Four Screams back to back now, the terror and the tedium mixing into one. Will be glad for a day off tomorrow.

Opens with a classic Scream kill, playing the hits, followed by a fake out once we realise that was just a movie within a movie, and we have a conversation about how stale these tropes are getting, followed by an untypical Scream kill. This is then revealed to be another movie and we have this Russian Doll or Droste Effect as we cut to a new scene to reveal that the previous scene was just another installment in the Stab series, before finally getting to our opening murders in the Scream universe.

This is a new decade and a new generation of victims this time, 11 years from Scream 3, and a very different environment for horror. Here, Sidney handing over to her younger cousin and her friends, as they take it in turns to be murdered by the returning Ghostface. There's a cynical edge to this new generation, lacking in empathy or sympathy at all, a little generation of narcissists, which does feel a little mean-spirited by Craven, but it does also mean that any of them can realistically be the killer(s) I suppose. The eventual killer ends up giving a very on the nose speech about modern fame and fans, but it all feels a little hollow ultimately.

It doesn't really feel like this Scream has a target of purpose (other than vaguely not liking young people), whereas the previous installments were send ups of slashers, sequels and Hollywood respectively, this is much more aimless. I imagined it would go down the path of a meta take on reboots, but it doesn't particularly, or isn't able to engage with the material in an interesting way. Perhaps the forthcoming new Scream film will take that route (as that's just called Scream not Scream 5).

There are some decent bits of violence, and it's certainly a bloodier film than Scream 3, but overall it just feels like there's no reason for it to exist.