scream 4 review

Like most people in their late twenties reading this review, the SCREAM franchise was a staple of my teen angst years. The first film was filled with terrifying goodness, which opened the floodgates of copycat scripts and features (most notably URBAN LEGEND and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER) for years to come. What was so enthralling about the SCREAM films was watching director Wes Craven try new things, poke fun at his past mistakes, and create admirable cinematic horror.


Eleven years later, we're given a much anticipated follow-up, SCREAM 4 (known mostly as SCRE4M) which, I'm very sad to report, is lazy, hollow, and a disappointing attempt at rebooting the popular franchise.

The SCREAM series is entirely built on trying to kill Sidney Prescott; within it, a desire to end Sidney Prescott's life is normal, but now it's been eleven years since that last happened. Sid (Neve Campbell) has come out of hiding and is on a book tour, signing autographs and reading snippets from her self-help book. She returns to her hometown of Woodsboro, where the chaos and murders first took place on said tour, and it just so happens that she has returned on the 15th anniversary of when the murders first took place.

Almost everyone makes it clear they do not want to be around Sid, because, well, it's like "being on Top Chef with Jeffrey Dahmer." So many surrounding her who she loved and trusted have fallen victim to Ghostface's love of both horror trivia and the knife. Unfortunately for Sid, who has seemingly lived without fear for eleven years, her return has resurrected Ghostface, who once again will try his (or her) hand at putting her six feet under. There's a lot more things I could and want to discuss with the synopsis, but being a huge SCREAM fan, I will stop there, as surprises and cameos are only fun when you're not expecting them.

In SCRE4M, seven STAB features have been made, horror reboots are the butt of almost all the jokes, and everything is still meta. Since time has passed, Ghostface is now using new social technology and networking, such as iPhone apps and Facebook, to confuse and get his victims. We're told via the poster "New Decade. New Rules." Our new killer appears much angrier, and as the president and vice-president of Woodsboro High's Cinema Club go over the new rules, the first and most applied is this: the kills are way more extreme. Some could argue the violence distracts from everything else in the film, but in order to follow this rule, the violence is a necessity.