It’s been 27 years since the release of the original movie (yeah, that long), and Scream remains one of the most popular franchises around. And fans of the long-running horror series were just treated to a new terrifying story about people fleeing a Ghostface killer with Scream VI, which hit theaters on March 10. The new movie features some of the franchise’s newer characters played by Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, and Jasmin Savoy Brown, alongside some stars who were in the earlier films, like Courteney Cox and Hayden Panettiere. Significantly, it was the very first Scream movie to not feature Neve Campbell as her famous character Sidney Prescott. (As you can imagine, big fans of the movies were not happy about that outcome.)
While you can probably follow the new movie well enough without having seen the others, Scream has a long and involved history that you might want to delve into—or delve back into, if you’ve seen the movies before. After all, don’t you want to know how everyone is connected, why only some characters survived, and how Drew Barrymore fits into all of this?
If so, here’s where you can watch all six of the Scream movies in order.
(And, by the way, if you’re wondering about the TV series—it’s inspired by the movies, but does not connect to them.)
Scream (1996)
The first Scream movie stars Neve Campbell as high schooler Sidney Prescott. She and her a group of friends begin to be terrorized and—in some cases— murdered by the Ghostface killer. But is the true suspect within the group? Costars include Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, David Arquette as Dewey Riley and Courtney Cox as reporter Gale Weathers.
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Scream 2 (1997)
Campbell, Cox, and Arquette returned for Scream 2, alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Jada Pinkett Smith, and more. This time, Sidney is in college and a copycat Ghostface killer emerges.
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Scream 3 (2000)
The Scream franchise is already one in which characters are well aware of horror movies and their tropes, but things get particularly meta in Scream 3, which involves the cast of a movie titled Stab 3 being hunted down. Campbell, Cox, Arquette all reprised their roles with new cast members including Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Parker Posey, and Carrie Fisher.
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Scream 4 (2011)
Scream 4 is set on the 15th anniversary of the murders that took place in the original film. Sidney returns to her hometown where students at her old high school are once again being targeted by the killer. The three regular stars are joined by Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts, and Rory Culkin, among others.
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Scream (2022)
Eleven years after Scream 4, the franchise was sort of rebooted with Scream, but it still features characters from the previous films, including, of course, Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley. In this installment, teens who have connections to those involved in the original massacre are targeted by the killer. Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera star as Tara and Sam Carpenter.
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Scream VI (2023)
This brings us to the latest Scream movie, Scream VI. This one differs from the others in that it does not feature Campbell or Arquette; though Cox and Panettiere return. In this new movie, the teens from the 2022 film are now in college in New York City and obviously another Ghostface is after them.
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