Scream 7 (2026)

Score: 3.5 / 5

"What's your favorite scary movie?" Kevin Williamson, the brilliant writer behind my favorite horror franchise, returns this time in double duty as both writer and director to a series foundering in the wake of some awful producing decisions. Without going into the muck of the business, suffice to say that the exciting plots and characters of Scream 5 and Scream 6 are on a bit of a hiatus (let us hope not abandoned permanently). Given his thankless job of taking the reins from what was clearly a planned trilogy and trying something different, independent, and ultimately safe, Williamson performs a Herculean task here to mostly successful results. While this will almost certainly rank lowly among fan favorites, I do think it's important to always take the art on its own terms; as such, we'll not be discussing the casting/directing/writing upsets that led us to this point, and rather focusing on the film itself and its place within its series.

Unlikely as it might seem after so very much crime there, the Macher house yet stands in Woodsboro, California. Drawn to the "true crime" setting of his own favorite serial killers -- and enthusiastically aware of the long-festering rumors of Stu's possible survival -- a young man and his girlfriend book the large estate as a sort of AirBnb for a spooky night. Given the material's tendency to blur the lines between history and reality, trauma and reckoning, heroism and cruelty, it's a bit surprising that we haven't really seen this yet; usually, it's Gale profiting off the fictionalized lives of others, yet here (and in our digital age) we see a potential nobody profiting off the tragedies that have occurred in this storied house. Who owns the Macher residence now? Who knows? Like the inevitable killer lurking in plain sight in the decked-out Halloween-esque attraction, it could be anyone.

Chandelier-related kill and all, the opening is effective and had me thrilled to be back in the world of Scream. We immediately shift to our protagonist: Neve Campbell back again in the spotlight as Sidney Prescott, of course. And while it makes sense -- indeed, easily could have been the character's development far sooner -- it's pretty damn cool to see her as a mother whose daughter is now being threatened by the horrors plaguing her life. Sid is a bit too strict and cold for my preference, but Campbell plays mama bear with a firm rigidity that hearkens to Jamie Lee Curtis's Laurie Strode in her final three Halloween titles. The difference is that Sid seems to not want to deal with Tatum as a burgeoning adult; she won't talk about sex with her daughter specifically, though she's aware of Tatum sneaking boys into her room. Even Tatum's name suggests a curious choice from her mother; similarly, Williams kept Mark as the name of Sid's husband (after being mentioned briefly before), but for some inexplicable and infuriating reason, it's not Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) but rather Mark Evans (Joel McHale), who is coincidentally the police chief. It's just an insulting switch for fans, not least because McHale plays Mark as kind of creepy.

Thankfully, Williams seems aware that, if we're not continuing the same story from Scream 6, we probably don't care about the plot. So he doesn't focus on character development for legacy folks. Instead, he launches into a series of solidly entertaining kills with enough intrigue around each to propel the whodunnit mystery forward. There's a stylish and memorable theatre kill, though one any theatre artist will decry as being outrageous; it's gotta be one of the most unsafe tech rehearsals ever, with a terrible teacher and stage manager. Soon after, there's a brutal, intense Ghostface attack in Sid's home. By this point, the film has revealed that it's playing things safe: this is a run-of-the-mill slasher whodunnit with characters we love. I don't hate that; frankly, if the worst this franchise can do is spin an entertaining variation on familiar ideas, I'll take it any day over more than half the shlock pumped direct to streaming. Yet, as a fan who knows what Williamson and this series is capable of, it's disappointing to see them not taking bigger risks. Even the cinematography feels more like something out of the classic Weinstein Company catalog than something from Dimension; bland, amber lighting and too much unnecessary editing sap what should be a dynamic vision of shadow and LED while forcing us to exist in real time and space with visceral kills.

Unfortunately, the cast of characters assembled here feel both rote and archetypal at this point, and none are given much opportunity to shine. Their collective energy simply doesn't electrify us, even as they discuss Important Themes like AI and societal collapse; unfortunately, it all feels a bit "too little, too late," not unlike listening to an old man complain about his 2020 election results six years after the fact. When Gale finally shows up -- looking fabulous, as usual -- she's joined by the two Meekses, Chad and Mindy, who are a breath of fresh air in this film. Weird as it is to see them without the other half of their "Core Four," Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding are as likable and endearing as ever, even if their reasoning for working with Gale is murky at best. All together, the heroes set the metafictional stage for us: Trauma is their life. Actually, once the killers are revealed, one of them literally says that to Sid, in the film's most glaring move into metafiction. And what trauma! Much like in the previous two films, these kids are brutalized in this film; Mark, who I would have been fine to see go in favor of the real Mark coming back into Sid's life, inexplicably survives.

While I liked the killer's use of AI to literalize "ghost faces" of previous Ghostfaces, I wish Williamson had leaned into it more. These films work because they are timely and state-of-the-art, bound by the technology of their setting. But Williamson shies away from it, instead trying to make a connection between new tech and old memories; I don't think it works to have nostalgia be a driving force for a film in this franchise. Yet moments of nostalgia that could only speak to real fans do land well. I'm thinking of Sid finally allowing Gale to interview her, including Roman in the lineup of killers, and the legitimately terrifying slow-mo reveal of the second killer, all of which are not really meant to gain new fans but are very much geared to satisfy longtime fans.

