A howling great time.

It's nothing like as inventive as the first Nightmare on Elm Street, but it's much more thoughtful and provocative than most genre horror movies, and more fun.

Good in the first half, begins to fade when new ideas are all used up and then finally staggers exhausted to the finish line.

Scream 2 successfully takes the rules of a sequel - higher body count, bigger set-pieces - and delivers a film that intensifies everything from the self-aware humour and the death scenes to the emotional connections between its cast of characters.