Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011

Okay, once it’s funny. Or scary. Or whatever. The 1996 original stood out for its genre-referential cleverness. Two lame shriekquels added a few self-referential gags, and this one, a clear cash-grab coming 11 years after S3, is entirely about its own lineage, probably because there’s nowhere else to take the creaky franchise. This tiresomely repetitive screamake consists of a series of fright-free stabbings of clueless teens, it’s illogical and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, and it gives red herrings a bad name. Ultimately, you just don’t care who’s behind that drippy mask.