In the quaint town of Woodsboro, California, high schooler Casey Becker finds herself home alone when an ominous phone call interrupts her evening. The mysterious caller engages her in a conversation about horror films, but the tone quickly shifts to menacing when he threatens her life, revealing that her boyfriend, Steve, is tied up outside. To save him, Casey must answer questions about horror films; however, her incorrect response regarding Friday the 13th leads to Steve's tragic demise. In a desperate attempt to escape, Casey becomes the victim of a brutal stabbing by the masked figure known as "Ghostface," and her lifeless body is gruesomely displayed from a tree.
As the media frenzy descends upon Woodsboro, a police investigation commences, drawing attention to the struggles of Sidney Prescott, a teenager grappling with the impending anniversary of her mother Maureen's tragic murder by Cotton Weary. This trauma complicates her relationship with her boyfriend, Billy Loomis. With her father, Neil, away on business, Sidney awaits her best friend, Tatum Riley. When a sinister call taunts her about her mother's death, Sidney is suddenly attacked by Ghostface, who escapes just as Billy enters through her window. Growing suspicious of Billy after he accidentally drops a cell phone, he finds himself in trouble with Deputy Sheriff Dewey Riley, Tatum’s brother.
Later, at the police station, investigative journalist Gale Weathers confronts Sidney, alleging that Maureen had several affairs, including one with Cotton, who she asserts was wrongfully convicted of her murder. Staying at Tatum’s house, Sidney is plagued by more taunting calls from the killer. Although the police trace the menacing calls to Neil’s phone, they struggle to track his whereabouts.
Upon Billy’s release, he unwittingly reignites Sidney's trauma by equating his mother's absence with the pain of Maureen's death. As tensions rise at school, Principal Himbry meets a gruesome end in his office. To provide a semblance of normalcy, Stu Macher, Tatum's boyfriend, organizes a gathering at his home. Dewey and Gale monitor the party closely, anticipating the killer's potential strike. The tension escalates when Randy Meeks outlines the unspoken rules for surviving a horror film, shortly before Tatum encounters Ghostface in the garage, leading to her tragic demise.
After discovering Himbry's murder, chaos ensues at the party, prompting most guests to leave in horror. Billy arrives to mend fences with Sidney, leading to an intimate moment that turns deadly when Ghostface attacks. In the ensuing chaos, Ghostface brutally kills Gale's cameraman Kenny and injures Dewey upon his return. Meanwhile, Gale's attempts to escape in her van result in an accident, leaving her unconscious.
Sidney, in a frantic bid for survival, secures herself within the house, locking out both Stu and Randy, as they turn on each other, accusing one another of being the murderer. In a moment of betrayal, a seemingly wounded Billy returns, allowing Randy inside before shooting him and revealing the chilling truth: Billy and Stu are the killers. They disclose they murdered Maureen due to the fallout of her affair with Billy's father, and now frame Neil as part of their scheme. In a desperate attempt to come out as the sole survivors, they harm one another, but their plan is interrupted by Gale's reappearance; this diversion gives Sidney the chance to subdue Billy and ultimately kill Stu by dropping a television on him.
In a final confrontation, Billy, persistent even in his injuries, lunges at Sidney, only to be shot by Gale. Following Randy’s warning that horror film killers often rise again, Billy does attempt one last scare, but Sidney decisively ends it by shooting him in the head. As daylight breaks, Neil is rescued, Dewey is whisked away in an ambulance, and Gale delivers an impromptu news report, detailing the harrowing events of the night.
