Scream 7 – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 25th of February 2026
Paramount Pictures Australia presents a film by Kevin Williamson
Screenplay by Kevin Williamson and Guy Busick
Produced by William Sherak, James Vanderbilt, and Paul Neinstein
Starring Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, David Arquette, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Mckenna Grace, Asa Germann, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Mark Consuelos, Tim Simons, Matthew Lillard, Joel McHale, and Courteney Cox
Cinematography Ramsey Nickell
Edited by Jim Page
Music by Marco Beltrami
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 115 minutes
Release Date: the 26th of February 2026
Scream 7 continues the story of survivor Sidney Prescott nee Evans (Neve Campbell). She was noticeably absent from the last film. The book author and mother now lives a peaceful life away from Woodsboro in the quiet town of Pine Grove, Indiana.
She has three children, the oldest is 17-year-old Tatum (Isabel May), and is happily married to a police officer, Mark (Joel McHale). Unfortunately for Sidney, the peaceful respite ends when a new antagonist under the guise of Ghostface tracks her down.
What makes this encounter different from the others is the killer is shown to be Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). He was killed 30 years ago during the first film. With advances in technology, including artificial intelligence that easily generates false environments and people, Sidney must reconcile her past, protect her loved ones, and stop the killings.
Not all the buzz around Scream 7 has been positive. What could have continued the stories of prior protagonists, played by Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, was changed entirely. Barrera’s spirited support of Palestinians caught in the Israel-Gaza war was misconstrued as antisemitism, leading her to be fired by Spyglass Media Group. Her sacking saw Ortega, prior directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and then-new director Christopher Landon leave the film. A creative overhaul then saw Neve Campbell return after she previously left the franchise due to a pay dispute.
Barrera’s unfair dismissal leaves a bad taste that looms over the film. The political controversies aside, Scream 7 shows the franchise is running on fumes. Like the prior two entries, its ideas are rehashed from the Wes Craven-directed Scream films. Protagonists passing the torch, demonising nostalgia, and injuries from previous attacks returning to haunt the victims are amongst its subjects.
It also veers into ideas from other horror legacy sequels, such as Halloween (2018), in terms of resolving trauma. Despite the actors’ best efforts and good intentions, the thematic concepts are half-heartedly executed due to uninteresting new characters. Meanwhile, its new ideas, including the implementation of AI, prove snarky and patronising.
It makes the film feel like it is above the audience in terms of expectations and hypocritical in pandering to nostalgia. Consequently, the climax is a badly executed riff on the film-set chase sequence in Scream 3, resulting in a humdrum melee that includes a cringy Google namedrop. Despite genre subversions, the motivations in the finale are weak, low-effort, and anticlimactic.
As for positives, there are some amusing ideas on display. Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) wanting to become the next Gale Weathers instead of the next Randy is a nice touch. Meanwhile, Neve Campbell remains completely committed to the role of Sidney. She displays her mettle without losing a step. There are some grisly kills, even if they feel desperate to make an impression without the emotional throughline to make it work. One notable kill involves a beer tap that is wildly grisly and somehow out of place in a Scream film due to its overstatement.
The kill attempts are illogical, and the story’s consequences are meaningless. It dilutes the film’s suspense and drama. A character being stabbed multiple times and bleeding out for hours should probably be dead! Thankfully, it does not reach the impossible feat in Scream VI when Chad (Mason Gooding) was stabbed multiple times and survived. Yet when Sidney and her daughter try escaping Ghostface through a crawlspace, it leaves Sidney injured from being stabbed in the shoulder. In the very next scene though, the wound is gone. This basic continuity error blunts the film’s impact.
Overall, Scream 7 is very much the same old slice-and-dice, but without anything nice. This middling effort shows it is time to ghost the franchise for good.
Summary: The political controversies aside, Scream 7 shows the franchise is running on fumes.
2
Poor!
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