So here we have another Scream movie, this time survivor Sydney Prescott has returned home to Woodsboro as a stop on her bestselling book tour. Whilst home she hopes to get together with her remaining family, her Aunt Kate and her Cousin Jill. Would you believe it, the ghostface killer has struck again and it's up to Sydney, Sheriff Dewey and Gale Weathers to work out who the killer is before he/she wipes out Sydney's family.

Well here we have the latest modern day incarnation in the Scream franchise (and i'll bet it's not the last). What will this movie bring to our cynical, modern day, reboot-driven horror culture that it's predecessors hadn't done already? Well, honestly, not very much.

That's not to say that Scream 4 is a poor movie just that from the get-go, the odds are stacked against it. When was the last time a running franchise of movies hit number 4 and things didn't start falling apart? Off the top of my head i'm struggling to think of just one, so going into viewing this i couldn't help but feel we were in for more of the same.

Surprisingly, even though it doesn't elevate itself above it's predecessors Scream 4 is actually very good if you keep it in the context of it being a '4th'. The movie is not only a slasher flick in itself, it's an introspective look at how celebrity driven, cliched and downright unoriginal modern day American movies have become. The movie business is about making money and movies are just a means to that end. This is not always true but by and large it is. This dimension of Scream 4 is what really (for me) kept the whole movie interesting.

If you look at it as a straight slasher movie it's not too bad either. You really don't know who the killer is until the end and even though there are some logical inconsistencies here and there, by and large the whole thing is enjoyable.

The acting quality is solid. By now Neve Campbell can do the running/screaming/crying thing to a tee, it's no longer something that puses her boundaries as an actress i imagine. Needless to say she does her usual quality performance. David Arquette and Courteney Cox's characters are now married (Dewey and Gale) and they're basically the same as before. The two characters do compliment each other well it must be said. There's some new pretty faces showing up such as Hayden Panattiere (the cheerleader from Heroes), etc. SPOILER! Apart from a bit of fan service they're just there to make good death scenes.

Gore is on the light side, frankly gore was never the Scream movies strong suit, this movie is pretty much consistent with those that went before it. Nor would i say Scream 4 is tremendously scary, in fact i don't think it's scary at all. However it is a decent movie even if it's not terribly original (it was never going to be) so i'm certainly gonna recommend this one to Scream fans. Sadly i can't think of any reason why Non-Scream fans would start liking the series with this addition so they'd best pass over.