Premiere - Scream – 30th Anniversary Paris Special Event: Neve Campbell Returns to Sidney Prescott for a Landmark Celebration

By Mulder, Paris, Pathé Beaugrenelle, Dolby Room, 10 february 2026

Celebrating thirty years of a saga that fundamentally reshaped modern horror cinema, Scream was honored in Paris on February 10, 2026, with a special anniversary event organized by Paramount Pictures France at Pathé Beaugrenelle, transforming the venue into a genuine place of memory for an entire generation of moviegoers. The evening offered French audiences the rare and precious opportunity to rediscover the original 1996 film on the big screen, preceded by an extended and deeply engaging conversation with Neve Campbell, whose embodiment of Sidney Prescott has become one of the most iconic and emotionally resonant performances in genre history. From the very first moments, the atmosphere in the packed auditorium was charged with a palpable sense of shared experience, as longtime fans who first encountered Scream during its original theatrical run sat alongside younger viewers who discovered the franchise through its later sequels, streaming platforms, or home video releases. This intergenerational mix perfectly illustrated the enduring power of Scream, a film that has never stopped speaking to its audience, regardless of age or cultural context.

When Neve Campbell took the stage, the reception was immediate, warm, and sustained, marked by prolonged applause that felt less like celebrity adoration and more like a collective expression of gratitude. For many in attendance, Neve Campbell is inseparable from Sidney Prescott, a character who has grown, suffered, and survived in tandem with the audience over three decades. During the discussion, Neve Campbell spoke with sincerity and reflection about what it meant to step into the role in the mid-1990s, at a time when horror heroines were often reduced to simplistic archetypes. She recalled being immediately drawn to Kevin Williamson’s script, which stood apart through its intelligence, self-awareness, and emotional grounding, and to Wes Craven’s vision of a horror film that respected its audience rather than manipulating it. Sidney Prescott, she explained, was never conceived as a passive victim but as a young woman forced to navigate trauma, grief, and fear while gradually reclaiming control over her own narrative, a journey that resonated deeply with viewers then and continues to do so today.

The Paris screening powerfully reaffirmed the impact of Scream upon its release in December 1996, a moment when the slasher genre was widely perceived as creatively exhausted. Against all industry expectations, the film defied its Christmas release slot to become an extraordinary word-of-mouth success, ultimately grossing around $173 million worldwide and redefining what a mainstream horror film could be. Through its blend of genuine suspense, razor-sharp humor, and meta-commentary, Scream transformed genre conventions into narrative weapons, inviting audiences to laugh at the rules while simultaneously fearing their consequences. Neve Campbell emphasized how the character of Sidney Prescott, evolving across multiple sequels, became a rare example of long-form character development in horror, reflecting broader cultural shifts in the representation of women on screen, particularly in stories centered on violence and survival.

Beyond the emotional connection to its central character, the event also served as a tribute to the remarkable creative alchemy that gave birth to Scream. The film emerged from Kevin Williamson’s fascination with true crime, media sensationalism, and classic horror cinema, shaped by Wes Craven’s determination to reinvent himself after professional setbacks and reclaim his voice within a genre he had helped define. The production was marked by bold choices at every level, from the now-iconic Ghostface mask discovered almost accidentally during location scouting to Marco Beltrami’s operatic, emotionally driven score, which gave the film a tragic undercurrent rarely associated with slashers of the era. The casting of established stars such as Drew Barrymore and Courteney Cox, alongside emerging talents including David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, and Jamie Kennedy, broke with genre norms and elevated the film’s cultural legitimacy, helping to attract a broader and more diverse audience.

Throughout the evening, anecdotes shared by Neve Campbell highlighted the human dimension behind the phenomenon, recalling the intensity of the shoot, the camaraderie among the cast, and the uncertainty surrounding the film’s reception prior to its release. Watching the film again in a packed Parisian theater underscored how its most famous sequences the opening home invasion, the chilling phone calls, the final act’s escalating tension remain strikingly effective, eliciting gasps, laughter, and applause in equal measure. The audience’s reactions confirmed that Scream has lost none of its power, its rhythms and surprises still landing with precision nearly thirty years later.

The timing of this Paris celebration carried additional symbolic weight, arriving just weeks before the release of Scream 7, scheduled for late February 2026. With Neve Campbell officially returning as Sidney Prescott and Kevin Williamson stepping into the director’s chair, the franchise appears poised to come full circle, reconnecting directly with its origins while embracing a new chapter. For many attendees, this anniversary event felt less like a nostalgic look backward and more like a reaffirmation of Scream as a living, evolving saga. As the credits rolled and conversations continued long after the screening ended, one truth became unmistakably clear: Scream endures not merely because it reinvented horror, but because it trusted its audience, respected its characters, and understood that fear is always most powerful when it is grounded in intelligence, empathy, and emotional truth.

You can discover our photos in our Flickr page : red carpet, event

Synopsis : 
Casey Becker, a beautiful teenager, is alone in her family home. She is about to watch a horror movie when the phone rings. On the other end of the line, a serial killer bullies her and forces her to play a terrible game: if she answers his questions about horror movies incorrectly, he will kill her boyfriend. Sidney Prescott knows she is one of the potential victims of the Woodsboro killer. She no longer knows who to trust. Between Billy, her boyfriend, her best friend Tatum, and her brother Dewey, her classmates Stuart and Randy, the ambitious journalist Gale Weathers and her cameraman Kenny who are always hanging around, and her ever-absent father, who is hiding behind the killer's mask?

Scream
Directed by Wes Craven
Written by Kevin Williamson
Produced by Cathy Konrad, Cary Woods
Starring  David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore
Cinematography : Mark Irwin
Edited by Patrick Lussier
Music by Marco Beltrami
Production company : Woods Entertainment
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release dates : December 18, 1996 (Los Angeles), December 20, 1996 (United States)
Running time : 111 minutes

Photos red carpet  : @fannyrlphotography
Photos and video 4K of the event : Boris Colletier / Mulderville