Scream 4

A decade after Scream 3, we get director Wes Craven and scripter Kevin Williamson teaming back up to try and rebottle lightning, or at least pull some more milk from a dead cow. We have the three surviving franchise members (Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette) dropped back into the Woodsboro milieu to see who’s donning the Ghostface gear this time around to stalk-n-slash through a fresh crop of Photoshopped teens. The guilty party isn’t all that hard to figure out, because one thing that Craven hasn’t been accused of during his career is subtlety. So he compensates by indulging in wheels-within-wheels narrative structure, gratuitously referencing clips of vastly superior horror films. While it’s better than the previous entry, it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. It updates the tropes to include webcams and Facebook, but the creative minds at work are clearly out of touch with the new wave of horror films. Cinemark 14. Rated R