MOVIE: SCREAM 7

Shane | 26 February 2026 | Reply

MOVIE: SCREAM 7
Written by Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick, James Vanderbilt
Directed by Kevin Williamson
Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmine Savoy-Brown, Joel McHale, McKenna Grace
Reviewed by Tia Pinnegar

“It’s all led to this”

Scream is back for the 7th installment in the franchise. The opening credits started off strong with the original “Scream” title font from 1996 sharing a reminder of the six previous iterations, tying in with the motto portrayed on the posters: “It’s all led to this”, supported further by the fact that the writer of the 1st, 2nd and 4th movie – Kevin Williamson – has co-written and is directing Scream 7.

The infamous Sidney Prescott-Evans (played by Neve Campbell) reprises her role as the fierce final girl that the first Woodsboro massacre produced. Sidney is joined by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox, also returning) who has a hell of an entrance scene – receiving cheers and claps from the entire theatre. Gale continues to embody the bitchy final girl attitude, replying “of course not” when asked if she’s going to be nice. We are also joined by our favourite twins Chad and Mindy (Jasmine Savoy-Brown and Mason Gooding). Sadly only these two of our recent core four are returning in this instalment and they both deserved more screen time, but they ultimately compensate for the others’ absence. On this note the storyline had a handful of plot holes that left me with the same amount of questions as when I started – if not more. Despite this, Scream 7 was enjoyable and definitely worth watching a second time.

This 2026 instalment marks 30 years since the original, and as the world of horror and movie making has changed, so have our characters, as well as our beloved franchise. Scream reinvented the horror franchise for the world and one thing we know will always hold weight are Randy’s rules to surviving a horror movie (RIP Randy). Scream 7 cleverly incorporates these original rules while also introducing more modern storylines and plot structures that would have been unheard of 30 years ago (such as our upgrade from 90’s brick landlines to FaceTiming Ghostface on the phone).

This time around we are introduced to Sidney as a mum, wife and cafe shop owner, and her family including daughter Tatum Evans (Isabel May making her big screen debut) – named after Sidney’s 1996 instalment best friend Tatum. May demonstrates an impressive range, drawing from her experience in long running sitcom “Alexa and Katie” that allows the audience to connect with her, making Tatum refreshingly human while still kicking ass. We see Sidney and Tatum navigate yet another gruelling Ghostface massacre, sharing several badass mother – daughter moments.

The soundtrack, of course, includes the iconic “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – tracing all the way back to the original movie – as well as a song co-written and performed by McKenna Grace, who also stars in this Scream installment.

Despite those shaky plot holes, ultimately Scream 7 is a must watch, for our beloved characters as well as the ones we have tragically lost (RIP Dewey and OG Tatum).