Viewed – 04 October 2011  Blu-ray

It takes a brave man to make a sequel to one of the most satirised franchises in horror movie history, but that is exactly what director Wes Craven has done.  Re-teaming with original writer Kevin Williamson and much of the original cast (Courtney Cox-Arquette, David Arquette), we meet former slasher survivor Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) who returns to her home town to promote a book about her getting her life back together.  Stopping with her cousin (newcomer Emma Roberts), she stumbles upon a new wave of murders that closely resemble those of her first encounter, as in the first Scream movie, and soon the nightmare is happening all over again.

Wes Craven is not a stupid man.  He knew that making a new Scream after quite a long break, (Scream 3 was back in 2000) was risky, but the script here is loaded with self-referrential quips and nods to Facebook and the online generation that certainly rings true, and the killer knows this too.  This time around, it isn’t about the rules of the horror movie, but more the rules of the horror movie remake, something Hollywood seems to be stuck in and this movie nails perfectly.  The kills themselves, whilst very bloody lack subtlety however but as the movie progresses they get smarter and more unexpected.  There’s also some alarming moments of character stupidity that seem less like clever nods to the genre, but more just lazy writing.  Yet I still didn’t guess the killer.

Perhaps the nods aren’t quite as assured as they once were, but at least the movie is trying, which can’t be said for a lot of horror these days, and looking at the franchise as a whole, it remains the weakest, mostly because it’s so damn familiar.  But this still has it where it counts, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

Verdict:  3 /5