After a decade spent remaking every horror film that helped fashion Wes Craven’s original post-modern slasher, the only real surprise is that SCRE4M is a sequel rather than a reboot. Well, actually it’s both. The franchise made a name for itself being savvy to the current trends of its own genre through its overly excitable supporting cast of shockingly well-informed cinephiles. This time out it labels SAW soulless torture porn, calls out the insipid yet de rigueur music video aesthetic and repeatedly reminds us that in the 21st century the rules have changed, only to then demonstrate how little anything has evolved.

No sooner has Sidney (Neve Campbell) returned to Woodsboro after 15 years, armed with a new book and determined positive outlook, the town’s glamorous youngsters are being prank-called about their favourite horror flicks before being unceremoniously dispatched once more. Sidney’s cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts) and her friends dub her the Angel of Death, while retired reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) sees the case as her big comeback, much to the chagrin of husband Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette).

Supposedly the first of a new trilogy, one can only hope Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson are pacing themselves. After an amusing opening riff on the film-within-a-film Stab movies, SCRE4M quickly falls into a familiar rhythm, introducing a multitude of pretty young things, suspicious boyfriends and twitchy outcasts, before Ghostface pays them a call. As before, he angrily tests their movie knowledge before chasing them around the house, falling over a lot and eventually killing them. This is a sequel remember.

Much like Sidney, when Neve Campbell appears on screen your first thought is “Where the hell have you been hiding?” and she never convincingly embodies the jaded, know-it-all super-heroine role like she should. Arquette and Cox offer little more than the same old shtick from before, which while disappointing does give the newcomers plenty of room to shine. Emma Roberts doesn’t make a strong initial impact as Jill – the new focus of Ghostface’s menace – but over time her character grows and watching her take charge in the final third is a real treat.

Hayden Panettiere is hugely likable as sassy gorehound Kirby, who at one point reels off every horror remake of the last decade in a satisfyingly geeky moment. Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen willfully accept the mantle of Randy 2.0, but they lack Jamie Kennedy’s charm and their all-knowing banter (so essential to SCREAM’s identity) sounds muddled and poorly defined. There are also amusing cameos from the likes of Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell and Alison Brie, as Sidney’s fame-hungry publicist.

Once it gets done justifying itself, SCRE4M does reach an enjoyable climax, which proves both ludicrous and genuinely audacious in how far it is willing to push the audience. But as praise-worthy and ballsy as it is to kill off most of your best new characters, it does inevitably beg the question, “Where do we go from here?”