Film / Scream 7

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Spoilers for all previous Scream films will remain unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Scream 7 is a 2026 Slasher Film and the seventh entry in the Scream franchise. It is written and directed by series creator Kevin Williamson (in his first directorial effort for the franchise) and stars franchise veterans Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, and Scott Foley, along with series newcomers Joel McHale, Isabel May, Anna Camp, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O'Connor, Ethan Embry, Mark Consuelos, and Jimmy Tatro.

Having long put the Ghostface killings behind her, Sidney Prescott (Campbell) has settled down and started a family of her own in a peaceful little town. However, her happy ending is disrupted when a new Ghostface emerges, determined to destroy all that she loves. The film was released on February 27, 2026 in the US.

Previews: Trailer

Scream 7 contains example of:

• Aborted Arc: Sam and Tara, the protagonists of the fifth and sixth films, are absent from the film and aren't even mentioned by name. The biggest reference either gets is Mindy mentioning Billy Loomis had a daughter.
• Actor Allusion: In the opening scene a couple are shown interacting with a Five Nights at Freddy's style animatronic of Ghostface. Matthew Lillard - whose voice is heard in the trailer and who also played one of the first Ghostfaces in Scream - also played the Serial Killer William Afton in the Freddy films.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Jessica claims she murdered her abusive ex-husband, but she compared her courageous Socially Awkward Hero son to him.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is the fact that Sidney’s two youngest daughters are halfway across the country visiting Mark’s parents in Denver when Ghostface begins the killings at Pine Grove just a case of Contrived Coincidence? Or was this intentional because Even Evil Has Standards?
• Artistic License: Much like the fifth move, this one uses an inaccurate albeit less egregious view of fire. Gasoline gives off highly flammable vapors so standing that close to Madison after using that much gasoline would've caused Ghostface to be engulfed in flames too. Even if the costume was fireproof, he would've been burned by the heat.
• Bittersweet Ending: Tatum embraces her identity as Sidney's daughter and someone who fights to survive. However, her entire friend group is dead, including her boyfriend. Thankfully, her parents survive alongside her, including her father, who was thought to be killed off earlier.
• Boom, Headshot!: One of the surefire ways to take out a Ghostface (other than a car ). When Tatum is cornered by Ghostface in the coffee shop, Sidney instructs Tatum to shoot the killer center-mass, then follow up with a headshot. Unfortunately, Tatum is too slow to headshot Ghostface, who disarms and kidnaps her with his fellow killer. In the finale, Sidney manages to cap Marco in the head with a hidden pistol, then she and Tatum take out Jessica by simultaneously emptying their guns into her head, which cause Jessica's entire damn face to explode. They must’ve used hollow points…
• Breaking Old Trends: At least some of the characters in each Scream film share their names with horror icons: Billy and Nancy Loomis in Scream and Scream 2; Tom Prinze and Jennifer Jolie in Scream 3; Anthony Perkins in Scream 4; Tara and Sam Carpenter in Scream (2022) and Scream 6 (alongside Wes in Scream (2022)). All of the characters in the seventh film have names that are not associated with other horror characters (especially as Tatum herself is named after a real person in-universe).
• Bound and Gagged: Tatum Evans ends up this way in the garden as an In-Universe homage to Steve from the first film.
• The Bus Came Back: Having been absent from the previous film, Sidney is back in a starring role.
• Call-Back: The opening title card is the first one to use the font from the original film's title since its premiere, though it does transition into the modern font partway through.
• The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: At one point in the trailer, while Sidney is talking with them, Ghostface reveals themselves from hopping down from her attic crawlspace. In the film proper, Ghostface never calls Sidney before emerging from the attic.
• Chekhov's Party: Subverted as part of Breaking Old Trends. When she, Tatum, and Chloe are walking to school, Hannah mentions there being a party at her house later. She is killed that day before the party can take place, and it doesn't.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Macher/Freeman house, home to Stu Macher and then Amber Freeman, reappears, it's association with the Ghostface killings having resulted in it becoming a Woodsboro tourist location as a Stab-themed bed and breakfast, including tape 'chalk' outlines of all the people who were killed in the house, complete with fake blood and an animatronic Ghostface.
