With Scream 7 looming over fans, including myself, I took the opportunity to rewatch the entire franchise to prep for the upcoming phenomenon. The final movie premieres in theatres on February 27, 2026, and I could not be more excited. Neve Campbell rejoins as Sidney Prescott after bailing out of the last one due to money disagreements. 

If you are a fellow Scream fanatic but do not have hours to spend rewatching the movies you have seen at least a dozen other times, keep reading. The movies have evolved greatly since the original, yet they have remained consistent. They pay attention to the little details and carry them through to the next one. It is fascinating watching them back-to-back and following the characters’ relationships, and, of course, there is always one who is doing it for fame.

The Original

In the original Scream, the best one of all, Sidney Prescott struggles with the reality that her mother was murdered. With the upcoming anniversary of her death, two Ghostface killers begin their reign of terror on the small community known as Woodsboro. One by one, high school students get butchered until there is a massacre at a house party. The killers are revealed as none other than Billy Loomis and Stu Macher. 

One thing to note is that the killers always have a motive, whether it is just being crazy or holding onto a grudge against Sidney. Stu had no motive; he was going along with his best buddy, Billy. But Billy had a motive. On the one-year anniversary of the murder of Maureen Prescott, Billy comes out of the Ghostface closet to reveal his grievance. Sidney’s mother was having an affair with Billy’s father, which led to his mother abandoning him. He was so angry that he orchestrated a murder spree against his classmates. 

The Sequel

In the sequel, the main characters return: Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Courtney Cox as Gale Weathers, David Arquette as Dewey Riley, and Jamie Kennedy as Randy Meeks. The high school kids are now in college, and it starts happening again. They begin to relive the nightmare of seeing their peers murdered, all for fame and revenge.

By now, they have a pattern and a set of rules, courtesy of Randy, the movie buff. The most important rule is never trust the love interest. Sidney has a serious boyfriend in this one, and all signs point to him. It is also important to remember that the killers are probably already in your lives, and to trust no one.

At the end of the film, Sidney’s boyfriend is hanging from a theatre prop as the first killer is revealed: Mickey Altieri, who was a part of the friend group. He points to the boyfriend as his partner, and Sidney stops trying to release him from his constraints.

However, Mickey shoots him several times in the chest, eliminating him as a suspect. The next killer is revealed, the one with the motive – Mrs. Loomis, Billy’s mother. She wanted revenge on Sidney for murdering her boy, although it was her fault for his death. If she had never left, her son might not have gone on to be a sociopathic serial killer.

The Triology

Scream 3 is a real doozy and stands out from the rest of the franchise, as it is painted as the weakest of them. It seemed to be the concluding chapter, so it was surprising when it continued. It takes place on the movie set of a new ‘Stab’ movie, which is the internal Scream.

This one ties the original and the sequel together, not leaving anything to question. This one is most unique for its killer, yes, singular because there is only one. The killer murdered the cast members based on how they died in the movie, making a real-life ‘Stab’. 

It was surprising in the end to learn the killer’s motive. They were not out for fame or fortune. They wanted sweet revenge on Sidney. The ‘Stab’ director, Roman, was revealed as the sole killer. His backstory and his connection to the Prescotts were interesting.

We learned he was Sidney’s long-lost half-brother, a bastard child to Maureen Prescott, if you will. He went searching for his mother, and when he found her, she rejected him. That filled him with so much rage that he was the one who murdered her before the first Scream. He hired Billy and Stu to stage killings and take out Sidney, but he did not realize what they were fully capable of.

New Decade of Screams

Scream 4 was ahead of its time, a step into the modern era of horror. The same old cast reappears, but with new young faces to reinvent the original. A new friend group of high schoolers means more suspects; it could be anyone, except for the originals. Sidney’s niece, Jill, played by Emma Roberts, is the star with her two girlfriends, an ex-boyfriend, and two nerdy friends. 

The killings start happening once Sidney reenters Woodsboro as the last stop on her book tour. One by one, they are picked off. The rules are different this time around: “new decade, new rules.” Since this Scream was released in a more modern era, technology is the craze. They hypothesize that the killers are creating real-life slasher movies, filming their murders to get famous. This theory was nearly spot on until one killer revealed a personal motive. 

When the killers were revealed, it was both shocking and not shocking at the same time. One of the nerdy friends, Charlie, wanted fame. And he wanted to be the nerd that finally got the girl. Sidney’s niece was the one who wanted revenge, but also fame.

Jill went on to describe how growing up in the Prescott family was intolerable. It was always “Sidney this, or Sidney that, Sidney, Sidney, Sidney.” Jill wanted the fame that came with being the victim, so she wanted to be the sole survivor. However, she got what was coming to her in the end.

Modern Transition

Screams 5 and 6 were truly a leap into modern times. The budget is bigger, the killings are more gruesome, and it is always connected to something from the past. They did a bit too much with connecting the main character to the originals by making Sam Carpenter, played by Melissa Barrera, the daughter of Billy Loomis. To hear her use that she is the daughter of a serial killer as a reason not to mess with her is truly cringe. 

Regardless, it happened, and the fans move on. At least we have the originals to keep us content. The killers in this reboot wanted to remake the sequel. They would have been easy to guess if the characters followed the rules: never trust the love interest.

And the first victim always has a friend group that the serial killer is a part of. In this case, Amber Freeman, played by Mikey Madison, was Tara Carpenter’s best friend, and Tara was the first to be attacked. She was also Sam’s sister, whose boyfriend is Richie Kirsch, played by Jack Quaid. 

The killers in this one were spelled out for them, but they still did not get it until the very end. Scream 6 was also terrific in the sense that it did everything a horror movie is supposed to do, but it was not good for the franchise.

Their biggest problem is that Sidney Prescott was not in it. Sam and Tara Carpenter were the stars, and it was a revenge plot. The one unique thing about it is that there were three killers this time instead of two. And one had faked their death, so it would have been impossible to guess who all of the killers were.

Richie’s death from Scream 5 left a mark on the public and especially his family. His father, Detective Wayne Bailey, and brother and sister, Ethan Landry and Quinn Bailey, were the masterminds behind the serial killings. They wanted to take revenge on Sam for murdering their brother, although she was only protecting herself and her sister. Serial killers tend not to give a crap why you killed their family. They just know you are the reason they are dead.

One Final Scream

Scream 7 will be the best of the remakes, I am calling it now. It will be the best one since the originals. The budget is massive, and the modernization of turning the original killer house into an Airbnb is wicked. Very few of the originals are returning, since most have died.

However, among those returning are Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and even Stu Macher. Many fans are hypothesizing that Stu is back for revenge, and that he never died in the original Scream, but then that begs the question: where has he been and what has he been doing for the last 30 years?