Scream 7 is finally upon us, and the seventh (and not so final) installment of the hit slasher franchise introduces us to some new Ghostface killers, and reintroduces us to Sidney Prescott, who has legally changed her name to Sidney Evans.
Aside from basic plot, details on the film were kept pretty tight-lipped, other than the fact that our new killers aren't just after Sidney, they're after her daughter Tatum, too. Oh, and in addition to the return of Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox's Gale Weathers – did we mention that Matthew Lillard's Stu Macher is back, too? We won't spoil how that all shakes out, but it's an obvious treat for fans. We will say, however, that reviews for the movie have been negative to mixed at best (but the audience score is pretty high).
Scream 7 release date
Scream 7 was released in theaters on February 27, 2026.
The film is on track to bring in $60 million during its opening weekend, against its budget of $45 million. Some trade reports have posited that the seventh installment could be the highest-grossing in the franchise (the lowest being 2011's Scream 4, which grossed $97 worldwide against a budget of $40 million).
Scream 7 was greenlit in 2023, shortly after the release of Scream 6, but some casting changes and director Christopher Landon's departure led to the need for a total rewrite (which apparently cost $500,000).
Scream 7 reviews
The reviews for Scream 7 have been largely negative to mixed, with critics stating that the movie leans too heavily on nostalgia from the first film and lacks the wit and charisma that we're used to seeing in the franchise.
The film currently sits at a 37% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 76% audience rating. Horror site BloodyDisgusting wrote, "Campbell and Cox, along with newcomer May and Williamson’s talent for suspense, carry this installment far. But not nearly far enough to compensate for what ultimately feels like a corporate rush job so hollow and devoid of identity."
"Scream used to poke fun at the silliness of horror movies and laugh at the genre's clichés," wrote Collider. "But now, it’s indistinguishable from the films it once gleefully lampooned, in what is easily the worst installment so far."
On a more positive note, ComingSoon.net wrote that the movie works because of the "kills, the cast, and how scary it can be to imagine yourself in these situations with Ghostface." Our own Scream 7 review says that Scream 7 "has a few neat tricks up its billowing sleeve. Enjoyably self-aware and satisfyingly bloody, this may be imitation Craven, but it proves Scream's slasher-whodunnit formula is still potent enough to thrill."
Scream 7 trailer
The final trailer, which can be viewed above, sees Asa Germann's character being dragged by the ankles by Ghostface. Yikes. In that classic distorted voice (by none other than Roger L. Jackson, who has been the voice for Ghostface since 1996), we hear o'l Ghostie say he's coming for Sidney's daughter, Tatum. We also hear Stu Macher's voice say at the very end, "This is gonna be fun!"
Prior to that, Paramount released the first full-length Scream 7 trailer on October 30, 2025. In that clip, we see a couple staying at the "psycho killer B&B". It turns out that if the name wasn't a giveaway already, the vacation isn't exactly the safest choice as they encounter a killer wearing the iconic Ghostface mask... and then the whole thing seemingly goes up in literal flames.
Scream 7 plot
Scream 7 took a sharp turn away from the plotlines set up in its predecessors. With Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega not returning for the sequel, Sam's storyline is seemingly done after she took a page from her father's (Billy Loomis) book and stabbed her enemies. Rather than focus on the Carpenter sisters, Scream 7 goes back to its franchise roots and follows Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott once again.
During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Campbell shared that Scream 7 would be centered around her character, and that fans can expect a similar dynamic to the one we've seen in the recent Halloween movies with Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Myers. David Gordon Green's 2018 Halloween showed us Laurie Strode fighting back against the man who traumatized her when she was a teen. Sidney obviously went through something very similar.
The tagline on the poster, which reads, "Fear hits home", had us thinking we were headed back to Woodsboro (and we do for a moment when that couple enters Stu Macher's house turned Airbnb in the trailer). Instead, Sidney has moved to the fictional town of Pine Grove. This makes sense, given that Sidney wasn't living in Woodsboro in Scream 5.
Per the official logline: "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."
If you want to know more about the plot and get real spoiler-y with it, you can check out our Scream 7 ending explained for the tea on who the new Ghostface is, if Stu Macher is alive, and more.
Scream 7 cast
There are some big changes when it comes to the Scream 7 cast. Melissa Barrera was fired from the sequel in 2023, before Jenna Ortega also announced her departure. "It had nothing to do with pay or scheduling," Ortega later explained. "The Melissa stuff was happening, and it was all kind of falling apart.
"If Scream 7 wasn't going to be with that team of directors and those people I fell in love with, then it didn't seem like the right move for me in my career at the time," she added. Their characters, sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter, have been the main focus of the Scream plot since Scream 5.
The returning cast does include Mason Gooding's Chad and Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy, who act as the connective tissue between Scream 6's abandoned storyline and Scream 7. The same goes for Courteney Cox, who is back as Gale.
Neve Campbell is, obviously, reprising her role as Sidney, while Isabel May is tasked with bringing her teenage daughter to life. Despite everyone assuming that Sidney ended up with Scream 3's Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) when she mentioned her husband of the same name in Scream 5, it turns out she's actually married to a cop named Mark Evans, played by Community's Joel McHale.
Matthew Lillard is back as Sidney's former high school classmate and OG Ghostface Stu Macher. Is Stu dead? We'll let you see for yourself in theaters. But, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lillard said, "It didn't really matter to me in what capacity," he was returning in, as he "was openly campaigning" to rejoin the franchise "for years."
David Arquette and Scott Foley also make a return, but we won't spoil how all of that shakes out, either.
As for who else will feature, we've got the complete list of every Scream 7 cast member below:
- Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott
- Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers
- Mason Gooding as Chad Meeks-Martin
- Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin
- Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher
- Scott Foley as Roman Bridger
- David Arquette as Dewey Riley
- Joel McHale as Mark Evans, Sidney's husband
- Isabel May as Sidney's daughter
- Celeste O'Connor as Chloe Parker
- Asa Germann as Lucas Bowden
- Mckenna Grace as Hannah Turman
- Mark Consuelos as Robbie Rivers
- Sam Rechner as Ben Brown
- Anna Camp as Jessica Bowden
- Michelle Randolph as Madison
- Jimmy Tatro as Scott
- Ethan Embry as Marco
Will Scream 7 be the last Scream movie?
Nope. Kevin Williamson point-blankly told Deadline that he and Neve Campbell are currently in the process of brainstorming Scream 8.
"When you’re sitting on the set at 3 in the morning, you’re like, ‘Well, what would Scream 8 be about?’ And you just start spit-balling," explained Williamson. "And Neve had this great idea, and everyone seemed to run with it. So yeah, if this movie works and people want it, we’re here for the fans. So, if they want it, we’ll certainly give it to them."
Given the seventh movie's big, big, box office returns, there's no way they aren't going to greenlight Scream 8. Though the film has a fairly low critic score, the audience rating is pretty high at 76%. There's no way fans wouldn't want more Scream.
If you are after more thrills, check out our list of the best horror movies on Netflix.
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