Fully aware of its status as the sequel to the surprise hit thriller of 1996, this lively follow-up trades freshness for familiarity, playing on our affection for returning characters while obeying--and then subverting--the "rules" of sequels. Once again, movie references are cleverly employed to draw us into the story, which takes place two years after the events of Scream, at a small Ohio college, where the Scream survivors reunite when another series of mysterious killings begins. Capitalising on the guesswork involving a host of potential suspects, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson have crafted a thriller that's more of a Scream clone than a genuinely inventive new story. But the shocks are just as effective, and escalating tension leads to a tautly staged climax that's simultaneously logical and giddily over the top. Background information for trivia buffs: to preserve the secrecy of plot twists, copies of the screenplay were heavily guarded during production and restricted to only the most crucial personnel. When an early draft was circulated on the Internet, screenwriter Kevin Williamson did rewrites, and subsequent drafts were printed with red ink on brown paper, eliminating the threat of photocopying. None of the cast members knew who the killer was until the final scenes were filmed. -- Jeff Shannon

What should have been an explosive finale to the trilogy in Scream 3 ends up becoming something of a damp squib, with little of the suspense that made the first two so memorable. Kevin Williamson, creator of the original Scream, claimed he always saw the series as a trilogy, so it's a pity that he couldn't have had more of a hand in the last of the series, settling for a producer credit while the screenplay is penned by Ehren Kruger (ironic in itself, given director Wes Craven's most famous creation). When a crucial player in the first two movies is killed in the now obligatory pre-credit murder sequence, the attention switches to the set of Stab 3, the third in the fictional film series based on the original Woodsboro murders of the first Scream movie. Sydney Prescott, who has spent the last few years targeted by the Ghost-faced killer, is drawn out of hiding in the Californian hills to face the killer one last time. Along the way she is re-united with old friends, (both living and dead) and discovers more about her family history than she ever wanted to know.

Most of the players look a little bored with the whole thing now and Craven just doesn't inject any pace into the proceedings, happy, it seems to produce virtually carbon copy set pieces from the previous instalments. The film sags incredibly in the second act and when a convenient "pre-recorded" message from the late Randy Meeks turns up, it's not so much evidence of that character's forethought, more of the scriptwriter's laziness. It has its moments though: Jenny McCarthy hiding from the killer in a wardrobe room filled with Ghostface costumes, a great cameo from Carrie Fisher and the constant bitching between Cox and the wonderful Parker Posey, who plays Gail Weathers in the fictional Stab 3. Ultimately, though, as the closing chapter in a great horror series, Scream 3 fails to live up to its predecessors. --Jonathan Weir

Screwedwas another nail in the coffin of former Saturday Night Livewisecracker Norm MacDonald, following his dismal previous film, Dirty Work. However, while Screwedisn't particularly funny (the jokes about dentures, dog poop and dead bodies are pretty much as old as the hills), the plot exerts a perverse interest; for most of the film, it's genuinely unpredictable. MacDonald plays Willard, the butler-chauffer, all-purpose flunky of Mrs. Crock, the wealthy, penny-pinching owner of a pastry company. Fed up with her abuse, Willard and his friend Rusty (David Chappelle from Blue Streak and 200 Cigarettes) conspire to kidnap her dog Muffin. But Muffin escapes and returns home; the ransom note is assumed to be for Willard himself. Rusty and Willard run with the idea, sending in a videotape of himself being held prisoner. When a detective starts getting a little too close, they panic and decide to fake Willard's death. Okay, none of it makes much sense, but in a world of ridiculously formulaic films which slavishly follow every screenwriting cliché Screwed seems like a brief oasis of narrative invention. Of course, it still isn't funny. And by the end, it's lost whatever spark of imagination that got it started. Too bad. It's written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, the screenwriters responsible for Problem Child, but also for Ed Wood and The People vs Larry Flynt--they should stick to biographies. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com