Scream 4

Scream 4 - Dir. Wes Craven (2011)

”You forgot the first rule of remakes…don’t fuck with the original.”

It's been fifteen years since a creepy voice over the phone asked a terrified Drew Barrymore if she liked scary movies. When Scream hit theaters in 1996, it revitalized the slasher genre, spawning two sequels and a litany of knockoff franchises. A decade has passed since the last installment and I doubt there was a huge demand for another Scream, aside from the Weinsteins. The former heads of Miramax have been looking to milk the cash cow of their previous successes. Scream 4 is the first of many sequels to come with a new Spy Kids coming out later in the summer as well as spinoffs of everything from Rounders to Shakespeare in Love in development.

Neve Campbell is back once more as tormented heroine, Sidney Prescott, who returns to her hometown of Woodsboro on a promotional tour for her memoirs. No sooner does Sidney arrive then a new Ghostface emerges to hack and slash his way through a smorgasbord of good-looking victims. Also returning for this latest R-rated Scooby Doo mystery is reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), who is still adjusting to small town life as the wife of Dewey (David Arquette), now the sheriff of Woodsboro. New to the film series are Sidney's cousin, Jill (Emma Roberts), and her best friend, Kirby (Hayden Panettiere), as one of the hottest horror movie aficionados ever. Replacing the late-Randy Meeks are Robbie (Eric Knudsen) and Charlie (Rory Culkin), two geeks who run the high school film club and record everything 24/7 with their webcam.

What set the original Scream apart from its pale imitators was the clever screenplay by Kevin Williamson, which played with the conventions of the horror genre. The movie was filled with self-aware characters ironically commenting on the very clichés they were occurring around them. It's not too much of a surprise that Wes Craven was drawn to the production as Scream came out two years after Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a meta-textual sequel in which Freddy Krueger stalked the cast and crew behind the movies.

After skipping out on the last picture, Williamson is back on scripting duties though Ehren Kruger (who penned Scream 3 in his absence) was brought on for last-minute rewrites. The final product still bares the Scream trademarks of self-aware humor, walking a thin line between satire and horror. A lot has changed since the initial film and Scream 4 attempts to address everything from the current state of horror movies to new technologies. Craven and company spread themselves too thin trying to tackle so many topics and come up short each time.

There are brief mentions about the lack of originality in Hollywood, the spate of remakes, and the rise of torture porn. At one point, Kirby lists nearly every major horror movie that has been remade in the past few years. Empty name-dropping seems to be the best they could do. One character comments that the old rules have changed, the kills have to be much more extreme. However, the kills in Scream 4 aren't very extreme or unique. Ghostface follows the same M.O. as always stalking unsuspecting victims then gutting them with a butcher knife. There are multiple scenes of victims running up staircases and kicking away their attacker.

As a part of the YouTube Generation, the young characters of Scream 4 are far savvier about technology than their predecessors. Everyone has an iPhone, but most of the gags about webcams and internet streaming feel like they were written five years ago. Not to mention these sorts of things have already been touched upon in other (inferior) movies like Halloween: Resurrection and FeardotCom. The one bit that does work involves a Ghostface App that allows callers to disguise their voice as the infamous murderer.

The filmmakers also try too hard to maintain the meta-textual elements that had already been exhausted by the previous installments. Characters drop remarks about how this is the point in the movie where everyone feels they're safe until the killer shows himself. And what do you know; everyone feels they're safe until the killer shows himself. There's an underlying layer involving the film's starlets, Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox. Their characters have become inexorably linked to the events of the original film and have yet to move past them. In particular, Gale Weathers has yet to break a new story to surpass the first Woodsboro murders. The actresses themselves have yet to achieve the movie star status predicted by many following the original Scream. The script also throws in a few heavy-handed comments about established stars who have earned their fame and the newcomers who have undeserved done so through viral marketing and reality television.

Scream 4 is also rife with plot holes and it's difficult to tell if the writers got sloppy or if they were an intentional callback to its inspirations. Where exactly are the parents? Evidently, the perfect time to leave your kids alone is when a maniac killer is on the loose. How does the killer get around so quickly on foot? Meanwhile, how do the cops never arrive in time despite driving around in police vehicles? Then again, considering the police department is run by David Arquette…

Most of the script problems can be forgiven due to a quality ensemble with many of them giving fantastic performances. The two best performances come from Hayden Panettiere and Alison Brie from Community and Mad Men. Sporting a short hairdo, Panettiere is wonderful as the sexy and sassy Kirby. She's the best she's ever looked. Brie goes for the gusto as Sidney's snarky, opportunistic publicist. Also good is Marley Shelton in a small role as spunky deputy with a crush on Dewey, of all people. You don't feel too bad when she meets an inevitably grisly fate. As the franchise's holy triumvirate, Campbell, Cox, and Arquette have become old hat at playing their characters and some of the most noteworthy scenes involve the three of them. There's also a cool opening sequence of false starts featuring a bevy of young beauties like Aimee Teegarden, Kristen Bell, and Anna Paquin.

Scream 4 does feel like the same old routine, despite promises of new decade, new rules. It may not be perfect, but it is a fun popcorn film that plays out more like a dark comedy than a straight horror movie. It largely ignores the events of the second and third pictures, making it a true sequel in spirit to the original.

Rating: *** (*****)

SPOILER WARNING: My thoughts on the ending in the comments section.