SCREAM 7

Ghostface on the loose!

SCREAM 7 (2026). Co-written and directed by Kevin Williamson. 

Sidney (Neve Campbell) has relocated to the new town of Pine Grove with her sheriff husband Mark (Joel McHale) and teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Then Sidney begins to get video calls from Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), one of the killers in the original Scream. But hasn't Stu been dead for years? When the killings start again with a new Ghostface on the loose, Sidney and old pal Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox) team up to investigate if Stu is somehow still alive or if someone else is hiding behind AI-generated deep fakes. 

Victims: Tatum (right) and her pals

Scream 7 is a fast-paced, often thrilling, and quite suspenseful slasher flick with generally good performances. The best sequences are the prologue with a young couple running into trouble in a house that commemorates the murders back in Hillsboro, and a sequence in which a poor victim in a bar is sort of turned into a beer spigot. Usually the Scream movies are comparatively restrained and tasteful, but a gross and sadistic sequence in a theater features a graphic disembowelment that might be more at home in one of those Terrifier movies. The motive for the gruesome murders, as many others have noted, is so lame as to be laughable, but fortunately it doesn't ruin the movie. Although the Scream flicks were originally black comedies with as many jokes as screams, this installment -- aside from the dumb finale -- is basically played more or less straight. As usual the film glosses over the utter misery faced by the loved ones of the victims left in the wake of the maniac. Campbell and Cox also appeared in 2022's Scream. Mason Gooding, one of Gail Weathers' team, was also in the slasher flick Heart Eyes. 

Verdict: Still fun despite its flaws. ***. 

SCREAM VI

SCREAM VI (2023). Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. 

A lovely young woman is butchered in an alleyway outside a trendy restaurant in Manhattan, but the killer takes off his ghostface mask for the audience to see. Is this a radical change in the Scream franchise formula, will we know who the killer is from the beginning of the film? No, because this psycho is dispatched with by someone else, and then it's anybody's guess as to who's slicing and dicing up anyone who gets in the way of killing heroine Samantha Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her little sister, Tara (Jenna Ortega), who were also major characters in the last Scream installment. They and their friends who survived the massacre of the last film have moved to New York City, where of course no one ever gets murdered. But someone is still out to get them. 

Who is Ghostface this time?

Scream VI is slick, effective slasher film material which keeps you in suspense, keeps you guessing, and has you wondering not only who the killer is but which of the characters -- including the "legacy" ones such as reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) -- will survive the latest rampage of the masked Ghostface killer. If you're looking for anything else aside from some spurts of blood and excitement, you won't find it, but the flick is quite entertaining.

Some cast members of Scream VI

There are a couple of stand-out sequences, such as one involving a few cast members trying to escape the slasher by climbing on a precarious ladder that spans across and high above an alleyway. Then there's a creepy scene on the subway, and a climax that takes place in an abandoned movie theater that's been turned into a shrine to the Stab movies-within-a-movie. The acting from a large cast is all professional, although no one will be taking home any Oscars. The trouble with leading lady Barrera is that she just isn't that distinctive. This is better than the last Scream, which had the same two directors.  

Verdict: There's life in the Scream franchise after all, although this may be the last hurrah. *** 

SCREAM (2022)

SCREAM (2022). Directors: Matt Bettinelli- Olpin and Tyler Gillett. 

Well, a killer wearing a ghostface mask is again on the loose in Woodsboro, 25 years after the events in Scream, and again killing teens and others. Eventually the original participants -- Sidney (Neve Campbell), Dewey (David Arquette) and Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), all of whom look great -- get involved in trying to find out who's responsible. The trouble with 2022's Scream -- which is basically Scream 5 whether it's called that or not -- is its sheer over-familiarity, In the first "kill" -- as gore geeks refer to the murder scenes -- the victim looks more like a child than a teen, and the word "overkill" occurs for some of the slasher sequences. The move is well-acted by the large cast -- very talented Jenna Ortega is a stand-out -- but not that well-helmed by two -- count 'em -- two directors. Basically this is just a retread of Scream 4, which was better and cleverer. 

Verdict: By no means terrible, but I think we've all had enough screaming. **3/4.