Either your franchise dies a hero, or it lives long enough to say "How do you do, fellow kids?"

Arriving over a decade after the previous installment and — some would say — well past its sell-by date, Scream 4 reunited director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson with their principal cast for what would turn out to be one last round together. Some might say undoing the (im)perfect happy ending afforded by a tidy trilogy wrap-up and turning it into a quadrilogy (and beyond) was nothing more than a (ahem) craven attempt at capitalizing on residual nostalgia, while others would argue it was merely ahead of its time — doing the whole legacy sequel thing long before George Lucas sold his empire for billions of dollars and before the MCU got so godawful that it had to revert to dragging its original talent back to try in vain to claw its way back to the top of the pile. Either way, a new Scream movie in 2011 felt pretty fucking weird and just a little unnecessary, to say the least.

In spite of any anachronistic angst, Scream 4 somehow slips back into its old bag of tricks, bashing on the then-persistent Hollywood remake cycle while acknowledging its own existence as part of the problem with a knowing wink. It also returns to the franchise's roots, with Sidney inexplicably heading back to her hometown and the home-base for all her worst nightmares, Woodsboro, while Ghostface him/her/themselves makes up for any of the previous installment's lack of bloodshed by spilling some guts, stabbing a cop in the forehead and even shooting some guy in the dick. That this is all bookended with more meta-commentary that predicts the rise of America's true sociopaths — social media influencers — just means that all of this has held up surprisingly well in the intervening years. What felt a bit extraneous at the time now feels pretty damn prescient. All Ghostface needed to do was plea for us to smash that Like button and to donate to their Patreon and the effect would've been spot on.

While Williamson's script (with an assist from Ehren "Finger Knives" Kruger) does its best to justify its own existence beyond being an excuse for us to indulge in a reunion of characters we've missed in the intervening decade, it also is still very much that thing. While Neve Campbell looks as ambivalent about the whole thing as she did in 3, Courteney Cox and David Arquette shine as the married couple on the rocks which, given that they were legally separated at this point, should come as no surprise. Watching these two crazy kids fall head over heels for each other in the first film only to come out the other side of it 15 years later tattered and torn definitely tracks, even if it's a bit of a bummer. And hey, look, Scream 4 was doing that other thing Hollywood does now before it was cool: bringing out all your beloved characters to show how miserable they've become! Bonus!

Despite the fact that one foot is most definitely planted in the past, Scream 4 does a solid job introducing some new blood, both literally and figuratively. Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin and Emma Roberts (who is most definitely not Anna Kendrick — believe me, I checked) all do a fine job as Woodsboro's latest batch of victims/red herring, but mostly I'm just here for Marley Shelton's lemon squares and Alison Brie swearing up a storm. Granted, with most of this crew not receiving the same level of plot armor as the main trio, we're not likely to see most of these characters again, but still. It was fun while it lasted and, true to form, the bloated runtime never feels like a stretch in such company.

While no one at the time knew it, Scream 4 would turn out to be Wes Craven's last film before passing away in 2015. While he had some spotty entries throughout his long career, the man is in fine form here, sending himself out on a playful, intelligent and surprisingly brutal note, tending to his franchise with as much creative control as the hovering presence of a pair of Weinsteins would allow. While the passing of Wes still stings, there's at least the silver lining of knowing that this is the last time either producer would have a hand in one of these movies. As it turns out, going back to the well was a blessing in disguise, even if there are moments where the image of Steve Buscemi wearing a Music Band T-shirt while slinging a skateboard over his shoulder occasionally comes to mind.