Scream 7 (dir. Kevin Williamson)

by Jack Martin | Mar 1, 2026

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 113 mins

UK Distributor: Paramount Pictures

UK Release Date: 27 February 2026

WHO’S IN SCREAM 7?

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Mckenna Grace, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Asa Germann, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Ethan Embry, Tim Simons, Mark Consuelos, Roger L. Jackson, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Scott Foley, Laurie Metcalf

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Kevin Williamson (director, writer), Guy Busick (writer), Paul Neinstein, William Sherak and James Vanderbilt (producers), Marco Beltrami (composer), Ramsey Nickell (cinematographer), Jim Page (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A new Ghostface killer emerges to terrorise Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her family…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON SCREAM 7?

Like the stoner or the hot-for-each-other couple or every other slasher movie archetype that the Scream franchise has ever referenced, Scream 7 was doomed from the start.

The much-publicised firing of the series’ new lead Melissa Barrera for her pro-Palestine stance proved deeply unpopular among fans, while the subsequent departure of co-star Jenna Ortega and director Christopher Landon, who had been hired to direct the seventh outing after the Radio Silence duo stepped aside after their back-to-back entries, did little to stir up excitement. Not even the hiring of Kevin Williamson, the writer of the Wes Craven-directed original, as a replacement director could get people interested – especially since his only other directing credit was the poorly-received 1999 teen comedy Teaching Mrs. Tingle – nor could the return of franchise star Neve Campbell who bowed out of the previous film over a pay dispute.

So much going against it, and yet it’s still surprising how much Scream 7 completely underwhelms. Even if you took the behind-the-scenes drama out of it, this is a boring by-the-book slasher that carries little of the fun or inventiveness of some of the more inspired entries, leaving it a hollow and somewhat cynical product that would be too lame for even the Scary Movie franchise to make fun of.

Campbell reprises her role as Sidney Evans née Prescott, who’s settled into a suburban life with her cop husband Mark (Joel McHale) and their teenage daughter Tatum (Isabel May). As is par for the course with any Scream movie, Sidney’s peaceful existence juggling motherhood and running a local coffee shop is rudely interrupted by the arrival of an all-new Ghostface killer… only this one seemingly reveals themselves to be someone quite unexpected from her past, someone who until now had long thought been dead. Is it some masterful deepfake trickery, or is it the genuine article? That’s the mystery which Sidney, Tatum, sibling survivors Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) – the only holdovers from the “Core Four” of the past two movies – and ever-intrepid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) set out to solve as a fresh string of murders rock the town.

Except, it’s hard to care this time. Williamson, who also co-wrote the script with Guy Busick (himself a co-writer on both the 2022 Scream and Scream VI), breathes little life into the series’ well-worn slasher formula that is weirdly played much straighter here than usual. Gone is much of the traditional meta commentary on the specific nature and popular trends of horror movies, replaced with some of the most unmemorable plotting in this entire franchise along with the most forgettable characters and even some of the least creative kills. There are a couple of death scenes which come close to being interesting, including one involving a stage flying harness and another with an unusually sharp beer tap, but other than that it’s mostly just people whose names you can’t even remember getting stabbed repeatedly, which gets old fast and leaves you not caring one way or the other about who it’s happening to, whether it’s the legacy characters or the newer arrivals.

Even more than Scream 2022, which was all about the nature of legacy sequels and lampooned their fan-servicey nature, Scream 7 feels like an incessant blast of nostalgia that few people asked for. Yes, the Scream franchise as a whole is known for its self-referential behaviour, but here the supposedly tongue-in-cheek references feel so much more forced because director Williamson isn’t able to naturally work it all in as the likes of Craven and Radio Silence did (and even they sometimes struggled with the constant barrage of references). The opening sequence alone, set in a key franchise location transformed into an Airbnb experience – but seriously, who signed off on an actual murder site being used this way? – is made up almost entire of clunky expository dialogue about certain past characters as well as previous events in the series, and it keeps throwing nostalgia bait around later on as particular items of clothing are given their applause moment and, much more crucially, a key sequence later in the film relying heavily on familiar faces popping up all at once. It honestly borders on self-parody, which is weird considering how largely unserious a lot of this series has been, but playing it more straight this time has, ironically, made it feel riper for satire.

It’s also not smart enough to back up its overt reliance on nostalgia, as the film has little to say about certain modern topics, as well as characters that constantly make bafflingly poor decisions, including some who by this point in the franchise should really know better. Very little of it feels like Williamson thought a lot of it through; in fact, you could even say it’s like he was under a studio mandate to deliver a safe, familiar Scream movie as a result of their panic after their original plans fell apart. Funny, that.

But honestly, that’s exactly what Scream 7 feels like: a half-hearted attempt by the studio to save face among franchise fans who weren’t and still aren’t pleased with how they fumbled a positive new direction. By playing it safe, they perhaps think that alone will draw people back, but what they didn’t realise is that there also needs to be more than just the familiar stuff – and sadly, it seems like this franchise is no longer willing to take a stab at anything new or interesting as it once was.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Scream 7 is a tired and rather boring slasher sequel that attempts to course correct certain elements but fumbles that by sticking too closely to familiar and nostalgic territory without adding anything truly interesting to the mix.