The Scream 7 Trailer Looks Like The Horror Series Has Finally Run Out Of Gas

There's a new "Scream" movie featuring the grand return of scream queen Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott and a story all about handing her trauma down to a new generation of kids and, yes, that's the exact same premise as "Scream 4" in 2011. And the 2022 "requel." At least "Scream VI" had the good sense to let Sidney rest and focus on the younger heroes that audiences clearly loved, even if that was mostly a result of a pay dispute with the star. Now, for a film series that's traditionally kept things fresh by taking big swings and innovating clever new layers of metatextual storytelling, it's downright jarring to realize that the heavily-belabored "Scream 7" mostly just feels like a classic horror staple finally running out of gas.

I realize that's not the most optimistic note to strike for a new trailer post, but we have to work with what we get, folks. Today, Paramount Pictures released our first official look at "Scream 7" and the results feel decidedly ... underwhelming. Gone are Melissa Barrera's Sam Carpenter and Jenna Ortega's Tara Carpenter, casualties of the studio's reactionary (and some might say outright disastrous) handling of a politically charged situation that also led to the exits of directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. In their place, we have what seems like a bizarre example of franchise filmmaking stuck treading water. After spending the last movie in hiding off-screen to protect her family from any copycat killers, Sidney reemerges when a new (or possibly old?) Ghostface threatens her and her daughter (Isabel May). Cue the voice modulators, some passingly gnarly kills, and a prevailing sense of "Been there, done that."

Check out the full trailer above.

Anyone else getting a feeling of déjà vu? It's safe to say we're all big fans of the movies masterminded by the late, great Wes Craven — and clearly moviegoing audiences are too, based on the numbers that both "Scream" (yes, the maddeningly-titled 2022 film, not the 1996 original) and "Scream VI" (the only film in the series to resort to numerals) pulled in during their theatrical runs. That all made the prospects of a seventh "Scream" movie all but inevitable, yet we can't help but remain somewhat less than impressed by what "Scream 7" appears to be selling. "Uninspired" appears to be the name of the game here.

As much as the footage focuses on the old guard of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, along with returning young actors Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, something just seems missing. "Scream 7" comes from director and longtime "Scream" writer Kevin Williamson, with a script co-written by Williamson and Guy Busick, both of whom had to scramble to retool this sequel from the ground up when Paramount abruptly dropped new franchise lead Melissa Barrera for what they said were "antisemitic" comments she made while she was speaking out in support of Palestine. By awkwardly sidestepping the two fan-favorite characters who'd been positioned to take the torch from our original heroes, we're back at square one. This might as well be the fifth "Scream" all over again, hopelessly stuck between a reboot and a legacy sequel. Even Ghostface's big money quote to "Burn it all down" sounds less like a threat and more like an acknowledgment of diminishing returns. We'll see.

"Scream 7" will hit theaters February 27, 2026.