As you’ve no doubt figured out by now, this Monday Morning Movie Critic day is the garbage bin for movies I watched weeks ago but didn’t write up until now. And in that perpetual garbage bin, where would we be without a horror sequel no one wanted or was asking for.
What Works: The opening scene’s not bad, even if the goofy tone (more interested in making us smirk at its cleverness instead of scaring you) is established in it…it works for a scene but a whole movie is hard to watch like that. Some of the cast is able to shine beneath the rubble: Neve Campbell as the only one taking any of this seriously, and–surprisingly–Hayden Panettiere is fun as the world’s smartest cheerleader. Also, the message at the end is stronger than you expect.
What Doesn’t: Except for who the killer is, there’s not much surprise in this whole thing. It’s also annoying that a horror movie spends so much time trying to show you how ahead of the game it is but is really just the same old, tired shit we’ve been watching (like a pretentious teenager who’s just going through the motions of Hamlet).
What I Would Have Done Differently: Probably not made this movie. This thing is perhaps as good as it could be, but I don’t know that that’s reason enough to make it in the first place.
All i can say is why? Someone should have said no when they pitched Scream 3