Scream 7 (2026)

DIRECTED BY

Kevin Williamson

STARRING

Neve Campbell - Sidney Prescott-Evans

Isabel May - Tatum Evans

Jasmin Savoy Brown - Mindy Meeks-Martin

Mason Gooding - Chad Meeks-Martin

Anna Camp - Jessica Bowden

Mckenna Grace - Hannah Thurman

Asa Germann - Lucas Bowden

Celeste O'Connor - Chloe Parker

Sam Rechner - Ben Brown

Joel McHale - Mark Evans 

Courteney Cox - Gale Weathers

Ethan Embry - Marco Davis

Matthew Lillard - Stu Macher

Genre - Horror/Slasher

Running Time - 114 Minutes

PLOT

When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

REVIEW

I originally wasn’t going to review SCREAM 7. I was on such a high with 2023's SCREAM VI [my second favorite of the franchise], but then it got soured by all the behind-the-scenes drama that led into the production of this seventh installment in the most successful slasher franchise of all time. The firing of Melissa Barrera over her political views [which led to Jenna Ortega leaving with her], to Spyglass’ and Paramount’s association with the current administration in the United States, to both Radio Silence and Christopher Landon leaving directorial duties due to the drama [bringing in Kevin Williamson to direct a SCREAM film for the first time since being part of the franchise as a writer since the beginning], to finally bringing back Neve Campbell and other previous cast members [alive and dead] as some sort of desperate attempt to please the fanbase - it was very distracting and left me less excited for this sequel. The use of A.I. to market this movie? Yuck. Even the trailers looked same old, same old. But I was curious in the direction of bringing back Sidney Prescott-Evans to the franchise, so here we are.

The good? The cast is solid here. Neve Campbell being back does make SCREAM 7 feel like a worthy sequel as she returns as a mother whose past is now haunting her and her oldest daughter, Tatum. Campbell can play Sidney in her sleep at this point and she’s still the same badass that many of us fell in love with back in 1996. I also appreciated that the character had stakes again, really bringing out the Final Girl protector role out of Campbell. I also liked Isabel May as Sidney’s daughter Tatum. I wasn’t sure at first, since the trailers didn’t make the character appealing to me at all. But May holds her own here, playing the total opposite of Sidney as a more naive and somewhat helpless character due to Sidney’s overprotectiveness and hiding of her past from her daughter. It’s obvious May will be the lead character in the next installment, which I’m fine with as long as the character evolves into a more self-efficient Final Girl.

Courteney Cox has one of the best intro moments in the franchise as the returning Gale Weathers. She feels more like the Gale of old rather than the Gale of recent sequels, which I actually liked. Joel McHale surprised me as Sidney’s husband Mark, as he does well in the role and has some good moments against Ghostface. He fit in better than I thought he would have. McKenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor and Asa Germann don’t get a ton to do as Tatum’s friends, but do well with what they’re given. And it’s good to see Matthew Lillard back as Stu Macher, who is clearing having a blast and gets to recite some of the best dialogue in the film. He hasn’t missed a bit as the Stu character.

I thought some of the kills were also pretty inventive. The one inside the school was pretty brutal and the major one inside a bar restaurant that involved a drink dispenser made my jaw drop in how well done it was. Both felt like they were leftovers from a TERRIFIER script, which isn’t a bad thing. This film needed more memorable moments like this.

I also didn’t mind the opening act. Unfortunately most of it was ruined by the trailers, but I liked the tension and suspense infused throughout the first 15 minutes of the film with two characters that unfortunately didn’t mean anything at all for the rest of the film. I know some had issues that the opening didn’t involve a popular actor, but I liked that it felt ordinary and not at all distracting and predictable.

It’s a shame the rest of the film is super shallow and feels like fan fiction that ChatGPT wrote. Character development is pretty much non-existent. I honestly had no idea what the names were for Tatum’s friends until I looked them up. That’s how fleshed out and memorable they were. Even Tatum’s boyfriend was as bland as a rice cake. James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick have worked on decent scripts before, which surprises me that they didn’t do more drafts to, at least, flesh some of these characters out for us to care about when Ghostface took them out. They weren’t even archetypes or caricatures. Lazy writing.

Speaking of lazy writing, what was up with that awful reveal? Hell, that entire third act was just terrible from beginning to end. From the A.I. usage, to the actual Ghostface reveals, and to the motives of the reveals were just so bad, I couldn’t believe anyone in the production thought this was a good idea. I’ve been okay with the Ghostface identities until now, as it made no sense and involved characters that were barely on the canvas to really surprise the audience in a good way. What a mess.

And how many men has Sidney dated with the name “Mark”? It’s confusing when Patrick Dempsey could have made an interesting pairing with Campbell. But I guess he wasn’t available? And why bring back the Meeks-Martin twins to have them do nothing special? Yes, you want to keep SCREAM (2022) and SCREAM VI canon, but having these two here felt like they were in the original Melissa Barrera script and the writers had no idea what to do with them once she was fired. I mean, it was nice to see them but they were just the comic relief and they weren’t really all that funny honestly.

Also, you’re telling me that Tatum has NO IDEA who her mom was? All those STAB films? The books? No one in her town, who knew who Sidney was, gave Tatum a clue as to what she went through? Google is right there, Tatum!

I also don’t need the script telling me twenty times that Sidney wasn’t in SCREAM VI and acting like it didn’t count because she wasn’t in it. It’s insulting to fans of that film, like yours truly. It was cute the first time and got grating with repeated mentions.

THE FINAL HOWL

After reading what the original SCREAM 7 could have been, it makes this version of SCREAM 7 more disappointing. There was a dark cloud over this film from the start and it lingered until the end credits concluded. Glad Neve Campbell got her bag and it was fun seeing her and some of the returning characters back again. But the script was not good and the Ghostface reveals were atrocious. It didn’t help that the killers were really obvious to begin with. Just a lazy sequel that unfortunately did so well, we’re getting another one. Hopefully they try harder with SCREAM 8 because SCREAM 7 did not make me excited for another one. Personally, I think Ghostface needs to rest for a while. But I’m not greedy Hollywood, so what does my opinion matter?

SCORE

2 Howls Outta 4

(5 out of 10)