Scream 7 Ending Explained (It Ties Into Two Sequels in a Big Way)

When it comes to a new Scream movie, audiences know there are a few things they’re going to get. References to other horror movies or even “rules” about what happens when a masked killer begins stalking a town, an endless amount of red herrings that point to a slew of potential suspects, and an eventual unmasking that not only reveals the big brain behind the plan, but also how many accomplices they really had. To that end, Scream 7 largely plays out how you expect, with a few twists and turns up its sleeve and a Ghostface with an all-new motive.

Spoilers for Scream 7 will follow. Ahead of the release of Scream 7, fans already knew that both Matthew Lillard would be returning as Stu Macher, one of the Ghostface killers from the original Scream, and that Scott Foley would be back as Roman Bridger, the master planner (and sole killer) from Scream 3. In the end, neither of them were really the killer, with a trio of surprise Ghostface killers working together for a plan that actually has surprising ties into the larger Scream mythology, specifically two sequels you might not expect to be as important as they are.

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Though a host of potential suspects are teased and hinted at throughout Scream 7, it’s not the boyfriend of Sidney’s daughter or even the creepy kid that lives next door. One of the biggest twists of Scream 7 actually happens early, when one of the Ghostface killers is killed after only 30 minutes, after he’s run over by a car (driven by, who else, Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers). When unmasked, the first Ghostface is revealed to be a…random guy named Karl, who we later learn is an escaped inmate from a nearby mental health institute. He has no connections to Sidney or Woodsboro, though, making his attack very random, and naturally, Sidney’s suspicions remain raised because there’s almost never just one Ghostface.

In the end, Sidney was right once again, and there are still two more Ghostface killers running around. By the end of the film, it’s confirmed that the second killer in Scream 7 is Ethan Embry’s Marco, the employee who speaks to Sidney at the mental institution and reveals Karl’s backstory, while also teasing the potential that a living Stu Macher was also a patient. Though Marco may have been the architect of using deepfakes of dead Ghostface killers to torment Sidney, the mastermind of the entire plan is revealed to be her sweet neighbor, Anna Camp’s Jessica Bowden.

With her big villain monologue, Jessica reveals that she was inspired by Sidney’s book, Out of Darkness. This may seem like a random detail, but it’s one that Scream fans should know well, as Sidney’s best-selling self-help was a key plot point in 2011’s Scream 4, as she was in the final leg of a book tour when she returned to Woodsboro and the events of the film kicked off. Jessica reveals how the book not only helped her overcome the evil in her own life (she killed her abusive husband and got away with it, thanking the book for the inspiration to kill bad guys) but also gave her an obsession with Sidney.

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From there, Jessica notes that she was shocked that Sidney didn’t go to New York a few years ago to stop the Ghostface killings that occurred there, referring to the events of Scream 6, revealing that she believed she needed to give Sidney another chance in the spotlight to kill the bad guys. So distraught that Sidney wouldn’t live up to her destiny, Jessica checked herself into a mental institution to get help, where she met not only Marco but their killer patsy, Karl. From there, the plan was watched.

In the end, it was the events of not only Scream 4 but Scream 6 that inspired the new Ghostface to seek out that iconic mask and pick up a couple of knives and a voice changer. Jessica has one last twist up her sleeve, hoping that the murders she’s carrying out will allow Tatum, Sidney’s daughter, to embrace her place in the world and become the final girl she was meant to be. It’s a final twist that comes from the film being about Sidney trying to protect her family, but falters quickly as the action around this little tidbit of motivation is overshadowed by the finale of the film. After escaping captivity at knifepoint, Tatum and Sidney are able to kill the final two Ghostfaces of the movie, using a single bullet to eliminate Marco while emptying their clips to take Jessica off the board.

The finale of Scream 7 being so heavily influenced by events of both Scream 4 and Scream 6, specifically, is a little surprising, since the film itself had to pivot so hard from the storylines of Scream (2022) and Scream 6 in the wake of Melissa Barrera’s firing. That said, it is a nice bit of connectivity, even if it’s a little flimsy in the longrun. This deep into a slasher series, though, the foundation usually shows cracks.