Kevin Williamson finally got to direct a Scream movie, and the result is exactly what you’d expect from the man who created the franchise thirty years ago: self-aware, nostalgic, slightly unhinged, and absolutely committed to the bit. Scream 7 brings Neve Campbell back as Sidney Prescott, adds some fresh blood, and throws in a twist involving AI that manages to be both timely and deeply silly—which, for this franchise, is the sweet spot.
The film opens with a pre-credits sequence featuring Michelle Randolph and Jimmy Tatro as a couple who sign up for a private fan night at the Macher house, now a museum dedicated to everything Scream and its movie-within-a-movie Stab. This is the franchise’s signature move—the Bond-style cold open that establishes the rules while breaking them. Williamson clearly learned from Wes Craven, who directed four of the films, but he’s also learned from thirty years of horror evolution. The sequence is crackerjack, setting a tone of meta-commentary and genuine suspense that carries through the film.
Sidney has left Woodsboro for Pine Grove, where she runs a coffee shop, is happily married to police chief Mark Evans (Joel McHale), and has three children. Her oldest, 17-year-old Tatum (Isabel May), knows nothing about her mother’s infamous past. This is obviously unsustainable, and Ghostface—who claims to be Stu Macher from beyond the grave—makes sure the truth comes out in the most violent way possible.
The AI twist is where things get interesting. Technology now allows the return of beloved, dearly-departed cast members through digital wizardry. Matthew Lillard plays Stu with the kind of over-the-top menace that suggests he’s having the time of his life, whether he’s actually alive or just a very convincing deepfake. The film doesn’t take this too seriously—how could it?—but uses the premise to explore nostalgia, legacy, and the horror of being unable to escape your past. Sidney has moved towns, changed careers, started a family, and still can’t outrun Ghostface. The metaphor isn’t subtle, but it works.
Courteney Cox returns as Gale Weathers, now reinvented as a crime reporter after losing her previous job. She brings Mindy and Chad Meek-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding) literally barreling into Pine Grove, because apparently nobody in this universe has learned to drive carefully during a murder spree. The expanded cast includes McKenna Grace as Tatum’s friend, Sam Rechner as Tatum’s boyfriend Ben (who can’t win Sidney’s approval), Anna Camp as Sidney’s neighbor Jessica, and Asa Germann as Jessica’s creepy son Lucas. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone could be Ghostface. This is the formula, and it still works.
What distinguishes Scream 7 from recent horror reboots is its lightness of touch. Williamson’s script, co-written with Guy Busick, takes nothing seriously while delivering genuine scares. The characters constantly reference horror tropes, their own franchise history, and the impossibility of Jamie Lee Curtis continuing to return to Halloween. It’s winking without being obnoxious, self-aware without being smug.
Campbell is indispensable, as the review cliché goes, but it’s true. She never overplays the terror, grounding the film in emotional reality even when the plot involves AI resurrections and multiple Ghostface reveals. Isabel May matches her beat for beat as Tatum, inheriting the family business of surviving masked killers while needing mom to close the deal. Their relationship gives the film its heart—the horror works because we care about this family, because we believe Sidney would burn the world down to protect her daughter.
The film had a troubled gestation—Melissa Barrera was fired over political comments, other stars and the director bailed, and the whole project seemed cursed until Williamson stepped in. That behind-the-scenes chaos doesn’t appear on screen. What appears is confident, entertaining, slightly deranged cinema that knows exactly what its audience wants and delivers it with style.
Scream 7 proves that Williamson was the right person to steer this ship all along. Thirty years after creating the franchise, he understands that the magic isn’t in the kills or the reveals—it’s in the characters, the commentary, the sense that we’re all in on the joke together. Burn it all down? Not this franchise. Not yet.
See Scream 7 in theaters starting February 27, 2026, and experience the return of the ultimate horror franchise. Neve Campbell is back, and she’s ready to survive again.
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