STACK #260 June 2026

FEATURE MOVIE

GENRE: Horror RUN TIME: 1h 54m

SIDNEY PRESCOTT RETURNS IN SCREAM 7 Almost 30 years on, the Scream franchise delves deeply into nostalgia for its thrilling seventh instalment, with the original writer at the helm!

Above: Neve Campbell with director Kevin Williamson

D irected by Kevin Williamson – the original writer who helped turn Ghostface into one of horror’s most recognisable villains - Scream 7 shifts the focus back onto Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, who was absent from the previous instalment. The return of Sidney gives the movie a very different energy from the youth

when, naturally, Ghostface resurfaces yet again. But while Scream 7 is leaning heavily into its legacy roots, there’s still plenty of fresh blood entering the mix. Alongside returning favourites Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers, David Arquette’s Dewey Riley, and Matthew Lillard’s Stu Macher, newcomers Isabel May, McKenna Grace, and Michelle Randolph are helping usher the franchise into its next generation of terror. For Campbell, she relished the opportunity to revisit a character who has grown up alongside a generation of fans. “Audiences have a real affinity for the

first film, as we all do. It was exciting to bring classic set pieces and characters back in,” says the Canadian actress, now 52 years old. “When we started out, Sidney was young, vivacious, and enthusiastic about life. She has gone through tremendous hardship since then, but she’s a survivor, not a victim. That is what I think people find admirable in her. She went through a journey of trying to overcome her trauma.” Gratified to see the film continue to bring in young audiences after three decades, Campbell adds, “People of all ages still have fun with all of these films. They’re engaged in the journey of all the characters. I’ve heard of folks going back 20 times. Each one is a new kind of roller coaster.” Gill Pringle

FUN FACT

With the release of Scream 7 , the franchise officially crossed the $1

billion mark at the global box office. It also became the first film in the series to slash past $200 million worldwide.

driven tone of Scream VI , leaning heavily into legacy themes such as trauma,

survival, ageing, and whether anyone can ever really escape the mythology of Woodsboro. This time around, Campbell’s

original scream queen Sidney is trying to live a quieter suburban life with her family

• Scream 7 is out Jun 10

GO BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN:

Wes Craven’s original Scream is available on 4K Ultra HD and JB exclusive 4K steelbook.

FUN FACT: Vanessa Redgrave is Liam Neeson’s mother in law, and Sosie Bacon is the daughter of Kevin Bacon (a fun nod to Tremors ).

GENRE: Horror sci-fi RUN TIME: 1h 39m

STORAGE SPORES! COLD STORAGE Cold Storage is a splatter movie with prestige that throws back to the kind of films once considered too “nasty” for public consumption.

Liam Neeson, Joe Keery, and Georgina Campbell

T he prestige comes from the movie’s ensemble of creatives. Actors Liam Neeson, Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Lesley Manville, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Brake, and Sosie Bacon make up the cast, while Hollywood titan David Koepp adapts his own novel for the screen. As for the throwback, think ’80s splatter movies like Return of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, and The Stuff . The story concerns employees at a self-storage facility built on the site of a decommissioned military silo, and a parasitic fungus that breaks loose, turning humans into slime. Neeson plays the biochemist who contained the hazard many years earlier, and is the only one who knows how to stop it.

David Koepp is the screenwriter behind countless Hollywood hits, including Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, and Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day . With Cold Storage , it all began as a thought put to paper that grew, not unlike the parasitic fungus itself, into something much bigger. “For some reason, I challenged myself to write ten pages of prose first, just as a way to get to know the characters a bit,” Koepp recalls. “And after three pages, I thought, ‘Oh, this could be a short story.’ After 30, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a novella.’ And after 100 pages, I had to admit, ‘This is a novel.’ It was an absolute joy to write.” The origins of Cold Storage are also connected to Australia, as evidenced in

the movie’s opening act. The seed of the story was planted in the late 1970s, when the NASA space station Skylab deorbited Earth and rained debris across the Western Australian outback community of Kiwirrkurra. “Our opening sequence is based on those real events. Kiwirrkurra is a real place,” says director Jonny Campbell of the remote Australian community. “When bits of the Skylab fuselage fell, people put them outside their houses and tried to make museums out of them to earn money from tourists,” he continues. “That is a good starting point for a story... What if something had infiltrated that debris on the way down?” Glenn Cochrane

• Cold Storage is out Jun 17

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE:

Cabin Fever, The Thing, Evil Dead, Together

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