’s since he was cast on Veep, and his fame has only grown over two seasons of Nobody Wants This. His comedic sensibilities seem like a no-brainer for this mix of horror and comedy, too.
So why was he barely in the movie? Simons played George Willis, the drama teacher at Tatum’s high school, and I only know that because I looked it up — if they said his name in the movie, I do not remember. The role consisted of being a jerk to Tatum (Isabel May) for not being able to see in her dog costume and then mean-mugging Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) amidst a crowd of on-lookers after one of the killings.
That's it! What a disservice to this comedic talent!
Why I Thought Tim Simons’ Drama Teacher Was Ghostface
I watched the majority of Scream 7 thinking Simons was being hidden away so the audience would forget about him until his ultimate, triumphant unmasking! Of course, that’s not how things turned out, and I was frankly disappointed that he was essentially wasted with just one speaking scene.
Speaking of that scene, however, it is another reason why I was so dang sure the drama teacher would end up being Ghostface. George (or Mr. Willis, or whatever) laid into Tatum for not having her mother’s audacity, and it wasn’t long after that Sidney received her first call from “Stu,” who made a similar comment about her not being as feisty as she used to be.
The point was also made that whoever killed Hannah (Mckenna Grace) would have had to have been very familiar with the theater. Was Simons’ character meant to just be a red herring? I’m not sure we even got enough from him for that to be the case.
In the end, I’m definitely not upset that the Nobody Wants This actor was cast in Scream 7, just disappointed because I want more Timothy Simons. But, who knows? Maybe this was just the beginning of George Willis’ journey and he’ll make a resurgence in Scream 8 as the Sidney-obsessed, disgruntled theater teacher who snaps and starts his own killing spree.
In the meantime, if you want to check out more of Tim Simons, you can stream Nobody Wants This with a Netflix subscription and Veep with an HBO Max subscription.
