Scream 4

Scream 4
Starring: Neve Campbell, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Courtney Cox, David Arquette
Rated R
Director: Wes Craven

Ten years have passed and Sydney decides to finally return to Woodsboro as the last trip on her book tour. Sydney isn’t the only one to return, so has the Ghostface Killer.

The original Scream was a breathe of fresh air in a tired genre, with each sequel comes a new chance to be another game changer however unlike the original which was the first to bring the horror clichés to the forefront, now it’s just another in the series delivering more of the same. To make things worse Scream 4 relies on these rules to such an extent that it causes it to be a convoluted mess trying too hard to show everyone how self aware it is. From the opening scene you know you’re watching a scream movie but being another sequel rather than one high profile actress getting offed in the opening minutes we get two actresses cloyingly filling in for the Drew Barrymore role. The rest of the film is just really lame murder scenes with no connection to any of the characters. The old stand buys are all back Sydney (Neve Campbell), Dewey (David Arquette) and Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox) the gang is back together the only thing they are missing is the mystery machine.

By the time all the killing is done and we get to the killers motive speech, it turns out that it’s really the fault of the Paris Hiltons and Kim Kardashians of the world who gained fame and money without having any discernable skill besides starring in a sex tape. So of course the next logical step is to make a snuff film and put it on the internet. While I can go with this as motive I find it hard to believe that anyone is going to come up with an elaborate plan, follow it to a tee only to break character and become a psychotic killer running around a hospital, ruining the plan that was worked so hard for.

Here is an idea how about the three that keep making it through every film, have them all die and the killer get away. Have the killer break every rule that has been discussed ad nauseum in the first three scream films, stop trying to be so hip and cute and make something that won’t feel dated next year with current pop culture references. Do something original by turning the rules on its head; At least that would be something that wasn’t expected rather than the usual everyone dies but them. Scream 4 is a tired retread in a tired series that at one time had the balls to mock the genre while still delivering the jumps and jolts one expects from a horror film.

Grade-68