Scream 4 review
I loved the original “Scream.” I probably saw it at least a dozen times, maybe more, around the time of its release. It was a completely fresh, original and self-referential take on a modern slasher film that didn’t sacrifice its scares even as it winked at the audience. It was an amazing balancing act by director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson. Unfortunately it was an act that could not be repeated though many tried. Remember the “I Know What You Did Last Summer”s and “Urban Legend”s and “Teaching Mrs. Tingle”s and “Scary Movie”s and even the sequels to “Scream” itself? None came close and in the passing decade new horror trends have come and gone, “The Ring” brought in Japanese horror remakes, “Saw” brought in (for lack of a better term) torture porn, and recently “Paranormal Activity” has ushered in its own slew of imitators.
These passing fads are something that “Scream 4” attempts to address in a cute, meta opening featuring a half dozen cameos in about as many minutes. But once the real film kicks in I found myself squirming through most of its running time, not because of the violence, but because I felt bad for everyone involved. I was surprised to see Dimension soldiering on with the franchise and the trio of original cast members (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette) instead of just starting over a shiny new remake. That said, the mix of young newcomers and survivors from the original film never quite meshes. The new cast aren’t given enough time to develop any personalities whatsoever and the original cast are also underserved. (Cox in particular looks like a million years have passed in between installments.) I kept hoping for them to be killed off just to release them from this tired franchise.
The killer(s) is/are completely preposterous but that’s really the least of the film’s problems. A huge cast is assembled likely because they had hoped to be involved with a film as good as the first one but those days are long gone. Only Alison Brie manages to walk away unscathed and super cute (though her fate in the film is not as kind). The main thing I thought during this film is how outdated it felt. 15 years ago “Scream” was like a revolution for horror movies, today it’s as tired as the films it’s supposedly skewering. It’s crazy to think that only 12 years had passed between Craven’s breakthrough “A Nightmare On Elm Street” in 1984 and more time has passed between the original “Scream” and current installment. I’d like to think Craven has another great horror film in him but it’s time for him to move on from this series.
