Autumn has fallen and it’s time once more to celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear. Rainestorm finishes its horror trilogy and goes to the well one last time to highlight 31 days of spooky scares that season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

Hex cast: 2000

The charm: Unfairly derided by critics, this film may lack the suspense of the first film, but with its tongue delicately planted in its cheek, it manages to poke fun not only at horror films but at the process of turning a real-life tragedy into tawdry terror. The series is completely through the looking glass now, told in parallel with the production of the latest movie-within-a-movie, Stab 3, that serves as Scream 3‘s backdrop. The series moved from horror film to more of a police procedural in this episode, with the scares taking a backseat to the unfolding mystery. There are fewer scenes of stalking murder and more scenes of actors (played by actors) deconstructing their real-life characters and trying to figure out which one of them is most likely to be killed next.

Focal point: Having been murdered in the previous film, genre expert Randy shows up via recorded video to warn everyone about the rules of a horror movie trilogy.

Entrancing trivia: The attack on Sidney on the Woodsboro set of Stab 3 is similar to her first attack in Scream. As Sidney looks out of the window by the front door, the killer comes out of the coat closet and stabs the door, narrowly missing Sidney, and then he chases her up the stairs.

Speak the words: “I did not fuck that pig Milton to get a leading role just to die here with second rate celebrities like you two!”

Companion spells: Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997).

The curse: As in Scream 2, the killer turns out to be more of a fringe rather than a focal character.