Friday, May 4, 2012

Scream 4 (2011) Review


Scream 4

Usually in this day and age, horror franchises receive the remake treatment if they’ve lain dormant for almost a decade.  Halloween and Friday the 13th have gotten their reboots within the last few years, but director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson are breaking the mold. Rather than handing the rights to another aspiring filmmakers, the two have reunited to bring audiences yet another sequel in Scream 4.

Plot Synopsis: Ten years have passed since Sidney Prescott was last terrorized by the Ghostface killings, and in that time she has written a book about her three encounters with the masked killers (since there are different killers in each movie). The last stop on her book tour leads her back to her hometown of Woodsboro, which has become almost immortalized by the events that occurred in the first movie, but almost as soon as she arrives, the murders begin again and this time with a new set of rules to play by.

The hallmark of the Scream series has always been its Williamson’s clever premise of poking fun at horror movies while at the same time existing in one. Given that the last decade of horror movies have brought about new trends in the genre, Scream 4 finds ways to make both small and big jokes to poke fun at them. Japanese ghost girl stories and the Saw series get light jabs here and there, but Williamson’s main target here is definitely remakes.

So while Scream 4 is technically a sequel, the plot plays with the notion of remakes in ways that extend to its story development. The movie has many nods and similar scenes to ones that happened in the original, but with twists that play out differently than before. Now when the killer(s) was revealed, my initial reaction was disappointment, but Williamson keeps running with it and gradually allows the reveal to get better before landing a wonderful punch line.

It was also nice to see Neve Campbell (Sidney), Courtney Cox (Gale), and David Arquette (Dewey) return to the roles that they played three times before with ease.
There are also a plethora of new actors to contend with, the best being Hayden Panettiere (Kirby) as the horror movie loving best friend of Sidney’s cousin Jill. Emma Roberts is fine as Jill, although they could’ve gotten a more convincing actress for the role. The problem with the new cast is that for the most part they don’t stack up to the old-timers, and that is because there is just too many of them to get equal screen time and development.

Additionally, director Craven can’t quite reign in the same level of balance between comedy and horror that made the original so well done, with an emphasis more on comedy. That said, being that this is the third sequel in a horror series, maybe focusing on comedy was a smart move. It’s hard to scare audiences if they’ve seen it three times before, but he still manages to wrangle an admirable level of tension and suspense out of the situations. And Roger L. Jackson’s creepy voice remains the reason why Ghostface still manages to be a great villain, even though Ghostface is just a guise for the real villains to wear.

While the remake theme remained strong throughout, I feel like the movie could’ve gone into more detail on the other trends it touches on (like how the “filming the murders” rule feels perfunctory and unnecessary). The pacing’s also a bit of a mess, with an almost reckless need to throw in winking jokes or death scenes with rapid succession. Even with those flaws, Scream 4 is so much better than it had any right to be, given how horror sequels have a dismal track record. Fans of the original three should be satisfied and newcomers now have a reason to discover the original and then follow that up with a worthy sequel.

3/4    Rating Criteria

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