Read the review and find out what my thoughts on Scream 4 were....I'll Be Right BAAAACCCKKK!!
Originality is a rarity in Hollywood these days. If it's not remakes or re-boot's, it's sequels. So with all the horror films from the past 30 odd years being redone such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Friday The 13th and even a remake of the awesome Fright Night, It was sort of refreshing to see Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson sign on for Scream 4, the third sequel to the genre re-animating slasher 'classic' Scream, the post modernist slasher film that took the rules set out by it's fore fathers and used them as a way of avoiding death until they ultimately find they can't avoid them. Scream was clever scriptwriting and clever directing, which is why Scream struck a cord with viewers and a new horror icon was born, Ghost-face. Scream spawned two sequels in 1997 and 2000. Because of it's popularity it was imitated countless times by inferior films, Urban Legend and the I Know What You Did Last Summer films. The mid 90s sort of saw a renaissance of the Slasher film much like how the 1980s was Slasher after slasher, they made money, but in the end you have to remember that this sub genre of horror wouldn't have existed without Michael Powell's 1960 film Peeping Tom, a proto-slasher film about a man who kills defenceless women with a camera tripod. This was the earliest example to my knowledge of the the genre, Hitchcock's seminal Psycho is another influential film on this genre but it wasn't until 1977's Halloween, directed by John Carpenter that the 'slasher' movie was really born. This was the main starting point for the masked killer genre and again, much like the films that came after it, it was heavily influenced by the films that came before. So with Scream 4, it's 11 years later. Sydney Prescott, the main character and one of the three survivors of the original Woodsborough murders returns to her home town on a book tour, arriving on the anniversary of the killings. Then the deaths start again and it's up to Sydney, Gail and Sheriff Dewey to solve them.
Sound familiar right? That's because IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME PLOT AS THE PREVIOUS 3, but it's 11 years later and a lot more horror films have been made so there are more rules and regulations to surviving. Every film from Saw to final Destination are name dropped and in one scene, the cheerleader off of Heroes, lets call her Hayden Patisery because I can't spell her name, rifles off every slasher movie ever made, hell even Argento is name dropped. Credit due to Kevin Williamson, the man knows his horror movies, but most of the script is just teens name dropping horror films and sometimes it doesn't really work. What does however is the use of social networking such as the use of facebook, twitter and video blogging. This does bring the series into the 21st century and it's obviously meant to appeal to the Internet generation. It also helps that Craven, unlike his horrendous My Soul To Take, didn't write this.
The cast is what you expect, young, hot up and coming actresses, the afore mentioned Cheerleader off of Heroes, a Culkin brother, Rory I think, Erik Knudson who played Donny Wahlburg's kid in Saw 2, the hot one of the Roberts family...Emma Roberts and some other hot young talent, I was surprised that Craven didn't think to cast Salina Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato as some of the teens, just so he could film them dying, I know I would have....well maybe not Demi Lovato, She's lovely ( I can say that as she's 18). But you also have the returning cast members, Neve Campbell who pretty much jumps back into the role of Sydney, David Arquette, who seems to have forgotten that Dewey had a limp due to getting stabbed in the back...twice, and Courtney Cox who doesn't really look like Courtney Cox any more due to all the botox and what the fuck did she do to her lips? But all three get back into their respective roles and as before in the previous 3 keep the film together. Adding a bit of extra genre spice is Marley Shelton, the fit blonde doctor off of Planet Terror, for some reason she's been cast as an airhead deputy who looks suspiciously like Anna Farris. Maybe that was a nod to Scary Movie?.
Craven again directs with his usual flair, but unlike the first two, it's just not scary any more as we've seen this play out before, 3 times. I know that Williamson was removed and Ehren Kruger was brought in for some re-writes. Im not sure but I guess he may have written the parking garage scene, why would you get out of your car if Ghostface jumped onto the bonet then when he disappears you get out and search for him, fucking drive off, you have a car which you can use a weapon, a weapon a hell of a lot bigger than a knife. I just don't understand the thinking of some people. Williamson's script is fine, Craven's direction is good as usual but it just lacked something, possibly an 18 rating. The previous 3 were all rated 18 in the U.K but this was rated a 15, which means the violence has to be toned down, slasher flicks should be fucked up, not squeaky clean.
But I find myself not hating the film, I dunno why but it entertained me, maybe because it was just another Scream movie and it didn't try to be something else or maybe because I was used to the formula and didn't what something new to my scream films, maybe a lot more blood and violence, but it was entertaining and it's been a while since I was entertained by a horror film. I suppose that with all the nasty and unnecessary torture porn flicks, I was glad for something different. Who knows, but while the film is flawed it's still definitely worth a rent or a buy for completists, I just wish this horror film was more horrible.
So to end my review of Scream 4. What is my final verdict?
If you are looking for a film that doesn't have people caught in traps, or long drawn out scenes of intense torture, Scream 4 maybe the answer, but for someone looking for a film that can be entertaining and seriously violent, not in a Saw way but in a mid 90s way, then id probably give this a miss, I love the previous three and I enjoyed this, I just wish it was more violent. Craven was the man who gave us Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes and A Nightmare On Elm Street (all originals), he also gave us Scream 1, 2 and 3 but 4 seems to be missing a vital component. But it's entertaining and that was enough for me...
Just remember kiddies, never forget the main rule of remakes...Don't Fuck with the original.
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