Scream 7 Ending, Deaths, Cameos Explained. Will There Be Scream 8?

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “Scream 7,” now playing in theaters.

Ghostface is back in theaters, and so is Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott after sitting out “Scream 6.” In “Scream 7,” Sidney is now a mother to a teenage daughter named Tatum (Isabel May), who gets caught up in her own twisted cat-and-mouse game with the masked killer. Like past “Scream” movies, there’s buckets of blood, shocking kills and one big unmasking at the end of the movie — plus several cameos from past films.

The Ghostface killers rack up quite the bodycount in “Scream 7.” Right off the bat, horror movie lovers Scott (Jimmy Tatro) and Madison (Michelle Randolph) are murdered after renting the home that belonged to Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher in the original “Scream.” Over in Pine Grove, Sidney receives an eerie message from Stu, apparently back from the grave. He claims that he survived his death in “Scream” and is back as Ghostface to get his revenge on Sidney and her family. One of the Ghostfaces then kills Tatum’s classmate Hannah (Mckenna Grace) at her high school’s play rehearsal then goes to Sidney’s house.

After a fight with Sidney, her husband Mark (Joel McHale) and Tatum, that Ghostface is run over by reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who’s joined by her new camera crew Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) from the past two “Scream” movies. Ghostface is revealed to be an unknown murderer who escaped from an insane asylum and had been stalking Sidney. After visiting the mental institution and talking to a supervisor, Sidney finds out that Stu had apparently survived his death.

The real Ghostface starts picking off his victims one by one: Tatum’s friend (Celeste O’Connor), Sidney’s neighbor’s son Lucas (Asa Germann) and Tatum’s boyfriend Ben (Sam Rechner) all die. Mark is wounded, but later survives. It’s also revealed that “Stu” is an AI deepfake created by Marco (Ethan Embry), the supervisor at the mental institute. He makes the AI video transform into late sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), who was the Ghostface from “Scream 2,” and Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), the killer from “Scream 3.”

but, the real brains behind the Ghostface killing spree turns out to be Sidney’s neighbor Jessica (Anna Camp). After unmasking, she says she was inspired by Sidney’s autobiography and thought she needed to murder her own husband to reach the same levels of success. When that didn’t work, she discovered where Sidney lived, met Marco and decided to kidnap Tatum to put her through the same Ghostface killings that Sidney survived. But in the end, Sidney and Tatum are able to kill Marco and Jessica (who’s shot repeatedly in the head) and escape with their lives.

With Sidney, Tatum and Mark alive, could they star in an eighth movie and face off against another Ghostface? Mindy and Chad also survive the finale, and in the mid-credits scene they shoot their own news broadcast about the killings; perhaps they could follow in Gale’s reporting footsteps. “Scream” creator Kevin Williams has ideas for an eighth movie, but so far nothing has been officially announced.

See the past “Scream” cameos that appear in the seventh movie below.

Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard)

Stu was one of the original Ghostfaces in the original “Scream,” alongside Sidney’s boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and fans have long theorized that he may have survived his death in the 1996 film after a TV fell on his head. Matthew Lillard returns to play the deranged horror movie fan, but it’s eventually revealed he’s an AI deepfake used to torment Sydney.
Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf)

Laurie Metcalf plays local reporter Debbie Salt, who’s later revealed to be original Ghostface Billy Loomis’ vengeful mother Nancy in “Scream 2.” She has it out for Sidney after the heroine killed Billy in the original “Scream.” Nancy later turns on her fellow Ghostface Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), but is killed in her final showdown with Sidney. She appears as an AI recreation toward the end of “Scream 7.”
Roman Bridger (Scott Foley)

Scott Foley played Roman Bridger, director of the in-universe film “Stab 3” who’s revealed to be Sidney’s half-brother in “Scream 3.” Roman was the only solo Ghostface in the franchise, and his actions secretly dated back to the original “Scream.” He was the product of his and Sidney’s mother Maureen being sexually assaulted, but Maureen later rejected him as a son. Spurned by his mother, Roman filmed her affair with Billy Loomis’ father years ago and showed Billy the footage, causing him to go on the original murder spree in “Scream.” Sidney kills Roman in the “Scream 3” finale, and he appears as AI at the end of “Scream 7.”
Dewey Riley (David Arquette)

David Arquette first starred as Dewey Riley, deputy sheriff of Woodsboro, in the original “Scream” and appeared in every film until his death in “Scream 5.” He had survived stabbings by multiple Ghostfaces throughout the years, but he was finally killed for good in the 2022 reboot (or “requel”). He appears as an AI recreation at the end of “Scream 7.”