In Woodsboro, two Stab franchise fans, Scott and his girlfriend Madison, visit Stu Macher's house after hearing rumors that he might have survived the brutal incident in which a television was thrown on his head. Ghostface massacres them and sets the house ablaze, a deadly omen that the killer is back and seemingly unafraid of the law or the town’s memories.
Across the country in Pine Grove, Indiana, Sidney Prescott has rebuilt her life. She’s now married to police officer Mark Evans, runs a cozy coffeehouse, and keeps an eye on her children, including her teenage daughter Tatum Evans, named after Sidney’s late best friend. The peace she has built feels fragile, especially when a chilling phone call arrives from Ghostface, who identifies himself as an aged and scarred Stu Macher. He ominously announces that he is coming after Tatum Evans and knows exactly where she and her classmates are rehearsing at a local theater.
When Sidney arrives with the police, Ghostface escapes after striking again, this time killing Tatum’s classmates Hannah Thurman and Aaron. The danger intensifies as that same night, Ghostface materializes from Sidney’s attic and takes Tatum Evans at knifepoint. Mark Evans rushes to intervene but is knocked unconscious after a fall down the stairs. Sidney improvises a dangerous escape, guiding Tatum to a safe room and using its hidden exit to slip away from the stalker.
Ghostface pursues them, but Gale Weathers, aided by her assistants Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin, crashes into the danger and runs Ghostface down, unmasking him in a shocking reveal. The killer is not just a masked intruder but someone Sidney once considered suspicious for buying coffee from her earlier, a man identified by police as Karl Gibbs who had escaped from a nearby mental institution. The town’s institutional supervisor, Marco, fills in more of the puzzle by confirming that [Stu Macher] had recently reappeared as a memory-altered figure, a “John Doe” who could not remember his life before Woodsboro and who lived in the room next to Karl.
With the stakes escalating, Mindy Meeks-Martin highlights a key pattern: Ghostface targets have a personal connection to their victims, and this time the plan is to corral Tatum and her friends into one place. Sidney agrees to be interviewed by Gale on live television to draw Stu in, while Tatum, her boyfriend Ben Brown, and friends Chloe Parker and Lucas Bowden gather at a tavern, unaware of the danger closing in on them. In a brutal turn, Mark is ambushed at home and stabbed repeatedly by Ghostface, a cruel reminder that this new Woodsboro game spares no one.
As the interview ends, Stu calls Sidney, hinting that he is outside the tavern and forcing her to change plans. Suspicion rises when Tatum discovers a laptop in Ben Brown’s car running a test to deepfake his face into Stu, prompting her to knock him out and flee. Ghostface slaughters Chloe Parker and Lucas Bowden, and injures the Meeks twins before chasing Tatum through the streets. Ben’s attempt to help ends in tragedy as Ghostface claims him as well, and Tatum flees to Sidney’s coffeehouse for safety. Sidney urges Tatum to lock herself in the office and fetch a gun from the safe, a moment of tense strategy that could mean life or death.
Following Sidney’s instructions, Tatum shoots Ghostface from behind a wall, only to discover a second Ghostface at the front door. Stu calls again, claiming that Tatum is being held captive at home, and Sidney watches in horror as a message appears on the television. Stu reshapes his face into the images of previous Ghostfaces Nancy Loomis and Roman Bridger, as well as Sidney’s close friend and Gale’s late husband Dewey Riley, signaling a full return to the cycle of Woodsboro killings driven by a person forced to witness a beloved captive at home.
The revelation is even more personal when Marco’s accomplice is unmasked as Jessica Bowden. Jessica explains that after reading Sidney’s autobiography, she concluded that Sidney’s success came from killing those who tormented her, and she resolved to replicate that pattern by murdering her abusive husband. The plan twists further as Jessica moves closer to Sidney’s life, having kept a blackened secret next door with her son, Lucas Bowden. In a brutal confrontation, Mark is brought into the fray, and Sidney ends the threat by shooting Marco dead. Jessica flees, but Sidney and Tatum pursue and finally shoot Jessica in the head, ending her night of fear.
In the aftermath, Mark is taken to the hospital, and Sidney thanks Gale for standing by her. As a newscast from Mindy delivers an impromptu update to the city, the survivors begin to reckon with the night’s losses and the unsettling reminder that the Woodsboro legacy still lives on in a town that never fully recovers from its past.
