Scream 4

If you can get past the fact that there really is no way Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) would ever go back to Woodsboro after what she went through in the first films, this is a decent, knowing and ever so slightly bitter horror movie from Wes Craven.

It’s a decade since the last time Ghostface reared his ugly mask and Sidney is now a successful author.

When a book tour takes her via her old home, demons and ghosts – and Ghostface himself – come out of the shadows to ensure the welcome home is not a candy-coated one.

It feels angry and bitter, because of the way the horror genre has gone in the past decade, and Craven, one of the old masters, seemingly doesn’t like the torture porn and gore-fests that pass for chillers nowadays.

There is a lot of that here, played really well as a lot of commentary on the lack of rules and boundaries, and, nay, ethics in serial killing and murder.

It’s a crazed and nasty set of circumstances facing Woodsboro residents, but whether audiences will understand the tone remains to be seen.

The original cast (or what is left of them) return for a nice payday and to relive the same plot and dialogue, albeit trying to avoid ever more gruesome executions.

It’s slick and knowing and tight. It won’t change lives, but it might save careers.