The reasons for amping up the comedy, depending on who you believe - a response to the increased spate of teen on teen violence that was infecting the US at the turn of the millenium seems to be the most prevailing one - left the original trilogy to go out on the franchises low point.

Comedy had always been a big part of the previous entries, but it never felt overt, coming more from the combination of smart characters and the situation they were placed in. Here though, not only do you have Parker Posey pratfalling like in a Jim Carrey movie, but a fucking Jay and Silent Bob cameo.....granted its almost blink and you'll miss it, but its enough to show that Craven (or possibly new writer/hack Ehren Krueger) had changed his mindset to the prominent tone of the whole film.

Posey in particular not just feels completely out of place, but the way she interacts with the others seems to bring out their more comedic sides, almost in a ripple effect of lame humour that slowly permeates the entire cast.......not her fault as I do adore Posey normally (the 'cock juggling thundercunt' that she most definitely usually is), but it simply takes up too much air in the film that should have put that much time and effort into its set pieces (even if the death by fax/gas was most amusing).

There's still some good ideas here though - the meta aspect is similarly amped and its a logical and clever progression, even if it still comes back round to the least interesting character in the entire franchise: Maureen Prescott (the woman is responsible for everything that happens across all three films and yet she's granted so little character, personality or even proper backstory as to be almost a complete nothing of a character herself).

And of course, the main characters remain a pure joy. I would watch Syd, Gail and Dewey do nothing so this gets points for just having them in here and not fucking them up (mostly not fucking them up.....). It also still retains that most 90s of vibes - Creed on the soundtrack? Fuck yeah! - and even though I've just shoed the entire thing for the best part of 300 words, I can't help but still love it. A little bit. But love it nonetheless.

Easily the worst of the franchise. But it's still Scream. So its all kinds of aces.