How to Watch the Scream Movies in Order: A 2026 Guide

The Scream movies in order are simple, because the official order is also the story order: Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), Scream 4 (2011), Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023), and Scream 7 (2026). Seven theatrical films, roughly eleven hours of screen time before the last one, and no reshuffling required. If you found this page by wondering how to watch the Scream movies in order, you can start tonight with the 1996 original and just keep going.

One warning before you begin. A large share of searches for this question come from people who arrived through Jenna Ortega in the 2022 film and assumed they could watch it first. You can, and it works better than most expect, but you will miss about a third of the jokes. These movies are built on callbacks, and callbacks only land if the setup already happened.

How to Watch the Scream Movies in Order at a Glance

Here is the complete list, exactly as the studios number them:

1. Scream (1996)
2. Scream 2 (1997)
3. Scream 3 (2000)
4. Scream 4 (2011)
5. Scream (2022) — commonly called Scream 5
6. Scream VI (2023)
7. Scream 7 (2026)

The table below adds the details a binge planner actually needs.

All seven Scream films in release order, with runtime and streaming home

Order	Official title	Year	Runtime	Where to watch
1	Scream	1996	About 111 minutes	Paramount+
2	Scream 2	1997	About 97 minutes	Paramount+
3	Scream 3	2000	About 116 minutes	Paramount+
4	Scream 4	2011	About 111 minutes	Paramount+
5	Scream	2022	About 114 minutes	Paramount+
6	Scream VI	2023	About 114 minutes	Paramount+
7	Scream 7	2026	Feature length	Paramount+ after theatrical run

As of 2026, the full run sits together on Paramount+, which is the relief most fans mention after years of hunting across services. Films also rotate on Pluto TV and Tubi depending on your region, and every entry is available to rent digitally if you would rather not subscribe to anything.

One thing this table will not settle: the 2022 movie has no number in its official title. Paramount released it as Scream, and the same studio released Scream VI as a Roman numeral. “Scream 5” is fan shorthand that stuck, which is why half the search results disagree with each other. The franchise answer is Scream (2022), and anyone who insists on the number is not wrong, just unofficial.

The Scream Movies in Release Order

Each entry below stays spoiler-light. You get the setup and the reason the film sits where it does, without the killer reveals.

1. Scream (1996)

Directed by Wes Craven, written by Kevin Williamson, and starring Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, this is the film everything else is measured against. It takes place in Woodsboro, California, over a few days in which a copycat killer wearing a Ghostface mask murders students by working through the rules of horror movies.

You need no prior knowledge. The only thing worth knowing is that the movie plays its own genre straight while its characters treat the danger like a marketing trend, and that combination is the reason the franchise lasted.

2. Scream 2 (1997)

Craven returns, and so does most of the cast. Sidney is now a student on a book tour, Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley are back, and the film moves to a college campus and then to a film set, since the characters are making a movie inside the movie.

Watch it second without hesitation. The tonal shift toward comedy is the biggest change in the franchise, and seeing it arrive as a surprise is part of the experience.

3. Scream 3 (2000)

Set ten years later, with an older Sidney facing her past, this entry was written partly as a farewell tour for the characters everyone loved. It also introduces a third distinct Ghostface killer, which is a structural choice the later films either repeat or abandon.

This is the one fans argue about most. It usually lands at the bottom of personal rankings, and its camp is louder than the scares. If you only watch the famous ones, this is the one you are skipping.

4. Scream 4 (2011)

Eleven years of real time passed between the third film and this one, and the story uses a similar gap to age the characters. Sidney is back in Woodsboro for a book about the original murders, which gives the franchise a reason to revisit its own history.

Craven directed it as his final feature. The original cast returns in an early scene, and the film mixes the older formula with the more brutal tone that the 2022 reboot would push further.

5. Scream (2022)

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and starring Jenna Ortega as Sam Carpenter, Melissa Barrera as Sam’s sister Tara, and Jack Quaid as Chad. Sydney Sweeney also appears, and Neve Campbell returns as an unexpected lead.

People call it a requel, and that label is the most useful thing you can learn before pressing play. It is a continuation of the story rather than a fresh start, set a few years after the third film, which means it treats Scream 3 as the last chapter of that era. Watching it cold works, but it explains several characters and one masked legacy killer out of nowhere.

6. Scream VI (2023)

Same directors, most of the same new cast, and a new location: New York City, where Sam and the others are making a documentary about the Stab films. The central mystery of the franchise is finally addressed on screen, and the ending sets up the seventh film directly.

You can watch this sixth without having seen the 2022 film and follow the plot, though a handful of character relationships will read as backstory you never received.

7. Scream 7 (2026)

The seventh film opened in theaters on February 27, 2026, and later arrived on Paramount+, which is what finally let long-running fans watch the whole thing in one place. It picks up after the events of the sixth film rather than resetting again.

Few of the major streaming guides published before this year have caught up to it, so if you are reading a page that stops at six films, that page is out of date. Where it sits in quality rankings is still being argued over in fan threads, and the reception has been noticeably mixed.

Release Order vs. In-Universe Timeline

For the seven theatrical films, the chronological order and the release order are the same list. There is no date-scrambling puzzle to solve, no prequel that reveals the origin story first, and no film set in the 1970s that you should watch ahead of the 1996 original. Each entry continues directly from the one before it.

So where does the confusion come from? Three places, mostly.

The first is the eleven-year hole between Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011). That was a real decade in the story and in real life, so people assume the films jumped around in sequence. They did not. The order simply pauses.

The second is the 2022 film’s structure. Because it is a continuation rather than a sequel to the 2011 film, you can read it as a fifth entry and get confused about which film it picks up from. It picks up from the third.

The third is television. The MTV and VH1 series that ran from 2015 through 2019, including Scream: Resurrection, is a separate continuity with its own cast. It has no fixed slot in the film order, and nothing in the seven movies depends on it. If you enjoy being wrong about who survives, it is worth a season. Otherwise, skip it.

Can You Skip Any Scream Movies?

Yes, and most people who do pick the same three routes. Use whichever matches the time you have.

The full run. All seven films in the order above. This is the only route where the meta material works as intended, because the franchise spends thirty years referencing itself.

Drop only the third film. Scream, Scream 2, Scream 4, and then the 2022 film onward. Scream 3 is the consensus weakest entry, and most viewers who skip it report no gaps. The catch is that the 2022 film treats the third film’s ending as canon, so you will see one brief reference to an event you never watched.

The modern era only. Start with the 2022 film, then Scream VI, then Scream 7. This is the route people take when they came for Jenna Ortega. It is a genuinely fun three-film arc with its own storyline, and you lose only the callback jokes.

Two smaller notes. Scream 3 has an unrated cut that runs a little longer and leans harder into the comedy, and it is the version most longtime fans rate highest. If you are going to watch the film at all, that is the one to pick.

And if you want the full thing, budget a weekend. Six films run about eleven hours before the seventh one, so a complete marathon runs close to thirteen hours with the trailers and the mandatory pausing after Scream 3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start tonight with Scream (1996) and go forward: 1996, 1997, 2000, 2011, the 2022 film, Scream VI, then Scream 7 in 2026. That is the official order, and it is also the story order, so there is nothing to solve. Pick release order over any timeline guide, and if you are short on time, drop Scream 3 before you drop anything else.