Starring: Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere and Courteney Cox,

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Paramount, out now

The survivors of the Ghostface killings leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter in New York City.

New custodians of the Scream franchise – directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick – return after last year’s ‘requel’ Scream, delivering another couple of shocking hours of gore and mystery, and it’s a whole load of fun.

By this stage in the proceedings, we’ve gone way beyond meta, and this series exists in a world where reality and movie fiction are interchangeable, and certainly the laws of physics and biology no longer apply. As with the previous entries, it’s a whodunit, and we try to work out who’s stalking Sam and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega), Ming (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding).

I’m not sure there’s enough clues available to solve the mystery, and there’s plenty of red herrings to send you off the trail, but that’s part of the crazy charm. Sole survivor from the 1996 original Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) from Scream IV (2011) are along for the trip, and it’s a brutal one, with some kills clearly referencing Italian gialli thrillers.

Verdict: Ghostface takes Manhattan with a crowd-pleasing instalment in a series that just runs and runs. 8/10 

Nick Joy