If you are going to care about the kill you have to have found a love for the characters

NEVE Campbell has grown up alongside Sidney Prescott for the last 30 years and says her Scream character has "certainly seen quite an arc".

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Neve Campbell has played Sidney in the Scream films for 30 years

Now 52, the Canadian actress, who launched her career with the TV series Party of Five, made her name on the big screen with the first movie in the groundbreaking slasher series back in 1996.

Neve, who returns to the franchise this week after skipping 2023’s Scream 6, has seen Sidney defy loss, grief and trauma to fight for a future free of past terrors. In Scream 7, the survivor must fight for her family and her legacy.

“At the beginning of this drama, we started with Sidney being attacked and having all this chaos come at her. She chose to be a survivor and learn how to fight,” says Neve, who also starred in movies like The Craft, Wild Things and The Company as well as Netflix’s House of Cards.

She adds: “We can see how she's really taken that on and embraced it. But she’s also dealing with her PTSD, and figuring out who she’s going to be now, and mentally, how she is going to be OK, continuing in life with all the loss that she’s experienced.

“For me, it made total sense that she’s become a trauma counsellor and is someone who's reaching out and helping others. I think it's what has allowed her to have purpose.”

“She’s made the bold decision to not allow her past to dictate her present and the choices she makes in her life. It's why she’s had a family.