Scream 7’s Killer Reveal Rewrites A Major Rule of The $1 Billion Franchise

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Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Scream 7, currently in cinemas.

Okay, so Scream 7‘s killer reveal? Totally unexpected, I’ll give it that. But honestly, it felt like they bent the rules of the whole Scream universe just to get a shock reaction. It’s pretty clear director Kevin Williamson is trying to completely revamp the story and start fresh with this one, and it feels like he’s willing to throw out a lot of what we knew before to do it.

While Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott had a significant part in the 2022 Scream movie, the film primarily followed new characters Sam and Tara, played by Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. Scream VI continued this trend, becoming the first sequel without Sidney after negotiations with Campbell fell through.

Following the firing of Melissa Barrera for her social media posts and Jenna Ortega’s departure, Scream 7 brought back the character Sidney Prescott and aimed to recapture the feel of the earlier Scream movies—specifically those released before the 2022 film. While not filmed in Woodsboro, Scream 7 centers on Sidney and her family, mirroring the storytelling approach of the first four Scream films.

Scream 7’s Main Killer Doesn’t Have A Link To Sidney

The latest Scream movie takes a surprising turn by revealing an unexpected killer duo. The ending shows that Anna Camp’s character, Jessica – who appears to be a friendly neighbor – and Ethan Embry’s character, Marco, a worker at an asylum, are the ones behind the killings, breaking with what fans expect from the series.

Jessica was driven to kill her husband after reading Sidney’s memoir, Out of Darkness, which gave her the courage to act. But when Sidney stepped away from public life, Jessica felt deeply betrayed. This led her to develop a complex plan to replace Sidney with her daughter, Tatum Evans, as a new role model.

Jessica saw Sidney as the perfect example of a ‘Final Girl’ – a strong female survivor in horror movies – and admired her. Driven by this, Jessica planned a twisted act: to kill Sidney in front of her daughter, Tatum, hoping Tatum would become a similarly powerful survivor and inspire a new generation. While complicated, this kind of elaborate scheme fits the pattern of the series.

A significant new development in this Scream movie is that, for the first time, the killer Ghostface doesn’t have a personal connection to the main star. Previous killers – like Billy and Stu in the first film, Ms. Loomis in Scream 2, and Jill in Scream 4 – were all related to Sidney or had a direct personal history with her. This time, the killer Jessica has no such connection; nothing in Sidney’s background, aside from writing a popular book, links them together.

The killers in Scream (2022) and Scream 6 targeted Sam and Tara instead of Sidney, as they were the central heroes of those films. However, the killers remained connected to the core group of characters. In Scream (2022), Amber was a friend of Tara, and Richie was Sam’s boyfriend. In Scream 6, the killers were all related to Richie and were motivated by his death.

Scream 7’s Second Killer Isn’t A Major Character

© Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

While Mickey from Scream 2 and Charlie from Scream 4 didn’t have a strong personal connection to Sidney, they were both being used by the actual killer. Similar to Stu in the first Scream, who was a friend and dated Sidney’s best friend but wasn’t particularly close to her, Mickey and Charlie were simply tools for someone with a deeper connection to Sidney.

Okay, let’s talk about Marco, Jessica’s partner in crime. He’s a really interesting departure for the Scream series, and unfortunately falls into a pretty classic slasher movie trope. Now, the actor, Embry, is someone you’ve definitely seen before – a solid character actor with a long resume. But his character, Marco? He feels…random. We barely get a glimpse of him earlier in the film, making his reveal as a killer a bit of a surprise, but not in a satisfying way.

The reveal that he’s working with Jessica feels unearned, because the show gave us no reason to suspect her – she seemed like a minor character. This also highlights a problem with Jessica’s motive for being the killer in Scream 7: she befriended Sidney simply because she was frustrated Sidney wasn’t accessible to the public, which doesn’t feel like a strong enough reason.

Scream 7’s Killer Reveal Breaks A 30-Year Franchise Tradition

Jessica began targeting and killing Sidney’s friends, seemingly to set up Tatum as the final survivor. However, strangely, she didn’t focus on killing Sidney directly. Knowing Tatum’s mother had already survived multiple attacks and defeated several killers, Jessica was likely setting herself up for failure, as Tatum’s mother was a seasoned survivor.

Jessica’s only advantage was the element of surprise, but she quickly lost it by targeting Tatum’s less experienced friends, like Hannah, instead of going after Sidney directly. This gave Sidney the chance to prepare and call for help, bringing in Chad, Mindy, and Gale to defend themselves.

Looking at the plan closely, it doesn’t really add up, likely because the killer’s reasons are so different from what we usually see in the Scream movies. Since Jessica doesn’t have a strong personal connection to Sidney, her motives feel weak and her actions are hard to understand, making her overall story in the Scream series confusing.

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2026-03-03 19:39