Upon release in 1996, Wes Craven’s Scream singlehandedly revitalized the slasher horror genre in a manner that cannot be understated to this very day.
The once heralded horror subgenre, which was shaped by timeless classics such as Pscyho (1960), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and Canada’s own Black Christmas (also 1974), had become stale by the 1990s. Then along came Scream, which was created and written by Kevin Williamson, turned many of the tired slasher tropes on their heads, using humour, metacommentary, an iconic and (for the time) shocking opening, and the unexpected reveal of two villainous killers, which further separated Scream from its contemporaries.
Scream was an enormous critical and commercial success, becoming a pivotal pop cultural event in the 1990s that revitalised the then-waning career of Wes Craven, all the while launching the careers of much of the young cast, including, of course, the film’s lead, Ontario actress, Neve Campbell.
Campbell continued playing the iconic heroine Sidney Prescott in the sequels, with Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000) earning further praise from critics, while audiences couldn’t get enough of the influential slasher franchise. However, when Scream 4 hit theatres after an 11-year hiatus for the franchise, it was clear that it lacked the bite of the first three entries, unironically delivering some of the very genre tropes the previous films had parodied so effectively. Then, the franchise’s lone director at the time, the inimitable Wes Craven, passed away in 2015, placing Scream in a state of limbo that lasted until the soft reboot that is 2022’s Scream.
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, this new era of Scream was the shot in the arm the franchise needed, as it introduced a new young cast of characters led by Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding, who were supported by legacy characters such as Campbell’s Sidney, David Arquette’s Dewey Riley, and Courtney Cox’s Gale Weathers. Even Skeet Ulrich made an appearance as the long-deceased Billy Loomis. It was a new Scream for a new era, as it wholly embraced the franchise’s meta humour, featuring characters who were overtly aware of the very cliches of the genre in which they exist, finding success with critics and audiences alike, the same of which can be said for its 2023 follow-up, Scream VI.
However, Scream VI is also the first entry in the franchise to not include Neve Campbell, leaving fans of the franchise wondering if the Canadian actress would ever return to the most enduring role of her career. Thankfully, our fears have since been put to rest given that, in the absence of Barrera and Ortega, Campbell will once again return in the leading role for the upcoming Scream 7, which is co-written and directed by series creator Kevin Williamson, and the first trailer for the upcoming slasher flick was released just last week.
As is often the case, the trailer opens with what is very likely the opening sequence of the film, which shows a bunch of youths entering the house where the climax of the original Scream took place, which is now a B&B for crime enthusiasts. Of course, things go downhill fast as the latest Ghostface shows up to slaughter these young victims, all the while hinting at the usual creativity for kills the series has become known for.
We then find the killer calling Sidney to taunt her, with the most intriguing line being, “Nice little town you found….Reminds me of where we grew up,” indicating that this killer may already be known to Sidney, though, of course, the franchise prides itself on its red herrings to keep the audience guessing as to who the killer (or killers) might be. However, Sidney has clearly learned from her brushes with serial killers over the years, as we see she has a panic room in her home, which she uses in one scene to protect her and her daughter Tatum (Isabel May) from Ghostface. And just prior to that, we see Joel McHale in a police uniform, who plays Sidney’s husband Mark, though in a later scene we see him scuffling with the serial killer, potentially even meeting his own end as he is caught in a plastic sheet and seemingly stabbed, though this may not be as it seems since it would be quite the plot point to give away so willingly, especially for this franchise.
As the trailer continues, we get an even better picture of the danger Tatum in particular will be facing, as we are shown one sequence in which Ghostface is trying to stab her through the wall of her home as she shimmies through the wall’s interior. In another scene, then, she shoots the serial killer, with Sidney instructing her to shoot the serial killer in the head, a nod to the many times in the franchise’s past where the killer was seemingly dead, only to rise up again, just as he does in this trailer before Tatum has the chance to finish him off.
Whoever this latest Ghostface is, they seem to have a personal vendetta against Sidney, as they calmly tell her that he will not harm her daughter unless she is there to witness it, targeting Tatum’s friends in the meantime, which includes a brief look as an intense scene featuring Celeste O’Connor, best known for her recent appearances in the rebooted Ghostbusters franchise. We are also offered a glimpse at the returning twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding), and their presence likely hints that the franchise will continue to embrace its increased metacommentary from recent years, though to what extent remains to be seen.
This trailer certainly promises more of what fans love most from this legendary franchise, there will almost certainly be at least one more full-length trailer to drop prior to Scream 7’s February 27th, 2026, release date, and you can be sure I will be here to pick it apart!