Wes Craven‘s Scream is one of the best horror movies of all time, and started a long-running horror franchise that’s still active today. The series, which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, has featured actress Hayden Panettiere in two movies as Kirby Reed. And she recently explained the lesson that Craven taught her while filming the fourth movie that really stuck with her.
Wes Craven’s death in 2015 left behind a legacy of horror classics, including the Scream movies. Plenty of the late filmmaker’s collaborators continue to praise him, including Panettiere. She spoke to EW about working on him in Scream 4, and the way he directed her in the slasher. In the actress’ words:
So, when you’re sitting, he would be like, ‘This is going to feel very slow. It’s gonna feel like you’re moving in slow motion, but when you put the music in and you edit it together, you have to build up that anticipation and you have to hit it right on the nail on the head. You can’t be a moment over. You gotta be right on the nose.’
This shows just how methodically Craven worked on his horror movies, particularly the Scream franchise. He needed actors to do their scenes at a very specific pace in order to build the tension throughout Scream 4. And that piece of advice was a memorable part of Hayden Panettiere’s collaboration with the iconic director.
Despite having an understanding of what Craven needed, the Heroes alum admitted that she still felt like she was moving too slowly in her debut performance as Kirby. In the same interview, she spoke about how she didn’t fully understand this choice until she was able to see the fourth Scream movie’s edit. As she told it:
‘Move slow, or move slower,’ and I would be like, ‘Geez, this feels like I’m moving at the pace of a snail.’ But watching it afterwards, after he put it together and edited everything, he was so right.
I rank Scream 4 high on the franchise as a whole, and it stands out as Wes Craven’s final directorial venture before his death. And while Panettiere was originally uncomfortable the pacing of scenes when shooting, she saw how it all made sense once the movie was edited together and given suspenseful music.
Longtime fans of the franchise were hyped when Hayden Panettiere returned as Kirby in Scream VI, even managing to survive another encounter with Ghostface. While she’s not expected to appear in the seventh movie, the door is still open for another return. During that interview the former child actor spoke more about what she learned from Craven, offering:
He was so spectacular. I mean, he taught me also how to be on set. I would love to direct at some point in my life, and he was such a fabulous — his spirit, the person that he was, how kind he was. He really was an amazing example. He set an amazing example for how I would like to be as a director, as anybody on set, but as a director if I hopefully direct in the future. You don’t have to be an ass!
It sounds like Craven’s way of working really stuck with Panettiere, and will influence how she offers direction in the future. And I hope that she ends up getting behind the camera sooner rather than later.
What we know about Scream 7 is limited, but fans are hyped for Neve Campbell’s return as Sidney Prescott. While there are a bunch of legacy characters included, unfortunately it doesn’t seem like Kirby Reed is included. Fingers crossed we see her sometime in the future.
Scream 4 is streaming on Paramount+ and Scream 7 will hit theaters on February 27th as part of the 2026 movie release list. The franchise is alive and well, and we have Wes Craven to thank for that.