It was a Halloween Eve drop that felt less like a marketing stunt and more like a threat—exactly the kind Scream fans have come to crave. Paramount unveiled the first full trailer for Scream VII late Monday night, timed to the hour when trick-or-treaters head home and the quiet dread of the holiday settles in: a perfect bookend to the franchise’s 1996 debut, which turned suburban autumnal unease into horror legend. The film slashes into theaters February 27, 2026—no spooky-season fanfare, just a frigid late-February date that hints at the cold, unforgiving stakes ahead.
For the first time since Scream 4, Neve Campbell steps fully back into the center of Sidney Prescott’s story. After ceding the spotlight to a new generation of Woodsboro survivors in the last two installments, Sidney isn’t just fighting a masked killer here—she’s fighting for the life she built to outrun them. She’s settled in a small, unnamed town where the biggest drama is the high school bake sale; she’s got a home with a porch swing and a daughter she named Tatum (Isabel May)—a quiet, loving tribute to the best friend she lost before the first Ghostface ever unmasked himself.
That tribute becomes a target when a new killer emerges: one who doesn’t waste time with taunting phone calls or meta gags. The trailer’s opening minutes cut between idyllic shots of Sidney and Tatum at a farmers’ market and quick, brutal flashes of violence: a broken window, a Ghostface mask glinting in a car’s headlights, Tatum locking her bedroom door in a silent panic. The official synopsis drives the point home: “When a new Ghostface sets his sights on the quiet life Sidney Prescott has fought decades to build, her darkest fear is realized: her daughter is next. To protect Tatum, Sidney must confront the ghosts she thought she buried—even if it means digging up the most painful parts of her past.”
The trailer doesn’t just lean on Sidney’s legacy, though—it dredges up the franchise’s most iconic ghosts, too. Returning cast members include Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, whose sharp edge has softened but not dulled after years of covering Ghostface’s reign; Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown, reprising their roles as Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin, the niece and nephew of Randy Meeks who’ve become the new generation’s moral compass. David Arquette also returns in a role the trailer teases as more than a nostalgic cameo—his brief, somber scenes hint that even the losses Sidney thought were final aren’t just memories anymore.
But the trailer’s final beat is the one that sent social media into a frenzy: a low, familiar laugh, followed by a distorted voice that growls, “You thought you could name her after her? Cute.” Longtime fans won’t need a second listen to place it: Matthew Lillard, whose Stu Macher was left for dead in the original Scream’s fiery finale, is back—and not just in a throwaway flashback. Lillard, who’s been teasing his return in cryptic Instagram posts for months, told reporters last week: “I’m thrilled to be back. This isn’t just fan service—this is a story that needed to be told. The movie’s fantastic, and I’m really excited for people to see it. It’s not gonna ruin the franchise—that’s the good news.”
Helming Scream VII is Kevin Williamson, the original franchise scribe who defined Scream’s signature balance of meta humor and gut-punch terror. Teaming with Scream (2022) and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, Williamson has promised this entry will “close the loop” on Sidney’s story—though anyone who’s seen a Scream movie knows better than to trust a promise of closure. Set two years after the New York City bloodbath of Scream VI, the film leans into the quiet paranoia of small-town life: the idea that even the place you run to for safety can hide a killer in plain sight.
Joining the legacy cast is a roster of faces both fresh and familiar to genre fans: Mckenna Grace, whose sharp, wary energy fits perfectly into the Scream mold; Joel McHale, bringing his signature dry wit to a small-town sheriff’s role that the trailer hints might be more complicated than it seems; and Anna Camp, Ethan Embry, and Tim Simons, whose brief, tense scenes suggest they’re not just cannon fodder.
If the trailer is any indication, this Ghostface is different. He’s not just trying to kill—he’s trying to erase. A voiceover in the trailer promises to “burn all of it down: the house, the kid, the lie that you ever got away.” For Sidney Prescott, who’s survived more than any one person should, that’s the ultimate threat: not just her own death, but the end of the life she built to prove the killers wrong.
The trailer closes with Sidney staring down a Ghostface who’s standing on her porch, Tatum’s backpack at his feet. She grabs a kitchen knife from behind her back, her voice steady: “You picked the wrong mom to mess with.”
It’s a line that feels both new and timeless—exactly what Scream has always done best.
