Though the box-office disappointment of "Scream 4" this year would seem to have put a dagger through the heart of the self-aware slasher franchise for good, don't be surprised if the Weinsteins re-evaluate this one in the next decade or so and decide it's time to exploit the title for a new generation. While the film's post-modernist slant makes it a less-obvious target for a remake than the mostly empty-headed slasher films of the 1980s, "Scream" is nevertheless akin to "A Nightmare on Elm Street" or "Friday the 13th" for those individuals who came of age during the Clinton years, and it will be looked back upon as a classic of the genre by those born too late to catch it on the first go-round. Still, as was clearly evident with the only fitfully-clever fourth installment, the franchise doesn't seem to have many more places to go at this point without devolving into self-parody, and that's not likely to change no matter how many decades go by.