Scream 7’s Neve Campbell, Kevin Williamson, and Isabel May sat down with IGN for Fan Fest 2026 to talk about authentic fear and the technical complexities of being a final girl on screen.
“I know the challenge for me with these films has always been you’re almost always in a state of fear,” said Campbell, who returns as Sidney Prescott. “Sydney, less so now because she’s got a bit of ‘I’ve got this,’ but it’s still there. If you’re going to be truthful, it has to be there. And for me, the challenge has always been having colors of that. It can’t all be one tone. You have to find what levels of fear the person’s in and what levels of strength she has in every moment and why. Each of those moments are different depending on what’s happening personally within the scene.”
Meanwhile, director and co-writer Williamson explained why it’s impossible for filmmakers to really fake a scream, despite what people think.
“There’s this thing about when you fake a scream, you can see it,” he told IGN. “You can tell someone’s faking a scream. I remember I had one of the actors – who will remain nameless – she said, ‘Well, can’t you just add the scream?’ And I went, ‘No, when someone screams, it comes from the gut. It’s part of the performance. And it will read.’ You have to scream.”
Scream 7 will be released in theaters on February 27 and will ahve Sidney and her daughter face the iconic Ghostface. It has been leaked that we’ll see some major characters – who seemed to be pretty definitively gone from the storyline – return, so expect lots of twists and turns.
This is just the latest news from IGN’s Fan Fest 2026 – check the schedule to see what else is coming and to keep up to date on all the latest from the worlds of entertainment and games.
Rachel Weber is the Head of Editorial Development at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, Red Dead Redemption 2, and her Love and Deepspace boyfriends.
