Make a few jokes, spill a little blood.

- Courteny Cox in Scre4m - scary and funny. In more ways than one.

Twenty minutes into Scre4m and the blood level is rising fast –theirs, not mine. This is a horror movie, and the nubile-bodies are piling fast. Except then I’m watching Sheriff Dwayne (David Arquette) quibbling with his smitten Deputy (Marley Shelton) over her lemon slice. ‘You’re not cheating on your wife if you eat a lemon square,’ she gushes, looking like a bug eyed Heather Graham. ‘No. But it would be cheating on my diet,’ Dwayne quips. You expect a light hearted musical flourish; instead it’s the radio call reporting a couple of slashed up teens. It’s then that it hit me, Scre4m is funny. Not only that, it’s meant to be funny.

We’ve grown unaccustomed to comedy in horror movies. The most popular series (the Saw, Ring, and Hostel series) are perpetually murky and dread-filled. Whatever jokes are had are often lousy, and almost always at the victims expense. These films are referenced in Scre4m, almost always by the characters themselves. Everyone is clued in and media saturated. Director Wes Craven opens the movie with a beautiful woman complaining about metatextuality and sexism in horror films, moments before getting brutally shivved.

The film follows the people of Woodsboro on the anniversary of the original murders, aka Scream One. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is back in town to release a book, titled Out of Darkness, which details her overcoming her traumatic past. There’s no evidence of that here. Campbell spends most of the film looking downtrodden, her hang-dog eyes wincing out tears while carnage ensues. So basically, she the same as in every other Scream movie.

Is it scary? Yes and no. There’s only so many ways to stick a teen, especially in the Scream series, which is limited to a hunting knife and that melted-ghost mask. What makes it work is the sharp script by Kevin Williamson. Comedy makes the horror more, well, horrifying. Scenes with the shrill and domineering Sheriff’s wife (Courteney Cox, who in one fantastic scene tells Deputy Hicks her lemon slices, ‘Taste like ass.’), or spunky film buff Kirby (Hayden Pannetiere) almost make you forget there’s a serial killer on the loose—until that phone starts ringing...

In Scre4m, everyone is in on the joke. Teen audiences can enjoy the near grovelling at their technical savvy—everything is uploading, streaming, Tweeting and sms-ing—while everyone else can quietly relish seeing their screen-doubles getting mercilessly stalked and murdered. Plus there’s a slew of movie references and cameos to enjoy. Sure it’s cheesy and overdone in places— it’s supposed to be. Even the victims know that. But they’re all having a great time, right up until the knife drops. That is everyone except weepy-eyed Sidney Prescott, who I’m sure is praying the series doesn’t get a Saw-esque re-tool for Scream 5. Sure that’s a spoiler, but if you’re shocked to learn she survives, you haven’t been paying attention.