Scream 4 (2011) Review
Scream 3 concluded
the trilogy and ended the story, only it didn’t exactly do a bang-up job. So,
over a decade later, we got Scream 4.
Oh no, you’re probably thinking, this
one must really suck if the third one
was bad. Guess what? It’s actually great. I don’t want to overhype it—it’s not as
good or as clever as the original, it has many flaws and familiar elements—but
let me tell you why I find it the most enjoyable of all the sequels.
By this point, we know what to expect from a Scream film. An opening scene with a
subversion of expectations, someone talking on the phone with the killer, and a
surprise murder. Not only do we get what we expect, we also get something that
still manages to surprise and be original. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a very
fun opening. Then, we get into the story. There’s a lot going on: Sidney is
back in Woodsboro promoting her book about having survived through the
franchise this long, Dewey is now sheriff in Woodsboro, he is married to Gale, and
Gale is no longer a reporter but a struggling writer. There’s a new set of high
school kids, who are obsessed with horror movies—in particular, the Stab franchise—and among them is
Sidney’s cousin, and of course all of these characters become wrapped up in a
new era of terror when Ghostface inevitably returns.
Scream 4 was
hugely unnecessary, and coming out so long after the disappointing Scream 3, it seemed like, what was the
point? The point was, to give fans a proper ending to the franchise in the form
of this hybrid of sequel and soft reboot (something addressed in the movie, of
course). Basically, forget Scream 3
ever happened. This is the real ending. And it’s better than it has any right
to be.
The first Scream
was meta, the second was an appropriate second part, and the third went really
meta. This one? Meta to the max. It does become a bit much at times and goes
way too far, but within this familiar series of events are some more sly jabs
at the horror genre as it stood at the beginning of the decade. A lot had
changed since Scream 3, and most of
it not for the better, but Scream 4
reminds us of the importance of the franchise within the genre it’s spoofing. There
is no holding back.
The biggest issues I have with Scream 4 (or Scre4m, as
its stylized, which I don’t think is as dumb as most people think) are the
first act, the twist at the end, and the motivations of some of the characters.
First, the twist. I won’t spoil it, but it’s somewhat similar to the one from
the ending of 3. Though it doesn’t
fall flat, it doesn’t land with as much impact as intended, either. The first
act is uneven, scrambling to re-establish old characters and set up all the new
ones and place them in this new modern setting, but then it hits its stride,
and is actually really well-paced.
Most of the teenage characters in this movie are horror
aficionados, which is completely fine, but also really difficult to accept as
easily as the movie wants us to. In the first Scream, we had a few characters who were big into horror, but most
weren’t experts. Here, everyone is an expert, it seems. It’s a nice idea, but
unfortunately, highly implausible, and despite what you might expect, Scream 4 isn’t going for goofy
over-the-top content here, it actually tries to be grounded and scary again.
Something sorely lacking from Scream 3 was the violence and scariness. The one other thing you
hope to see in a Scream movie other
than commentary on the horror genre, is clever kills. I can’t say Scream 4 is that scary (I don’t think
any of them are, really) but they really tried, at least. It’s not a
joke-a-minute, it switches from humour to horror in much the same way the
original does. When it is trying to be funny, it’s really funny, and when it
tries to be scary, it’s…still entertaining, because the kills are great. This
is the goriest Scream of them all,
and perhaps the most brutal. It more than makes up for everything lacking in
the third movie—in more ways than just violence.
Gale and Dewey are better in this movie than any of the
other movies, I think. Dewey isn’t acting like a goof anymore, and Gale isn’t
acting like an ultra-oppressive bitch as much. They clash with the new younger
characters, and with each other in new ways, which feels fresh. Sidney isn’t really
the star anymore, but unlike 3, the
story isn’t trying to make her the star and failing. Neve Campbell still has a
strong presence, and Sidney is crucial to the story, but the newbies and old
cast are meshed together very well, to allow for the most-entertaining story
possible. Like the original, the cast is filled out with some big, young stars,
including Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts. All of them are great, but its
mostly thanks to the performances, because many of them are thinly written. The
one casting choice I really didn’t like was Anthony Anderson as a cop, because
he starred in Scary Movie 3 and 4, a franchise which began as a spoof of
Scream, and that’s just way too meta
for me to handle.
As I said before, Scream
4 really didn’t need to happen, but I’m glad it did. Despite having
compared it very closely to the third movie, I still think it stands well
enough as its own sequel to be worth watching. Don’t bother watching it if you
haven’t seen the others, though, because this fourth chapter is designed purely
for the fans of the series. As far as fourth films in a horror franchise, this
might be one of the best. Much like the original, it’s funny, violent, and
reflective of the time in which it was made. I found it to be an entertaining ending
to the series, but will it really remain the ending? I hope so. It was written
by Kevin Williamson again, who wrote the first and second but not the third, and
directed by Wes Craven, but unfortunately, Wes Craven passed away in 2015, and Scream 4 was his last directorial
effort. To do another without him directing just wouldn’t be the same.
But wait, that wasn’t
the end of Scream, was it? I’ll
briefly touch on the series. In 2015, MTV premiered a show using the same title
and overall premise as the Scream
films, but with different characters, a different setting, and a
different-looking (though similar) masked villain. Out of curiosity, I checked
it out. The first season is watchable, and has a few moments of tension, but I
just couldn’t get into it. It was too familiar and felt too much like a rip-off
than a homage to the film series, so I gave up. From what I know, the second
season is more of the same, and the upcoming third season is a reboot, for some
reason. I don’t recommend seeking out the TV series, but I’m not saying to
avoid it, either. As far as I’m concerned, all you need are the films.
For the next franchise in Sequel-a-thon, I was
going to tackle another serial killer, but that feels like too many serial
killer movies in a row. So, to change things up for the next couple of days,
I’ll talk about two sequels to a werewolf film I reviewed last year, Ginger Snaps.
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