The popular movie franchise “Scream” released its seventh installment Feb. 27, earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of 31% and an IMDb rating of 5.7/10. In the world of “Scream,” there’s one rule that never changes: The killer always comes back. “Scream 7” sharpens the franchise’s iconic knife once more, delivering suspense, humor and enough twists to keep audiences guessing until the final reveal.
This review will include spoilers … you have been warned.
The first — and most iconic — “Scream” movie was released in 1996, and here we are today still watching the cycle continue.
The 2026 version invites back some of the same actors who were in the 1996 version, such as Courteney Cox, who plays Gale Weathers (my personal favorite character), Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Matthew Lillard as Stu Macher and David Arquette as Dewey Riley. It even includes members of the cast from the 2022 reboot, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding as the Meeks twins.
The ability to keep that much of the original 1996 cast is what made this movie particularly fun to watch, and it’s not something you see in many movie franchises.
This time around, the killer is not after Sidney Prescott but instead her daughter, Tatum Prescott, who is the same age her mom was when this whole thing first started. I appreciate the tribute to Sidney’s best friend, Tatum, who, as some of you may remember, died gruesomely trying to squeeze through a garage door in the 1996 version. “Scream 7” does a phenomenal job reminding the audience of the significance of past characters.
Though the plot is the same — to be expected — Sidney gets a phone call. She doesn’t want to play a game. Two masked killers end up trying to kill her daughter and some other not-so-lucky characters along the way. The fun in the movie comes from guessing which two characters you think the killers will be based on what you’ve learned from the previous movies.
The movie ends with the reveal of the killers, which is a bit underwhelming: two characters who seem too irrelevant to earn the title of Ghostface killers. What makes the reveal exciting is the recreation of the very first scene in the original, in which Sidney’s daughter is tied to a chair by the pool.
This movie is a true tribute to the franchise, reminding audiences why “Scream” has remained a defining force in the horror genre for nearly three decades. Even when the formula feels familiar, the series continues to play with audience expectations, blending nostalgia with new characters in a way that keeps fans invested.
While the reveal of the killers may not be the most shocking in the franchise’s history, the callbacks to the original film highlight the series’ commitment to honoring its roots while still moving the story forward.
If there is one thing the “Scream” franchise has proven, it is that Ghostface never stays silent for long.
Whether “Scream 7” marks the final chapter or simply another pause before the phone rings again, the film leaves audiences with the same lingering question that has echoed since 1996: When the call comes, will anyone ever truly be ready to answer?
Movie Rating: 7.5/10