Yet the idea of self-help being a gateway to insanity and murder is so tasty that I cannot deny loving this movie. I love the fun whodunnit, the occasional grisly spectacle, the genuinely scary knives-behind-every-door suspense. And I love that this franchise just keeps going.

Scream VI (2023)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Where do you go after Scream 5, the surprising and wonderful reboot of the series last year that functions as commentary -- and terrifying addition to the canon -- on "requels" or legacy sequels? Culturally and artistically, we haven't really bypassed that stage of horror evolution. This is the question posed for Scream VI, the latest in the series, which might also be the most viscerally scary of the series. It seems that, in accordance with Halloween Kills -- not to mention the divisive Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Star Wars: The Last Jedi -- this sequel to a requel just hammers home what the fans want. Less exposition, more action, and some smart fan service. It also cleverly includes several nods to Scream 2, much like the previous installment did with Scream (1996). 

It's Halloween again, one year after the most recent Woodsboro murders, and the young survivors have relocated to New York City, attending Blackmore University. While it might be a bit weird that the so-called "core four" crossed the country to attend school together, it's also kind of sweet and showcases their seemingly effortless friendship, along with perhaps some co-dependency. Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) live together, while Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin are nearby (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown, respectively). The attractive cast is complemented out by the Carpenters' roommate Quinn (Liana Liberato of The Beach House, Novitiate, Haunt, and Trespass), Chad's roommate Ethan (Jack Champion of Avatar: The Way of Water), and Mindy's girlfriend Anika (Devyn Nekoda). These kids have been trying to move on with their lives, but Sam has been ostracized since a viral online post suggested she was the mastermind behind the Woodsboro massacre. Tara, meanwhile, is trying to live life to the fullest by being a bit reckless.

You can't talk about a Scream movie without attending to its opening sequence, and this one was perfect. Okay, they all are, but this one was somewhat unique because the kills were all real (rather than in the world of the Stab movies), involved total strangers to us, and referenced -- at least to my mind -- the real-life murderers Leopold and Loeb in Chicago. The featured bit parts are played by Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) and Tony Revolori (from The Grand Budapest Hotel and the MCU Spider-Man series), which makes it that much more fun. While we're comparing this film to others in the franchise, let's be sure to tie it to Scream 2: it takes place -- more or less -- in a college setting, its climax is in a theater auditorium, one character dies from a bone-crunching fall, and at least one killer is related by blood to a previous killer.

It's that opening sequence that brings Ghostface back, still voiced by Roger L. Jackson, and that gets the plot going, as Sam is of course brought in for questioning by Detective Wayne Bailey (the excellent Dermot Mulroney), who is also Quinn's father and concerned about his daughter's safety in proximity to the Carpenter girls. Meanwhile, Sam has been carrying on a secret relationship with their brooding but hunky neighbor Danny (Josh Segarra from Arrow and AJ and the Queen) while getting some dubious counseling from her therapist (Henry Czerny). It doesn't take long for Gale Weathers (the flawless Courteney Cox) to show up, and then we get the delicious and warmly welcome surprise appearance of Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) for the first time since the 2011 Woodsboro murders (in Scream 4). Okay, now I think we've covered all the cast. There are many of them, so it's only a matter of time before more bodies start to fall.

And that's about all I can say without risking more important spoilers. I'll try to avoid many more, but otherwise you may want to stop reading.

Sadly, we do not get the glory of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in this installment, a disappointing result of some pay dispute. Gale mentions early on that Sidney and her family have gone into hiding, so one certainly hopes that she and Mark Kincaid (Patrick Dempsey) are still together and that both might return in another sequel. Her absence is distinctly felt, but it also lets some of the other characters have more time to breathe, notably Gale herself, who finally gets the chance to talk with Ghostface on the phone herself while being targeted for an imminent attack.

The set pieces are stunning, and I found myself constantly on the edge of my seat. Most engaging was a vertigo-inducing climb across a ladder between two apartments; another was of course the much-publicized crowded train ride on Halloween night. And the attacks are particularly vicious; these might be the goriest and most brutal attacks of the series. What's interesting, though -- especially with Mindy's expected but lackluster "rules" for this franchise extension (if that's what we're calling requel sequels) -- is that the body count is shockingly low in this film. Shockingly, and annoyingly, as my friend and I discussed as we left the cinema. For all Mindy's remarks that at this point in the franchise, anybody is so much dead meat, this movie features a disappointing number of deaths. On the other hand, the attacks are so unbelievably violent that it starts to strain credulity that any of the main characters survived at all. In earlier films, a single stab or two would incapacitate a victim; here, they get repeatedly shot, sliced, stabbed, and broken, and they keep on fighting.

Maybe realism isn't key here, but it starts to feel like we're being toyed with as fans. Let's just hope they have some bloody good plans for these characters in future installments. As it is, even without the body count and our favorite final girl, Scream VI is an excellent addition to and evolution of the series.

