Is It Simply Me, Or Is Scream 7 Copying The Halloween Motion pictures?

The Scream franchise has historically struck a really particular tone. Wes Craven’s 1996 authentic is the uncommon movie that efficiently parodies the slasher film whereas additionally managing to be one, in a position to launch stress with laughter with out diluting its scares. The sequels have principally confronted the duty of parodying “the Scream film” alongside different tendencies in horror, all the way in which as much as the “requel” sendup in Scream (2022) that revived the sequence.

Scream 6, in service of recent franchise heroines the Carpenter sisters, pursued one thing totally different. An curiosity in Scream films previous remained, but it surely confirmed indicators of shedding the self-consciousness that outlined the earlier installment, enjoying its slasher-movie scares straight. And it labored – the franchise felt vibrant once more, prefer it was extra thinking about constructing a future than reliving the previous. Scream 6 was the primary of those movies to earn over $100 million home.

In between movies, nonetheless, that future went up in flames. Melissa Barrera was fired from the sequel in 2023 for feedback concerning the battle in Gaza, and Jenna Ortega left the venture quickly after. The film was absolutely retooled, with authentic star Neve Campbell returning and authentic author Kevin Williamson within the director’s chair. Now, forward of the film’s launch on February 27, 2026, the primary Scream 7 trailer is out.

And it appears… kinda acquainted?

Why Does Scream 7’s Trailer Remind Me So A lot Of Halloween?

As an alternative of continuous to go in its personal new course, this primary trailer makes it appear to be Scream 7 has discovered one other horror franchise to emulate. Watching it, I assumed instantly of Halloween – each the John Carpenter authentic and the 2018 reboot from David Gordon Inexperienced. Tonally, this reunion between Sydney and Ghostface compares extra to Laurie and Michael’s weighty confrontation within the latter than something within the earlier Scream films.

Ghostface himself appears characterised otherwise. One of many defining options of this franchise is that the varied Ghostface killers are fairly clearly human, and take fairly a beating, however Scream 7‘s appears to be positioned as one thing extra. He strikes with precision and a relentless objective. It is much less like a brand new particular person (or two, or three) placing on the masks than the precise boogeyman coming house.

However my déjà vu can be extra particular than that. Sydney’s new, white home jogs my memory of Michael’s. Sydney’s daughter strolling along with her associates down a suburban road appears like the same shot from the unique Halloween. Ghostface does Michael’s notorious sit-up. Sydney teaches her daughter last woman abilities to outlive the killer, like Laurie does to her daughter and granddaughter. Even the shot of Ghostface engulfed within the flames of a burning constructing is unquestionably acquainted.

On the one hand, I am disillusioned to have visible proof that the franchise course I used to be so excited by is actually useless and gone. Then again, I am intrigued by this. There is a good probability it is simply advertising and marketing – the after-all-these-years-showdown angle labored for Halloween on the field workplace, so why not glom onto it as Scream 7‘s salvaged course?

Nonetheless, on condition that Williamson is behind this one, these similarities could possibly be greater than that. Carpenter’s Halloween is necessary within the authentic Scream as a totemic slasher textual content, to the purpose that the teenagers watch it throughout a home occasion, when Randy memorably talks to the display. Channeling each the 1978 and 2018 films could possibly be a meta means for Scream 7, as a 30-years-later sequel, to return to its roots.