  • Tatum, Sidney’s daughter, is named after Sid’s best friend and Dewey Riley’s sister, who was killed in the original film.
  • While looking for something in the attic, Tatum finds the very same dark grey leather jacket that Sidney wore in the second film and decides to wear it, much to her mother's distress. They also talk about Sidney's time at Windsor College.
• Crazy-Prepared: Sidney is not only shown to have a panic room, but she is also shown trying to escape Ghostface by moving through the empty walls in her house with her daughter. Unfortunately for her, Ghostface catches on and start stabbing the walls where Tatum is. Sidney’s also shown to have a security system for her home, one in her coffee shop, along with security cameras synced up to her phone, and hidden guns in her car and office.
• Dead Girl Junior: Sidney's eldest daughter is named Tatum, after her best friend and Dewey's younger sister who was killed by Billy Loomis in the first film.
• Decon-Recon Switch: The movie is takes a zig-zagged approach towards Passing the Torch. Sidney wants to avoid both to keep her daughter safe, but makes her daughter timid and unable to fight back. Meanwhile Gale is desperately clinging to regain her fame after her contract wasn't renewed. Jessica on the other hand holds a pathological aversion to this trope to the point she thinks Sidney is required to keep putting her safety in danger to inspire those she loves. Sidney recognizes her obligation as a mother means that she has to keep her kids safe which means both not putting her kids in danger but teaching them to prepare lest they be targeted. Gale realizes that while revitalizing her image isn't a bad thing, because it gives her something to wake up for, she can't stonewall people like Robbie River, Chad, and Mindy from their futures out of fear they'll overshadow her.
• Didn't Think This Through: A few characters fail to consider the full repercussions of their actions:
  • Ben attempts to confirm whether the Stu Macher messages Sidney has been receiving are authentic or fake by independently recreating them using AI… not stopping to consider that if anyone were to find the end result of his work, it would make him look like the one of the killers, which is exactly what happens at the most inconvenient time possible.
  • Marco brags about his bulletproof vest protecting him when Tatum shot him at the coffee shop… not stopping to consider that this would ensure that the next time one of the Evanses got a chance they would aim for his head and not center mass, which is exactly what happens, just minutes later.
  • Jessica embarks on her Ghostface killing spree partially with the explicit goal of turning Tatum into a Final Girl that can take Sidney’s place in the world… not stopping to consider that in this world the Final Girl always makes a point of killing Ghostface, preferably by shooting them in the head, which is exactly what happens, as both the final girl Jessica created and the one she tried to kill shoot her in the face so many times that her face disintegrates.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Mckenna Grace who plays Hannah Thurman also sings the theme "Twisting The Knife" with Ice Nine Kills.
• Driving Question: Is it really possible that Stu is still alive? No. They are AI deepfakes created to distract from Jessica's real motive.
• Extremely Short Time Span: The movie seems to take place in around 36 hours tops, and that's assuming Scott and Madison are killed the night before. The majority of the film is set from one morning (Tatum waking up and going to school), a school day (where Hannah is killed), and that night.
• Final Girl: Once again, Sidney, Gale and the Meeks twins survive. This time, they are joined by Sidney's husband, Mark, and their daughter, Tatum.
• Forced to Watch: Ghostface makes it clear to Sidney he's going to make sure she is watching when he kills her daughter. Though they don't actually do it, as it turns out that Ghostface intends to force Tatum to watch while they murder Sidney.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Among the scores of hand drawn pictures covering the wall of Karl Gibbs' room at Fallbrook Psychiatric Hospital, there is a photograph of Tori Spelling, who In-Universe played the role of Sidney in the first two Stab movies.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Jessica reveals she decided to become Ghostface due to being inspired by Sidney's book, Out of Darkness, to murder her abusive husband. But she decided to become Ghostface and go after her idol's daughter, even killing her own son as part of her plans.