Scream (2022)

Score: 4 / 5

What's your favorite scary movie?

We're finally going back to Woodsboro, for the first time since Wes Craven left us. I was an outspoken fan of the MTV series that he helped launch, though it ended with a bit of a whimper, and frankly I worried that would be the end of the franchise. But we live in an age when the horrors of our youth are returning with a vengeance, and our culturally jaded sensibilities about these things live on Reddit threads and Twitter in ways Kevin Williamson knowingly predicted back in 1996, when it was all cafeteria conversations and underground movie screenings. And with the fairly recent phenomenon of the "requel" -- a reboot and sequel that tends to go back to the famed original -- it makes perfect sense for us to Scream again.

This time, however, it's mostly new folks behind the scenes. Williamson is back as producer, while the screenplay is from James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, and the film is helmed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (from Ready or Not, Southbound, and V/H/S). These new names, however, are uniformly determined to honor Craven's legacy, and much of this movie looks and feels like the franchise we know and love. There is a reason this series resonates so strongly with its cult fanbase, and this movie was clearly made by members of that group. Meticulously plotted, written within an inch of its own life, Scream 5, or as I prefer, 5cream (I'm sorry, but I just can't call it Scream), is a thrilling whodunnit, a razor-sharp satire on self-awareness in the age of information, and the most shockingly violent entry in the series.

It opens, as we expect, with a phone call, during which time an isolated young woman plays horror movie trivia with a murderous stalker. But the movie throws us a delicious bone to chew on as Tara (Jenna Ortega of You, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous) reveals that she prefers "elevated horror" to slashers, and her favorite movie is The Babadook. A few other tasty references in the film include The Witch, Hereditary, and Jordan Peele, but those modern masterpieces aren't as palatable for psychopaths, who want to reinvent the proverbial wheel. The kids in this installment aren't oddballs like Randy Meeks (from the first two) who stock VHS tapes at Blockbuster all day; these are kids so disaffected by horror that they choose to stream a Stab marathon while in the hospital room of a girl who was literally just stabbed. Their knowledge surpasses that of the expert, but their wisdom leaves more than a little to be desired.

As bodies begin to pile up around town, the kids band together to hunt the killer. Of course, they do so while sitting around a sectional sofa and accuse each other. More than once during this movie, I wondered how on earth these kids were friends with each other, as they so readily and earnestly think each other butchers classmates. It's not tongue-in-cheek as it was in Craven's films. These kids live in a world where teens their age walk down streets with assault rifles on national television and get away with it. And the filmmakers know it, as they inject a fierce, terrifying brutality into the film's limited but intense kills; when one returning character is gutted in broad daylight in the front lawn, and that character's charming offspring gets his carotid slit in seductive and repulsive real time, my stomach was in tight knots.

Ghostface's return prompts Tara's sister Sam (Melissa Barrera of In the Heights) to return to town, her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid of The Boys) in tow. Much like the original heroine of the series, Sam has some really dark family history, and it's revealed surprisingly early to us in a series of haunting visions she alone can see. Without spoiling it, we get a delightful legacy cameo, and the inclusion of this plot devices works hard to validate some of the weirder elements of the usually more-disparaged Scream 3. Fewer than 20 minutes into this movie, it's already established an incredible amount of information and detail, to say nothing of its expansive cast, which includes Randy's twin nephew/niece pairing Chad and Mindy (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown), Tara's protective friend Amber (Mikey Madison), group friend Liv (Sonia Ben Ammar) whose boyfriend was recently butchered, and legacy character Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), now sheriff, and her son Wes (Dylan Minnette).

It's a huge cast, and then the real legacy characters come in. Sam and Richie enlist the help of Dewey (David Arquette), the retired and perhaps slightly disgraced former sheriff, who is consoling himself with the bottle following Gale's divorce. The news leads him to call Gale (Courteney Cox) and Sidney (Neve Campbell), and before you know it, they're back in town. They're not the focus of this film, but they are treated with profound respect and authority, not unlike the legacy characters in the Star Wars or Jurassic World requels. Each of the three made me cry in this movie, and the love with which their characters are treated is nothing short of satisfying. But, as we know (or will learn from the Meeks kids), requel rules are different; legacy characters will likely end up on the cutting room floor this time around.

Whereas Craven learned his craft from John Carpenter and even Alfred Hitchcock, the new directors here model their craft from Craven, and so this movie feels authentically part of the franchise. It's by no means my favorite entry, or even favorite sequel, but it is a solid, thoroughly entertaining movie that sparkles and chills in all the right ways. It's frustrating at times, but in the way that most slashers are, and that's part of the calculated risk of this genre. While it's hard not to wish for Craven's impossibly tight control of editing and content -- never a slack moment in any Craven film -- and frankly the performances of the young cast leave a bit to be desired, it's really not fair to compare this work with the Craven entries. Let's just be thankful we can still visit Woodsboro for a creepy good time again, and frankly, I think we'll be returning again soon.