iTrailer | SCREAM 7

A “First Look” Feature

The blade-wielding Ghostface Killer is back and he’s targeting the original Final Girl that started it all. Neve Campbell returns to the SCREAM franchise for its seventh installment, and this one looks like it cuts deep!

What’s your favorite scary movie? It feels so 1996. It’s a good thing that “retro” is in! The horror genre was turned on its ear thirty years ago when unsuspecting, home-alone teenager Casey Becker, portrayed by Drew Barrymore, answered her phone and dared to play a game of slasher movie trivia. Barrymore, then one of the biggest names in the cast of up-and-comers, which included rising Friends star Courtney Cox, baby-faced David Arquette, Charmed ingenue Rose McGowan, and Neve Campbell, would shock audiences by becoming the first kill in SCREAM (1996).

The blockbuster was directed by the legendary horror-movie auteur Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson, who revolutionized the way audiences viewed teenagers, adding texture and depth and reflecting the youth culture as experienced in his hit television drama, Dawson’s Creek. Scream bore a wit and a self-referential quality that wasn’t a part of the film genre’s previous iterations, and established “the rules” by which to survive. It revitalized the slasher flick and would launch a slew of imitations.

The franchise has since endured, making Ghostface one of the most iconic characters in film! After six twists and turns, the upcoming seventh film in the series, SCREAM 7, promises to turn the previously established rules on their ear! Campbell returns as Sidney Prescott, the film series’ iconic ever-enduring “final girl”, notwithstanding the last two films, which shifted the attention to a new generation of heroines. Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega played sisters with a vested interest in the Scream legacy. Barrera portrayed Samantha Carpenter, the daughter of the original film’s killer, Billy Loomis, played by Skeet Ulrich. However, Loomis wasn’t alone in his scare tactics. He had an accomplice.

As seen in the new trailer for Scream 7, the focus is back on Sidney, and a murderous spree ensues to take out the idyllic life she’s carved out for herself and her family, including her daughter, Tatum, played by Isabel May. Furthermore, her past may have caught up with her, and Kevin Williamson, who has also assumed the reins of director in this latest iteration of his film series, has suggested that Ghostface may be someone from Sidney’s past. Remember that accomplice, we mentioned? It appears that Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher, Billy Loomis’s co-conspirator, may have avoided his shocking fate.

The actor’s voice is apparent in the final moments of the official film trailer, and while on the road promoting his latest feature, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Lillard has alluded to Stu’s return. There have always been fan theories that the character survived his fatal final moment when the television was dropped on his head. Williamson has even hinted in the requels that Stu may still be around. After all, Sam faces off against her Ghostface killers in Stu’s old house, which is seen wrapped in an inferno in the trailer, and his particular mode of demise is spotlighted in Scream IV. Lillard confirmed he’s back for Scream 7 but won’t reveal how he fits into the plot.

These twists and revelations have always been a keystone of the franchise. Since Williamson has had his hands all over this chapter, the legacy of it all will likely be the connective tissue that will get audiences excited and counting down to the film’s February release date. The film is rumored to have also received sterling marks in early testing, a benchmark in the industry where preview audiences are asked to provide feedback on early cuts. One way or another, February is shaping up to be a killer month for film goers!

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SCREAM 7 | directed by Kevin Williamson and starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May, and Joel McHale, is in theaters nationwide on February 26, 2026.