Movie Review: ‘SCREAM 4’

It has been over ten years since Wes Craven last brought us a chapter in the Scream series.  Though once considered revolutionary for its unique blend of self-referential humor and gory scares, the series hit a major bump in the road with Scream 3.  Without the pitch-perfect timing of Kevin Williamson’s previous scripts, Scream 3 relied too much on comedic cameos and less on creating an absorbing mystery.  Thankfully, the missing ingredient from the third film has returned to join Craven and company for the latest installment in the series.  As a result, the re-sharpened knife of Scream 4 digs into your skin with juicy results.

Just so that you are aware, this review will be SPOILER-FREE. You will not have to worry about me revealing who gets killed and by whom.

As we have come to expect from the Scream series, the film opens with a memorable kill(s).  Williamson has crafted a complex and smart opening that successfully sets the tone for the rest of the film.  From there we are introduced to our first batch of new and young cast members.  The highlights of which are Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts.  Panittiere clearly plays Scream’s “Tatum” role to Emma Roberts’ Jill.  We quickly learn that Jill is the cousin to Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).  Returning to Woodsboro to promote her new self-help book, Sydney is now thrown into a whole new game that incorporates new fresh faces as well as fan-favorites Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox).

The success of Scream 4 stems from the overall tone of the film.  Craven and Williamson have done something I didn’t think would be possible with a fourth entry in a series: They have made it seem fresh.  Right from the get-go the pair pushes us to question whether this is simply just another sequel or if this is indeed, as one character in the film so cleverly coins it, a “screamake.”  Because of this, Scream 4 feels more like the original than any of the sequels.  Scream 2 and 3 failed to include the carefree and fun approach that made the original and this one both funny and entertaining for horror fans.  This is not to say that Scream 4 is all laughs.  Craven is heavy handed with the gore in many sequences.  One kill in particular results in the walls splattered with an abundance of blood.

Aside from the tone, what also makes the newest installment work is the inclusion of the newest cast members.  The recent additions are surprisingly just as entertaining as those returning to the series.  Emma Roberts provides us with a worthy successor to our Sydney, while Eric Knudsen as Robbie and Rory Culkin as Charlie, present to us the new “film kids” complete with iPhones and handheld cameras.  If this is beginning to sound like a remake of the original . . . that’s the point.  Williamson acknowledges this and has fun playing with this fact in unique ways.  The veteran who steps out of the shadow of our lead Sydney is the now retired reporter Gale Weathers.  Courtney Cox demands your attention in every scene she is featured in.  Her fiery performance now seems to outshine Campbell who portrays Sydney as a now more relaxed victim (I guess after four films she should be accustomed to being stalked).

Unfortunately the script is not perfect.  There are a handful of scenes that seem unnecessary or don’t work as well as they should have.  One of which includes an early scene where a bunch of cops are on a hunt for a missing phone.  I don’t know if they were told to overact, but the sequence reached laughable heights in the small audience I was sitting with.  In fact . . .  Craven depicts the cops as inept in most of their scenes that will bring to mind the bumbling cops in his debut film Last House on the Left.  The other complaint I had is that I almost forgot about the mystery element while watching the film.  The script balances so many different situations that it fails to provoke you to question who the killer is until the final half hour starts ticking by.  Through the majority of the film, I never once asked, “I wonder who the killer is?”

Scream 4 acknowledges the current film trends and the new “hip” technology to great effect while also not forgetting what made the first film work so well.  Craven and Williamson seemed to have effortlessly made a film that speaks to the younger generation while also not disappointing the original fans.  This is evident in the energetic intro as well as the shocking finale; which happens to be the best ending of any of the sequels.  Scream 4 returns with a group of “too smart for their own good” teens to entertain us – A group comprised of “too smart for our own good” film geeks that are going to sit in the theater and over analyze every situation and kill that is presented to us on screen.  Don’t worry though; these new characters are going to do this for us.  There seems to be a running gag in the film where every character looks in the back seat of the car they enter, as if they hear us (the audience) yelling at them to.  The characters, even more so than the original film, are us and often react the same way we would in these horror movie scenarios.  Thankfully with Scream 4, it seems Williamson and Craven are once again one step ahead of us.