I’m Worried Scream 7 Is Going to Ruin the Franchise for Good (And There’s Proof)

The whole point of the Scream franchise has been its subtle takedowns of genre conventions and, to a degree, general trends in the audience’s life. Scream toyed with audiences’ love for horror, Scream 2 did the same with sequels in comparison to originals, Scream 3 was a look at how stakes are upped in trilogy-cappers, Scream 4 incorporated people’s newfound desire to film everything they were doing, Scream (2022) updated things to analyze legacy sequels and “Elevated horror,” and Scream VI was a take on how horror franchises tend to swap locales as they go on (thankfully it took Ghostface to the big city, not outer space).

Now that the trailer for Scream 7 is out we know it’s a look at how, what, people like Airbnb? It’s the first installment that doesn’t look to have a deeper layer hook. There’s no updated meta commentary. It appears to just be “Here’s more Ghostface. And this time he’s going up against Sidney Prescott…again.”

Warranted but Not Overwhelming Trepidation

From the beginning, Neve Campbell and director Kevin Williamson have been clear that Scream 7 is an attempt to get back to basics. That’s a double-edged sword for a franchise that has historically embraced a meta lens. It’s great that it’s trying to be as scary as Wes Craven’s original film, but it’s also running the risk of becoming the very thing the Ghostface saga was always spoofing (not spoofing to the extent of Scary Movie but spoofing nonetheless).

Is bringing Sidney’s daughter into the equation the recipe for upped tension? Without a doubt. And it could very well make for a horror movie with real stakes. We’ve grown to know Sid, love Sid, and wish that she could finally put all this Ghostface nonsense behind her. But he (usually they) just keeps on coming. Putting her daughter’s life on the line makes this the most intense battle for survival yet.

But the mother and child versus masked killer narrative also means it’s basically just Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, which in and of itself came into existence because of Scream. And, like Scream, it played with the genre’s conventions a little bit. After all, there was a part where Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother, Janet Leigh, had a conversation with her daughter’s Laurie Strode then drove off in the car she drove in Psycho. So, really, Scream 7 is essentially coming across as an entirely non-meta version of something that was a meta-light copy of a more effective meta movie. It reeks of coming full circle in a way that is decidedly un-Scream.

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There Is Reason to Be Hopeful

All of that is to say that Scream 7 could very well end up being bland. And, if so, it would be an unfortunate way to send off Sidney Prescott, which seems quite likely considering there’s really nowhere to go with the character from here. She’s survived the early days, the franchise when it grew increasingly dangerous (and increasingly meta), and now she’ll either survive or won’t survive the franchise when it goes back to an early days’ vibe. Even if Prescott survives, it’s hard to see there being much call to continue her story in an eighth film. At some point, having the same character survive murder spree after murder spree becomes ridiculous, and this seems like the optimal place to end things.

That brings about the question of whether Scream can really continue without Sidney Prescott. She was able to sit out Scream VI because the “Core Four” were endeared to audiences in the 2022 film. While Courteney Cox and Hayden Panettiere came back, it was really that quartet who carried the big city Ghostface movie. And, because of a controversial behind-the-scenes decision, the “Core Four” are no more, with only two of them coming back for Scream 7 (and judging by their few scenes in the trailer they look as though they might not survive this time).

But if Scream 7 can be an effective and consistently intense slasher, it could work as a franchise swan song. The original film is a masterpiece, so if this could serve as a bow on a package that feels as though it’s one cohesive unit, the lack of a meta-approach could be forgivable. However, if they end up making Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher the killer once more, as has been a fan theory for Scream movies before this, it could run the risk of pulling an I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). In other words, having a deservedly controversial ending.

But there’s reason to be excited for Scream 7, and that’s because of who is coming back and who is joining the fray. On the former end, it’s exciting that Williamson is directing it, considering his scripts for the first two films were a big part of what made them so special. Add Campbell, Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding to the mix and almost everyone who should be here is here, including Marco Beltrami, who is coming back to score the film after sitting out the two Radio Silence films.

As for the newcomers, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, Ethan Embry, and Joel McHale are all particularly exciting cast member additions, and all of them are talented enough to sell the film’s laughs and, if the film goes for it more than the trailer indicates, meta wit. We’ll just have to see how the film plays with audiences when it opens on February 27, 2026.