The year is halfway done and Scream 7 is still the top grossing horror movie of the year. It grossed over $200 million internationally and I account for about $20 of that total. Wes Craven’s 1996 original is the strongest of the series and arguably one of the greatest horror movies of all time, so it was a given I’d be there opening night out of curiosity alone, if not genuine optimism.
The Return of Sidney
The previous entries are all solid. Scream 2, Scream 4, and 2022’s Scream are some of the stronger sequels in the genre. But the lead-up to this film was inauspicious. After her absence in the previous entry, Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott was back. The cynical part of me read this as a desperate distraction from the controversial Melissa Barrera dismissal, which left its own sour taste in my mouth. But even if Sidney’s return was believed to be the right creative path from the film’s onset, bringing her back again for a fresh dose of trauma felt redundant.
Yes, Sidney is one of the most iconic final girls in horror history. But sometimes the highest honor one can receive is finality – the privilege to have the legacy set in stone, finished and free from any further compromise.
Don’t get it wrong, Sidney is a brilliant character. I named my Kia Soul after her. But she’s already had at least two, arguably three proper send-offs: the house door left open in 3, the “Don’t fuck with the original,” in 4, and the baton passing conclusion of the 2022 reboot. All these presumed happy endings are cut short for more carnage candy. The recent batch of it failed to justify the interruption.
Return The Original Scream Queen
Sidney’s not the only final girl to make a ceremonial return to peril. Her appearance in the series’ fifth entry was integral to the film’s critique on “requels,” the movie trend of resurrecting old intellectual property and bringing back old characters, all in the name of celebrating (or capitalizing on) the almighty original. The most prominent horror example would be 2018’s Halloween.
David Gordon Green’s reboot championed itself on Jamie Lee Curtis’s return as Laurie Strode, the only other final girl rivaling Sidney in notoriety. This iteration of Laurie let the trauma of that night 40 years prior ruin her life. She’s a divorced alcoholic with an estranged daughter, scarred from the survivalist upbringing she received. It’s an interesting idea, and heroes don’t need to return as perfect versions of themselves (looking at you Last Jedi haters), but it was difficult reconciling this version of Laurie with the babysitter we saw in John Carpenter’s classic.
Curtis’s previous reprisal in 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a more convincing continuation of the character. This Laurie struggles in a more subtle manner, and the payoff is more cathartic than anything the new films offered. But even that perfect ending is undercut by her return in Halloween: Resurrection, which currently places dead last in my ranking of every movie ever made.
The 2018 film was a success, which led to two sequels of its own (Halloween Ends is the best of the three), as well as other horror franchises following suit. Final girls Julie James and Sally Hardesty returned in 2025’s I Know What You Did Last Summer and 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), respectively. I’ll concede I got a nostalgic kick during Jennifer Love-Hewitt’s scenes in the new IKWYDLS, but the story she shares with returning character Ray is a bold idea left frustratingly underwritten. Not given enough attention, they’re a shoehorned bit of legacy in a movie that doesn’t belong to them. Sally’s return in Texas Chainsaw feels even more perfunctory, especially given the role had to be recast following the passing of the original actress Marilyn Burns in 2014. Her scenes are clear weak points in a movie that’s a bit underrated.
But Wait There’s More
A movie rated rather properly is Hellraiser: Hellseeker, the sixth installment in the Hellraiser franchise. Kirsty Cotton returns after absences in Bloodlines and Inferno for a sidelined role that manages to (figuratively, no spoilers here) assassinate her character, even in limited screentime. Add her to the list of final girls done a disservice by a return to their franchise.
On the other end of the spectrum, Heather Langenkamp’s returns in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise as well as Sigourney Weaver’s multiple appearances in the Alien franchise are well regarded, and for good reason. They’re not hollow nostalgic gimmicks, but rather natural character continuations with real thematic weight in their respective stories. Exceptions prove the rule, though.
When these final girls endure endless terror, fight back, and come out the other side, audiences can imagine where they may go afterward. There’d be some therapy, no doubt. Mourning for their lost friends. But there’s also hope they can find a way through it. Think of Ginny in Friday the 13th Part II or Alice in Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. They could move on. The bloodshed doesn’t have to define them or their lives.
Somtimes It Should be Final for the Final Girl
This is not to say everything always must be, “And she lived happily ever after.” Fan reaction dictating the story has doomed many franchises across all genres of late. Catering to the fanatic masses can lead to some shoddy screenwriting. Natural arcs and progression should always take precedence, even if that means the ending isn’t a happy one.
These characters returning when the circumstances organically dictate it can be a lot of fun. Lauren LaVera’s inevitable return as Sienna Shaw in Terrifier 4 makes sense. Her arc with Art the Clown is clearly unfinished. That’s not the problem. It’s the cheap reprisals, the ceremony of it all complete with fanfare musical stings and catchphrase recitation. The impact of these women’s presence on screen is watered down. The studio mandated strings become visible, and they become props instead of characters.
That’s not honoring these women. It’s using them as tools for audience manipulation.
It would be no surprise if the inevitable Scream 8 brings back Ghostface’s signature “Hello Sidney” again, but personally, I hope this time it’s really goodbye. It’s time for some Finality for the Final Girl.