'Scream 7' Review: Seventh Serving Hits the Spot as Sidney Prescott Returns
- Feb 26
- 3 min read
By Seb Jenkins - February 26, 2026
The most infamous ‘Final Girl’ is back on our screens for a slasher flick that knows when to scream and when to laugh.
Halloween. Friday the 13th. A Nightmare on Elm Street. Chucky. Slasher films have a unique ability to slice, stab, and cut themselves into the zeitgeist of a generation. But if any horror fan was tasked with carving their own grotesque slasher Mount Rushmore, few would dare leave out the iconic Ghostface. Fortunately, everyone’s favourite clumsy, dressing-gown-wearing psycho with a jaw-line to kill for is back on our screens again this year in Scream 7. Neve Campbell returns as Sidney Prescott, alongside a mixture of new and legacy characters, but who will we find beneath the gown this time around?
After missing the events of Scream VI in New York, we arrive in the quiet Indiana town of Pine Grove to find our beloved Final Girl, Sidney Prescott, enjoying a wonderfully uneventful life. With the trials and tribulations of Ghostface behind her, the most stressful thing Sidney has to deal with is keeping her daughter’s hormonal boyfriend from climbing through the windows (a la Loomis). But when poor Sidney picks up the phone to a familiar voice, her world comes crashing down around her. This time, she is fighting for more than her own life. She must protect Tatum at all costs.
Neve Campbell is well used to hoisting the Scream franchise upon her reliable shoulders at this point, and she certainly doesn’t disappoint. Pair that with the category five Galestorm that Courtney Cox brings to our favourite steadfast journalist, Gale Weathers, and you have the makings of a buddy-cop duo I would pay good money to see. Isabel May (Tatum) does a fine job at grounding the series in the modern day, while the twins Mindy and Chad (Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding) provide some fun, light-hearted relief. In all honesty, though, even the most wooden of acting can be smoothed over by a vengeful Ghostface with curves in all the right places.
You would forgive the Scream franchise for becoming a little tired. Seven films and three seasons of television is a long time to sustain a compelling premise. Going into these films, you know three things. Ghostface is going to run around like Bambi on ice and trip over every obstacle imaginable. Ghostface is going to kill (a lot). And Ghostface is going to get unmasked to the shock and horror of the surviving heroes. So, why do people tune in time after time?
Make no mistake, this is not only one of the most beloved horror franchises, but also one of the most successful. Scream 5 made $139 million at the box office off a $24 million budget. Scream 6 turned $35 million into $169m. And Scream 7 looks set to do the same. That’s because this slasher isn’t afraid to mock itself. In fact, the self-aware, meta, parodic comedy has become as firm a feature in Scream films as the horror itself. The seventh instalment might just have the best blend of gasps and laughs yet. One-liners, cool deaths, and Courtney Cox saying ‘fuck’ 200 times – it’s all inside this happy meal.
Sure, it would be cool to see the Scream franchise take a brave swing at something new. A dark and gritty crime thriller where a psychotic serial killer prowls the streets of New York. Could I tempt anyone with a 1940s, black-and-white noir thriller? Perhaps a Ghostface romcom would be a step too far. Whatever the case, don’t expect the Scream formula to change any time soon. Just remember… always shoot Ghostface in the head.
'Scream 7' in out now in cinemas.
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