Scream 7 (review)

Published by Mason Oldridge, 9 March 2026

Following her absence from the New York City killings in the sixth instalment, Sidney Prescott is back, this time with teenage daughter Tatum and police officer husband Mark in tow, as they are targeted by a new Ghostface killer, 30 years on from the original Woodsboro killings.

Sidney’s new life is disrupted when a new Ghostface killer targets her daughter. Upon this news, Gale Weathers arrives in town, along with the Meeks twins. However, Sidney receives threatening and taunting video calls from Stu, leaving her to wonder whether the videos are fake or Stu actually survived the original killings.

Unfortunately, the film is a total cliché. Following the exact same formula with all the usual tropes of the previous entries, it offers no originality whatsoever. Also, what are the chances that Sidney is targeted this many times in separate vendettas and in the exact same manner too?! Furthermore, the reveal is not foreseen but still underwhelming, with the killer’s reasoning being exceptionally poor.

Despite this, the inclusion of AI deepfake makes for a nice touch to establish the film as a modern day instalment and highlight the difference between the time period of today and the time period of the first film. Stu Macher was such an iconic character in the franchise so it is delightful to see Matthew Lillard step back into that role and deliver another compellingly entertaining performance some three decades on. Additionally, the way he acts slightly unhuman as if his character is deepfaked is very impressive.

The film is a complete rehash of what has come before, which might do it for some fans, but ultimately, the franchise needs to try something new if it wants to continue turning out more entries and avoid the hole that the Halloween franchise fell down.

6/10