Vinny Durand, [Joe Spinell], a New York City taxi driver who lives with his mother, harbors a dream: to direct a film starring horror actress Jana Bates, [Caroline Munro]. He travels to Cannes Film Festival convinced that meeting her could launch his directing career.
Accompanying Jana at Cannes is her manager and ex-husband Bret Bates, [Glenn Jacobson], as well as her boyfriend Alan Cunningham, [Judd Hamilton], who has produced the project. Durand hopes to catch a moment with Jana during the festival and to persuade her to consider his script.
During a press conference, Jana receives a cryptic note that reads, "You've made your last horror film. Goodbye." Later, she goes to Bret's hotel room and discovers his decapitated corpse, though when authorities return with her, the body has vanished.
Durand begins stalking Jana, secretly filming her with his camera. Marty Bernstein, [Devin Goldenberg], Jana's agent, crosses paths with him but dismisses him. Bernstein later meets with the Scream's director Stanley Kline, [David Winters], and his assistant Susan Archer, [Susanne Benton], who reveal they have all received the same chilling note.
When the police are alerted, they treat Bret's disappearance as a publicity stunt. The next day, Bernstein receives a letter signed by Bret, inviting him to a theater's screening room, but he is murdered by a cloaked figure upon arrival.
Jana continues with press engagements while Durand visits a nightclub, attacking a stripper he mistakes for Jana. He then watches a film crafted by Stanley Kline and publicly denounces it, telling Kline that he should not make such "nasty" films.
That night, Jana returns to her hotel to shower, and Durand sneaks in with champagne, hoping to charm her into starring in his movie. She orders him to leave; he breaks the champagne bottle in anger and brandishes the jagged glass. A bellboy interrupts, and Jana escapes, with a crowd misreading the scene as another publicity stunt.
Durand trails Jana to a remote château in the French countryside where her friend Jonathan, [Sean Casey], is staying. Her bodyguards confront him and shoot into the dark to defend Jana, accidentally killing Jonathan.
Back in Cannes, Cunningham and Jana return for the awards ceremony, but Durand, aided by his own deception, subdues Jana and transports her to the château for a filmed scene where Durand plays Dracula and Jana plays the victim. Bret arrives with another camera and a pistol, revealing himself as the killer and the mastermind behind the elaborate ruse, and taunts Durand as the plan unfolds.
Durand realizes Bret's long game: that Bret orchestrated the entire scheme to settle a grievance with Jana over their breakup, and used Durand as a convenient fall guy. Durand flees with Jana while Bret insists on exposing the scene in public. In the ensuing chase, Durand turns on a motorcycle's headlights, blinding Bret, and uses a chainsaw to murder him as police close in.
Cunningham arrives with the police to find Durand standing over Bret's corpse, a scream of disbelief echoing as the scene ends.
Then, in a twist, the film cuts away to show that the entire sequence was a movie Vinny had shot at the Cannes Festival with Jana Bates, and he is now back in New York, showing the finished work to his mother in a screening room.
