This article was updated on September 28, 2026
A bit of transparency before we dive into this list together: I’m of the belief that there is not a single bad entry of the Scream franchise. Yes, some are less accomplished than others, but even the weakest movie in the now 30-year series is objectively better made than the vast majority of horror sequels. For that matter, any of the Scream movies can go toe-to-toe with most franchises of any genre in terms of sheer craft and enjoyability. It’s part of what makes Scream such a precious part of horror history, and why the series is still worth arguing about after seven films. Scream is special, and this list is simply one more way of celebrating something we love. So, shall we?
Scream 7
Kevin Williamson and Neve Campbell coming home should have been a victory lap. In some ways it is. Gale still walks into a room like she owns the franchise, Sidney’s maternal fear gives the knife a new target, and the kills swing harder toward Final Destination splatter than the old Woodsboro cat-and-mouse. What it does not have is the structural snap that makes a Scream movie feel inevitable in hindsight. Our Scream 7 review called it heavy on nostalgia and light on substance, and that remains the honest read. The returns matter. The heart is there. The movie around them never quite becomes more than a reunion with a body count.
Scream 3
The final entry in any trilogy carries the unfair burden of telling its own story while also delivering an emotional capstone to the whole project. Originally conceived as the grand finale for the Scream story, Scream 3 suffers at times from self-conscious decisions to raise the stakes one last time. The strain is inherent in the setting: transporting the action to Hollywood blows out the scope from the previous two films. The Hollywood backdrop makes everything seem that much bigger, which alternates between supplying the film with campy fun and straying too far from what makes Scream so sublime. Scream movies have always been wrapped up in commenting on horror filmmaking, but the literalizing of that into the plot, with cast members playing Sidney, Gale, and Dewey dampens some of the bite. What this movie does unequivocally have though is a remarkable Neve Campbell performance within a stirring Sidney arc. Seeing Sid as a crisis hotline phone operator is a poignant note about the character’s commitment to helping others heal, and it makes her triumphant return to face down the newest Ghostface that much more satisfying.
Scream 2
While the opening kill scene does not quite reach the original’s heights of terror, placing it in a Stab screening sets up one of the franchise’s most inexhaustible points of meta-commentary while also providing the necessary grisly delight. Furthermore, if the first Scream nods most directly to Halloween (1978), Scream 2 is Craven’s hat tip to Black Christmas (1974). Sidney has entered college, still at a point in the franchise where she’s hoping to leave Ghostface in the past and move along into a semi-normal life. That college background rapidly transforms from one of potential happiness to Black Christmas-esque killing fields. One of the film’s most chilling sequences features the new Ghostface terrorizing a sorority girl, melding what Craven accomplished in the first film with a literalized nod to Bob Clark’s inspirational work. Scream 2 also delivers on the Cotton Weary-sized promise of the first film, bringing the newly-exonerated man into the fold as a proper supporting character. As such, Scream 2 successfully builds out a massive cast of potential killers and storms through a tension-filled two hours of lovely red herrings and macabre set pieces.
Scream 4
The final Scream entry with Craven in the director’s chair, Scream 4 returns to Woodsboro for the first time since the original, and to exceptional effect. The film’s opening sequence, one that dominoes through a series of Russian Doll kill sequences from the newest Stab film before settling on the actual new Ghostface murder, is majestic. It recaptures the self-referential heights of the original with the new chance to turn the well-meaning snideness inward. It takes longer here for Sidney, Gale, and Dewey to reach center frame, but by introducing Kirby Reed, the best character since the original crew, the film does not miss a beat. In that regard, possibly more so than any other entry, Scream 4 bursts with exceptional supporting roles. Panettiere as the aforementioned Kirby is a standout, but Alison Brie as Sidney’s greedy publicist Rebecca, and an underrated Rory Culkin as eventual killer Charlie crackle as well. Thematically, Scream 4 also stages a withering and ahead of its time commentary on internet fame and social media. All the while achieving the most resonant aura of dread in any sequel to that point. Gone is the campiness of Scream 3, replaced by bloodthirsty cynicism. These kills stick with you. For more on why this one aged into a favorite, see our later revisit, Looking Back At Scream 4.
Scream ’22
What looked like recency bias in 2022 has held. The first Scream sequel without Craven returns most explicitly to the original text for a sort-of-requel that bursts with love for the franchise while maintaining enough distance not to succumb to egregious fan service. Taking all the right lessons from Scream 4, Scream ’22 treats the legacy cast like special guest stars in the new characters’ stories in a way that manages to honor Sidney, Gale, and Dewey while avoiding creative choices that would cause them to overshadow the new cast. Leading the way in this new group as a concerned-older-sister-with-a-secret-Sam-Carpenter is Melissa Barrera, who follows up on an outstanding turn in In the Heights (2021) with a convincing bid to join the ranks of iconic scream queens. Alongside her, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, and a seemingly everywhere Jasmin Savoy Brown bring indelible heart to a tale about traumatic history and self-identity. Plus, new directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett prove almost equal to Craven’s innate sense of horror mise-en-scène. Their kill sequences are elegantly vicious from the top, and my do they understand how to execute a stunning plot twist. Four years later, this is still the movie that proved the franchise could survive its own requel.
Scream VI
Radio Silence took the Core Four out of Woodsboro and gave Ghostface a city that could swallow them. Scream VI is meaner, bigger, and more confident than the 2022 requel, which is why it sits here. The subway sequence, the shrine, the apartment siege, and that opening ladder of kills all feel like a franchise that stopped asking permission. Barrera, Ortega, Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding carry the movie without Sidney in the room, Gale still gets her moments, and Kirby’s return is the kind of deep-cut payoff Scream does better than anyone. As we said in our Scream VI review, it is the best since the original: darker tone, peak brutality, and deception running at full franchise strength. The only reason it does not take the crown is that the crown was welded on in 1996.
Scream
Was there really any doubt? Stating the obvious, none of the other entries on this list would exist if Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven had not crafted an all-time, first-ballot-hall-of-famer, horror movie in 1996. There are endless reasons both critical and gut-level emotional to love Scream, and they roll out from the opening seconds. Watching the Drew Barrymore opener today, knowing full well the fate that awaits her, it still crackles with gleeful malevolence. Sidney and Billy’s first scene gives you all you need to know about who both of them really are, even if the next hour and a half makes you wonder if this guy is actually as much of a creep as he seems. But it is Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette that instantly solidify as icons, their respective arcs and performances mercilessly toying with audience expectations of the archetypes they fit into. Combine that with a Craven at the absolute peak of his directorial craft and Scream unspools as much as a cohesive film as a series of endlessly rewatchable scenes. Sidney’s first phone call and fight with Ghostface. Sidney punching Gale in the alley. Randy monologuing on the rules of horror movies we must all respect. The iciness of Billy lilting “we all go a little mad sometimes.” Thirty years later, Scream remains a sterling example of what the genre can produce when touched by true brilliance.
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
