Scream Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

3. There Are Some Lazy Storytelling Choices

James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick's script clearly relishes poking fun at some of the more unsavory aspects of modern cinema, namely excessively franchised IP, artsy "elevated horror," and also the entitlement of toxic fandom.

This is all well and good, but there are times where it feels like the script uses these meta elements as a crutch to paper over some of its weaker and more contrived storytelling elements.

Yes, Scream has always been inherently convoluted, but there are times where this movie's script gets dangerously close to becoming the very thing the series has sent up from the beginning.

The third act in particular requires the audience to buy some fairly sizable conveniences, and when it indulges some of the most-loathed tropes of the very thing it's critiquing - that is, the legacy sequel - the script ends up feeling like a mixed bag of smart meta-narrative commentary and lazy storytelling.