“Burn It All Down” is not what David Ellison will be saying if he doesn’t get his way with Warner Bros, but rather the ad line on Paramount’s billboards touting the latest entry in the very successful Scream franchise, number 7 if you are keeping count. The popular horror series has collected $900 million to date across six films that started exactly 30 years ago with the 1996 original created and written by Kevin Williamson. It may have taken three long decades but Williamson is back, and taking on directing reins of the series for the first time. Judging from the results he is the right guy for the job. After all who knows this material better than this guy, and with a fun script that takes nothing seriously (Williamson wrote it with Guy Busick from a story by Busick and James Vanderbilt) Scream 7 should be just the ticket to get fans psyched for the further adventures of Sidney Prescott and company.
After taking a creative detour to New York City for the sixth film, this seventh edition had a troubled gestation period when planned star Melissa Barerra was fired over political comments, then another star and the director bailed.The whole thing was in doubt until Williamson came back into the picture as did titular star Neve Campbell who skipped Scream VI in a salary dispute, but hopefully is getting what she deserves for this outing. She is firing on all cylinders here.
Of course we have watched her battling her main nemesis Ghostface through high school, college, a counseling job, as a self help author, and new mother, Then after those five films Sidney Prescott disappeared from the scene. As we meet her now she has left her home town of Woodsboro where all the bloodshedding took place over and over and lives quietly in another small town, Pine Grove where the single screen movie theatre is showing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and she runs a coffee shop. She is happily married to the police chief, Mark Evans (Joel McHale joining the franchise) and has three kids, the oldest being nubile 17 year old teenager Tatum (Isabel May) who knows little about her mother’s infamous past exploits but is about to find out as the family becomes a target of the re-emerged Ghostface who after a nifty pre-credits sequence has already done in a couple in Woodsboro and is saying he is in Pine Grove with a chopping list ready to go. The catch is the facetime phone call appears to be coming from Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) who was the first masked Ghostface in the 1996 film and was clearly as dead as you can possibly be by the end of it. So how could he be back in action? Enter the new era of AI, the technological marvel that threatens to bring a whole group of beloved dearly departed Scream cast members back. I won’t spoil this spin anymore than that but it is wickedly entertaining and sweetly nostalgic for fans .
On another front crack news journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is also back in town after the whole New York debacle and losing her job. She’s now reinventing herself as an ace crime reporter and her team, twins Mindy and Chad Meek-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding) literally come barreling into Pine Grove and driving smack into Ghostface – or a Ghostface. What they have stumbled on is a very big story, and once again Sidney is at the heart of it, her daughter Tatum dragged along for the ride.
What makes this franchise so appealing is less as a gross-out horror show, and more like a new age Agatha Christie mystery in which actually everyone is a suspect and could be the one behind the mask. It is a formula , well worn, that still works and keeps us guessing in classic murder mystery fashion. The other smart aspect is this is a franchise that winks at itself and every other movie in the horror genre with characters constantly referring to the predictable tropes of these things and how “Jamie Lee can just keep coming back to Halloween” . Williamson learned alot from master of the horror house, Wes Craven who directed three of the films. Williamson also clearly knows how to freshen up a series long in the tooth, unlike say the recent reboot of his original I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Campbell is indispensable here and a solid actor who never overplays the terror but comes loaded for bear when her daughter inherits the curse of Ghostface. May, coming from the Jennifer Lawrence school of acting, could not be better in taking on the family business, so to speak, but still needing mom to close the deal. The cast is large as is the victim count, but making their mark is McKenna Grace as a Tatum BFF who — SPOILER ALERT — is an early victim as she rehearses flying scenes for her school play, and Sam Rechner as Ben, Tatum’s boyfriend who can’t seem to win the support of her suspicious mother. Also registering is Anna Camp as Jessica, Sidney’s good friend and neighbor along with her somewhat creepy son, Lucas (Asa Germann). McHale is a nice addition, and it is a hoot to see Lillard overacting a storm as menacing Stu (back from the grave?)
One of the highlights of any Scream movie is the pre-credits sequence ala what the Bond films do so well. This one featuring Michelle Randolph and Jimmy Tatro as a couple who have signed up to experience a private fun fan night at the Macher house, now a museum of everything Scream, and by hilarious extension the movie-within-the-movie Stab. It is a crackerjack sequence that gets things off to a roaring start.
It may have taken 30 years for Williamson to finally get to steer his own ship, but with Scream 7 it proves well worth the wait. Fans will approve.
Producers are William Sherak, Vanderbilt, and Busick.
Title: Scream 7
Distributor: Paramount
Release Date: February 27, 2026
Director: Kevin Williamson
Screenplay: Kevin Williamson and Guy Busick . Story by Busick and James Vanderbilt
Cast: Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, David Arquette, Roger L. Jackson, Michelle Randolph, Jimmy Tatro, Mckenna Grace, Asa Germann, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Mark Consuelos, Tim Simons with Matthew Lillard with Joel McHale and Courteney Cox.
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes
English (US) ·