• Generation Xerox: Invoked. Tatum and her boyfriend parallel Sidney and Billy from the first film in their introduction scene. He scares her sneaking in through the window and makes comments about how he was watching Stab and got to thinking of her (meaning he just opted to copy what Billy did with Sidney for funzies) and then make out. The song playing is the exact same cover of "Don't Fear the Reaper". He even hides on the other side of the bed when Sidney comes into the room, except unlike Sidney's father Neil, Sidney immediately clocks that he's there.
• He's Just Hiding: The opening scene establishes that some people in-universe ascribe to the theory that Stu Macher somehow survived the events of the first film. The killers exploit this through deepfake AI and stealing morgue records to try to mess with Sidney's head by sowing doubts in her mind that Stu might still be alive, while in truth it seems Stu is truly dead (although Stu's body is never shown).
• Homage:
  • Sidney hiding (this time with Tatum) in the walls of the house (though here a purpose-built panic room) is similar to Sidney attempting to escape Mrs Loomis by hiding in the fake wall created by the set.
  • Sidney and Tatum's shooting of Jessica is shot in a very similar way to Sidney and Gale's shooting of Mickey, with both of them turning on him and shooting him in slo-mo synchronization, in Scream 2.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Ghostface just happens to strike when Mark and Sidney's two younger daughters are out of town with Mark's parents. It possibly becomes a little less improbable with the revelation that the mastermind Ghostface is Sidney's friend, Jessica, so the possibility is open that she deliberately planned the killings for then to avoid getting the two younger daughters involved.
• Let the Past Burn: The Macher House, which was the central location for the original and the fifth movie's climaxes, gets burnt down by Ghostface, not without also killing a victim with the fire, after many events and previous killings in the house are referenced.
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: Sidney's daughter, Tatum, wants to fight Ghostface like she did after escaping their first encounter with the new killer/s. In the film proper, Tatum struggles the entire film with both being endlessly compared to her mother, and also knowing nothing about her mother's past regarding Ghostface. In the climax, she tearfully claims she's not brave like Sidney, but in the final fight, Tatum embraces her bloodline and becomes a new Final Girl.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer heavily implies that the final confrontation will occur in Stu's house, and end with Ghostface burning down the house. The house is actually the setting for the opening, and it's burned down in the beginning.
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • The harness being used for the high school play is an accident waiting to happen that keeps slamming Hannah against the stage. And that's even before Ghostface gets involved.
  • Pete's Tavern has a spike shaped beer tap that can impale through someone's skull. Bars and taverns are well known for fighting and slippery surfaces.
• Offing the Offspring: Jessica murders her own son because he reminds her of her abusive ex-husband.
• Once per Episode: As has become tradition, the Meeks-Martin siblings both get injured by Ghostface, but live to tell the tale. Notably, their injuries (single stab wound to the shoulder for Chad, single slash across the stomach for Mindy) are much more realistically survivable this time around.
• Out of Focus: The classic Phone Voice version of Ghostface is drastically scaled back compared to previous entries. Not only does this film drop the in-costume voice changer from 5 and VI, returning Ghostface to the Silent Antagonist he is from the first four films whenever he's encountered in person, but there are only three scenes of note where he speaks using the classic Roger L. Jackson voice. The rest of the time, the killer's identity is being disguised by a deepfake of Stu or another deceased individual.
• Reconstruction: Whereas the previous Scream movies would deconstruct horror franchises and be very self-referential about it, the commentary is reduced to merely a couple of scenes. The rest of the film keeps true to the roots of a more unnerving and tension-filled horror slasher. It keeps the franchise's self-aware nature, but more in its delivery of subverting plot point expectations rather than having characters acknowledge the cliches and have that installment's Ghostface continue to follow them.
