10 Movies That Are Basically One Big Apology

The first two Scream films so brilliantly skewered the tropes of slasher films and slasher sequels that fans were eager to see how Scream 3 would up the ante.

Sadly the third time wasn't the charm, as Scream 3 ended up dialling back the sharp satire while falling prey to the very silliness that the series itself had been ribbing up to that point.

Lacking the nimble intermingling of scares and laughs that made its predecessors such winners, Scream 3 relied over-eagerly on melodramatic backstories and ridiculous plot twists. Tellingly, this is the only film of the original quadrilogy that Kevin Williamson didn't write.

Though it seemed like the series' goose was cooked, Scream 4 finally materialised 11 years later, and benefitted massively from the canyon of time that had passed since Scream 3, allowing Wes Craven to enthusiastically satirise changing trends in the horror genre.

First and foremost, Scream 4 was a game bite-back against the film industry's relentless thirst for remakes and reboots, and the now-common tendency to "soft reboot" dormant franchises with younger up-and-coming cast members.

Scream 4 got its teeth back, and now that another 11 years have passed, it'll be interesting to see how next year's fifth film, simply titled Scream, engages with more recent genre developments.