Several years after the events of Scream 3, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to her home town of Woodsboro on the 15th anniversary of the first Woodsboro Murders for a tour of her new self-help book, where she encounters former allies Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and entertainment journalist Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), as well as her younger cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), her best friend Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), aunt Kate Roberts (Mary McDonnell), and several of Jill’s high school friends. However, with her return to Woodsboro also comes the return of past slasher-killer Ghostface, who is starting to stalk and kill Jill’s friends and several other people in the Woodsboro area. The killer is now taking reference from horror-movie remakes by basing their murders on those similar to ones committed in the movie Stab, only with more twists on the 21st-century horror movie: in order to survive, Sidney, Dewey, Gale, Jill, and her friends must band together and follow the conventions of 21st-century horror movies to determine who the killer is and stop them before the murders spiral out of their control.