• Revision:
  • Sidney's husband Mark was previously implied to be Mark Kincaid from Scream 3, and it was originally confirmed as such by invokedWord of God. However due to the studio's talks with Patrick Dempsey to return being unsuccessful, Sidney's husband is revealed to be a different Mark named Mark Evans played by Joel McHale.
  • Scream (2022) seemed to imply Sidney only became a wife and mother during the 10-year gap between that film and Scream 4. However, this film explicitly states that Tatum is 17 years old in 2026, when the film takes place, and her date of birth is given as August 2nd, 2009, meaning that she was born two years before the events of the fourth film and that Sidney and Mark met and married sometime between the events of Scream 3 and Tatum's conception, and the fourth film never mentions at any point that Sidney was now married with a daughter. The fact that it wasn't stated that she wasn't a wife and mother is the only thing keeping it from being a full Retcon.
• Red Herring: Stu is not alive. It was all artificial intelligence to throw Sidney off the trail.
• Revenge Before Reason: Jessica became Ghostface because she felt betrayed by Sidney not fighting Ghostface in New York, and retreating to a small town in obscurity instead of continuing to write books and inspire people.
• Right Behind Me: Jimmy Tatro's character Scott is shown in the trailer toying with an animatronic Ghostface to his girlfriend's unease. The real Ghostface then pops up right behind her and attacks them.
• Seen It All: In the trailer, Sidney is initially unimpressed by this latest Ghostface, having gone through this dance five times before.
• Shout-Out:
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) is shown in the trailer as the film showing at the local theater.
  • In the trailer, Ghostface sits back up like Michael Myers, complete with heavy breathing heard from under their mask, after getting knocked down by Sidney as she enters her panic room. The opening scene also mimics a shot from Halloween (1978) with Ghostface's mask slowly materializing in the shadows behind Madison.
  • Ghostface is a trio, with a dominant female and two subservient males, like Heart Eyes.
• Slashers Prefer Blondes: Subverted. Of the blondes, Madison, Hannah and Ben are killed by Ghostface, whereas Tatum follows in her mother's footsteps and survives. However, we also have the first blonde Ghostface in the film series, as Jessica leads the trio. She is killed by both Sidney and Tatum.
• Small Parent, Huge Child: Sidney's 17 year-old daughter Tatum is noticeably taller than her mom (and both of Tatum's friends Hannah and Chloe for that matter).
• Take That!: Madison jokes how contrived the idea someone could fake their own death with a different corpse being sent to the morgue. This happened in Scream VI, with Quinn.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Ghostface makes a point of going after Sidney's daughter and husband to wound her. As it later turns out, the killer's actual plan is to kill Sidney and Mark and leave Tatum as the Sole Survivor to forcibly have her replace Sidney as the Final Girl.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: During the climax of the film Sidney and Tatum each shoot Jessica in the face at least half a dozen times with their guns, practically disintegrating her face in the process. "Always shoot them in the head" indeed.
• Unflinching Walk: The end of the trailer shows Ghostface walking away from a burning house without turning back.
• Unseen No More: Sidney's husband Mark and their daughters finally appear on screen after being mentioned in the last two movies.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sidney's decision to sit the last movie out costs several teenagers and an innocent couple their lives.
• Wham Line: "Who's that?" Spoken by Mindy after they unmask the first killer...and see that it's not someone they know.
• Wham Shot:
  • The end of the trailer appears to show Ghostface setting fire to Stu Macher’s house.
  • In the film proper, the shot of Stu being older, scarred and seemingly alive, on Sidney's phone. Though it turns out to be just a ploy using artificial intelligence.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Aside from Sidney and Mark, none of the kids' parents appear again after the scene in the auditorium. If they had issues with their kids breaking curfew while there's a killer on the loose or if Chloe's parents want to check on her at the bar, we don't hear about it. Except Jessica, of course, but that's because she's the killer.
• Written-In Absence: Sidney and Mark's two younger daughters were staying with Mark's parents before the attacks started, justifying their absence.
• You Remind Me of X: This is revealed to be Jessica's motivation for killing Lucas; she saw too much of her abusive husband in him.