Movie Review Scream 4

Scream 4 (2011) 

Directed by Wes Craven

Written by Kevin Williamson

Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere

Release Date April 15th, 2011

Published April 14th, 2011 

The original "Scream" in 1996 transformed a moribund genre. Horror had grown stale and predictable when "Scream" arrived and with its mix of horror movie inside jokes, ironic asides and better than average scares reinvented horror movies; giving the genre back the edge it lost with the 5th or 6th time Jason Voorhees came back from the dead and then went to space.

"Scream 2" had similar juice as the first; cleverly twisting the conventions of goofy horror sequels and using them to create laughs before dousing the humor with blood and screams. The third film lost the thread by going so far inside itself that neither the laughs nor the scares could escape.

Now we have "Scream 4" which picks up the action 10 years after the story of "Scream 3" and you have to wonder why Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) would ever go back to Woodsboro. Sure, she still has family there, her Aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell) and teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) but still, going back to so much history and on the anniversary of the original killings no less, seems like a really bad idea.

Indeed, it is a bad idea as just before Sidney arrives two Woodsboro teens are killed while watching the movie 'Stab 7' based on the books by Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) on the Woodsboro killings. Well, to be fair, as one of the soon to be murdered teens points out, the first three 'Stab' movies were based on the books; the next 4 were pale imitations of the first that even had Ghostface as a time traveler.

Back to Sidney, she has written a self help book based on her recovery from the trauma of surviving three separate mass murders. She has come back to Woodsboro at the behest of her publicist (Alison Brie) who can't wait to call the publishing company to tell them about the murders that she knows will spike sales of Sidney's book. Her bloodthirstiness is more of a commentary on modern marketing practice than any kind of clue to her being more of a character in this movie. 

Find my full length review at Horror.Media