Earlier this year I was trying to see this film, and just couldn’t get myself to see it. I tried to take a few people, and they kept telling me no, and instead of going alone, I just waited for something out. The movie is the fourth film in the Scream franchise and it brings back a lot of the original cast, and really packs a good punch, even though I couldn’t stand some of the highlights. Scream 4 is a film that will most likely pick up steam later on than now, and while Wes Craven is getting older, he can still create a visual feast, especially with some of the use of lighting, sound, and make up effects.
Scream 4 starts with a few pieces of comedy, making fun of itself and movies of the horror genre in recent years. You will enjoy the writing, and you’ll see the greatness early on, but then the brakes get started. We get thrown into modern day Woodsboro, and our original hero Sidney Prescott is back again. She is on a book tour and has to hit her hometown, and when she arrives, things have changed, but others have stayed the same. We catch up fast with Dewey and Gale, which is quite interesting and sews up swiftly before we get into the main plot point.
The body count isn’t as large, but it happens fast, and it’s interesting to see the use of gore, even if I’m on the fence as to whether or not it was CG or not. The blood and guts found here are fast, and the killer is obviously fast, but not as strong as previous incarnations. You also see that it’s more than one from the beginning. The film then starts to derail towards the mid-point, before it jumps fast and starts taking out anyone that moves. No one is safe here, and we see some sick moments with stabbings going for broke and even the Sidney gets it. My girlfriend didn’t quite nail the villains, and I was completely wrong, but you will find a lot of red herrings here before you get the death.
Scream 4 is somewhat boring at times, but it picks up in the final act. The twist ending was quite good, and I liked it a lot. They don’t pull punches in the final acts, and you’ll be amazed how things pan out, and the final acts are insane, even if it’s a bit extreme. I was just happy that there was no “identity” crisis ending.
Could there be another one in the pipeline? Probably not. This film sums up the Scream series, and it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for anything else. If Wes Craven makes another Scream, it will have to deal with something outlandish, because at this point, there’s nothing left to be said about the characters in the series. Is it the best in the series? No. I think the second one is best, but the first is an instant classic, and I remember when it first came out, so it has a nice place in my heart. I recommend Scream 4, it is a quick moving horror slasher, and it works well in a sea of PG-13 BS that we get fed on a regular basis.
As i`ve said before on this site i`ve always regarded the first "SCREAM" movie as an incredibly over-rated pile of horse-shit, i thought the first two sequels were much better, interestingly though i thought this fourth entry in the series was better than the first three movies combined, thats why its a shame that it failed (relatively speaking) at the box office because now there probably wont be a part five.
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