Scream 4 (2011)
Certified: 18
Duration: 111 mins
Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody , Rory Culkin, Mary McDonnell, Marley Shelton
KRS release

Looking back on the Scream franchise as a whole, the cinema going audience would have been better off with Wes Craven directing the first film and leaving matters at that. The second film was not too bad but the third showed a franchise that had lost its way.

In this fourth film, reuniting Wes Craven and the author of the first two films – Kevin Williamson – may have appeared like a good idea, but the end result is nothing to scream about.

Years after the murders, the small town of Woodsboro has returned to a semblance of normalcy. Ghostface, the masked murderer, has since become a pop culture icon for the teenagers of Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott (Neve Cambell) who had been the target of the killer has since written a best selling book about her experiences and is back in Woodsboro to launch her book tour. Publicist Rebecca Walters (Alison Brie) is all out to milk every opportunity to turn Sidney’s appearances into a gold mine.

Sidney is not the only one to have made a profit from the murders, as Gale Weathers-Riley (Courtney Cox) has scripted the Stab series of films which have now become cult favourites. She is married to Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), though there are problems in the marriage especially since Gale is suffering from writing block.

The youths from the local cinema club led by Robbie (Erik Knudsen) and Charlie (Rory Culkin) adore the Stab series and hold an annual “Stabathon” festival which is to kick off when Sidney arrives in town. The film also focuses on Deputy Hicks (Marley Shelton) who is coming on strong on Sheriff Dewey, Sidney’s cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) who has just left her abusive boyfriend and finds consolation in her friends Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and Olivia (Marielle Jaffe).

Soon Ghostface makes a return, phoning in his attacks, asking his victims what their favourite scary movie is and hacking them to pieces. Sidney is a target and everyone around her seems to be getting swatted like flies. So, who is the killer? And does the audience discover the mysterious killer’s identity only when the entire cast has been stabbed to death?

While the first Scream had been tight in its storytelling, fresh in its approach and rollercoaster-like in its attitude, this fourth outing is simply going through a sequel’s motions.

In fact, Mr Craven and Mr Williamson use this as an excuse to rehash old tricks, twists and turns to elucidate the characters and audience on how things have changed.

The self awareness routine has been taken a bit too far. What was once fresh and innovative has now been copied by following horror films and here the spin seems tired.

Having said this, Scream 4 is better than Scream 3 but falters too much. While the idea of lampooning the slasher genre had led to the genre’s revival, here it does no such thing. The result is a film that seems to be an exercise in futility. The audience is aware of the Scream gimmick this time around – of films within films, of characters talking about movies and of characters getting killed for no reason at all – thus the effectiveness of the proceedings are somewhat lost. This is immediately evident from a pre-credit sequence that seems to go on forever.

One other thing that is different here is that the mask-wearing killer has now been given a name. If I recollect well from the other films, he had been nameless and thus more mysterious.

Here with the name of Ghostface he seems to be something out of a Grimm fairy tale and not so scary, just another dumb horror villain in mask.

The old cast – Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courtney Cox – still have what it takes and they are solid as they are back on old haunting grounds. The new teenage cast however, is not as effective. At one point the film’s script throws a really cool line that I could not help but reproduce “Don’t f*** with the original!” Enough said!

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