114 min | R | February 27, 2026 | Paramount Pictures
Kevin Williamson returns to the director’s chair and proves the franchise still has a pulse. Not exactly fun, but it hits all the right notes.
Scream 7 is the rare franchise entry that understands what it is without apologizing for it. Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original and returns here to direct, knows the grammar of this series better than anyone alive. The self-referential slasher formula could easily collapse into smugness by now, but Williamson plays it straight enough to keep the stakes real. The setup is familiar territory. Sidney Prescott has built a quiet life, and Ghostface shows up to shred it. What saves this from being a retread is how seriously the film takes the emotional weight of someone who has survived this exact nightmare six times before.
Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox carry this thing. Their on-screen chemistry is the best it has been since the original trilogy, grounded in decades of shared trauma that reads as genuine history rather than nostalgia bait. Campbell brings a controlled intensity to Sidney that has deepened over time. She is not the final girl anymore. She is a woman who is deeply tired of being hunted. Cox matches her beat for beat, giving Gale Weathers a weariness that cuts through the character’s usual sharp edges. The supporting cast, including Isabel May and Mckenna Grace, fills their roles competently, but this is Campbell and Cox’s show from start to finish.
Williamson’s direction is workmanlike rather than inspired. The kills are staged cleanly and the tension builds in the right places, but the visual language never pushes beyond what the franchise has already established. The script leans hard into meta-commentary about legacy sequels and franchise fatigue, which lands about half the time. When it works, it is sharp and knowing. When it does not, it feels like the movie is doing homework instead of telling a story. The third act tightens up considerably and delivers a reveal that earns its shock without cheating.
This is not the best Scream movie. It is not trying to be. What it is, though, is a competent and occasionally compelling addition to a franchise that keeps finding reasons to exist. The self-awareness that defined the series in 1996 has aged into something closer to self-acceptance. For a seventh entry in a slasher franchise, that is more than enough.