10 years after the events of the last Ghostface murder, Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and his wife Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) have settled in Woodsboro with Dewey now the sheriff and Gale a writer of crime fiction. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to Woodsboro as the final stop on a book tour for her best selling book, but eventually another copycat of the Ghostface murders starts yet again with the murders targeting a new generation of Woodsboro High School students centered around Sidney's cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts).
In 2008, The Weinstein Company had announced their intention to create a fourth entry in their Scream franchise despite Scream initially having been intended to serve as the series capper. Series creator and writer of the first two films Kevin Williamson returned to write the fourthquel in 2010 with Wes Craven soon confirming his return shortly thereafter. As with the previous films, the script went through numerous revisions and re-writes with several versions of the script handed to the cast and crew to prevent leaking who the identity of the killer was. Scream 4 aimed to tie into mass sequelization and remakes that had populated the horror genre throughout the 2000s. While The Weinstein Company and Williamson had hoped the film would inspire enough success for a new trilogy of films (with Williamson even hired to pen Scream 5 prior to 4's release) the film was a commercial disappointment upon release making $97 million worldwide against its $40 million budget of which only $38 million came from the United States (a step down from Scream 3's $160 million). Critical reception did tend to skew positive even if most admitted it didn't hit quite as hard as the commentary of the first two, but taken for what it is Scream 4 is enjoyable if not particularly necessary.
Despite Scream 4 marketing itself prominently with the tagline "New decade. New rules.", most agree that it's only in the first 20 minutes that it pays off on that promise with the very funny and misdirecting opening sequence of a "film-within-a-film-within-a-film" being a funny commentary on the ludicrous nature of sequelization (with a number of shots taken at the Saw franchise). After the opening credits, the movie is just another Scream movie albeit one that incorporates elements of social media while also providing commentary on 2000s horror remakes popularized by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes or Rob Zombie's Halloween films. While on the surface it seems like a solid enough target as the movie does deliberately call back to plot points and elements from the first Scream 4 and calls attention to the fact they are similar but bloodier and flashier, there's two things working against the film. The first is that despite "inverting" the formula, the audience themselves have gotten wise to that formula so there's not the same level of punch or impact that the material once had with the first two entries. The second is the reason the film didn't resonate at the box office because Scream 4 is largely a send-up of horror trends that were very much on the way out by 2010. With 2009's Paranormal Activity becoming a hit and films such as Saw IV or A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 posting diminishing returns, Scream 4 was touching on horror trends that were no longer at the forefront of horror audiences' appetites by the time it was released. While the film does touch upon the prevalence of cameras in today's society and the concept of internet fame it feels like a missed opportunity for the film not to take a few shots at the "found footage" gimmick and would've helped give it more relevance in terms of its providing commentary beyond those opening 20 minutes. Despite the material not really justifying continuation of the series, I did like the cast and performances including the new characters who were the best new additions we've seen since the first film. I particularly liked Hayden Panettiere's performance as horror fan Kirby and Erik Knudsen and Rory Culkin were both enjoyable playing fans of the Stab series who are worthy successors to Randy Meeks.
Scream 4 is much better than Scream 3 and it does its job, but it's the kind of movie that starts off bold before settling into a groove albeit a comfortable one. If you're a fan of the series third movie notwithstanding then there's certainly plenty here for you to enjoy so long as you keep your expectations in check.
In 2008, The Weinstein Company had announced their intention to create a fourth entry in their Scream franchise despite Scream initially having been intended to serve as the series capper. Series creator and writer of the first two films Kevin Williamson returned to write the fourthquel in 2010 with Wes Craven soon confirming his return shortly thereafter. As with the previous films, the script went through numerous revisions and re-writes with several versions of the script handed to the cast and crew to prevent leaking who the identity of the killer was. Scream 4 aimed to tie into mass sequelization and remakes that had populated the horror genre throughout the 2000s. While The Weinstein Company and Williamson had hoped the film would inspire enough success for a new trilogy of films (with Williamson even hired to pen Scream 5 prior to 4's release) the film was a commercial disappointment upon release making $97 million worldwide against its $40 million budget of which only $38 million came from the United States (a step down from Scream 3's $160 million). Critical reception did tend to skew positive even if most admitted it didn't hit quite as hard as the commentary of the first two, but taken for what it is Scream 4 is enjoyable if not particularly necessary.
Despite Scream 4 marketing itself prominently with the tagline "New decade. New rules.", most agree that it's only in the first 20 minutes that it pays off on that promise with the very funny and misdirecting opening sequence of a "film-within-a-film-within-a-film" being a funny commentary on the ludicrous nature of sequelization (with a number of shots taken at the Saw franchise). After the opening credits, the movie is just another Scream movie albeit one that incorporates elements of social media while also providing commentary on 2000s horror remakes popularized by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes or Rob Zombie's Halloween films. While on the surface it seems like a solid enough target as the movie does deliberately call back to plot points and elements from the first Scream 4 and calls attention to the fact they are similar but bloodier and flashier, there's two things working against the film. The first is that despite "inverting" the formula, the audience themselves have gotten wise to that formula so there's not the same level of punch or impact that the material once had with the first two entries. The second is the reason the film didn't resonate at the box office because Scream 4 is largely a send-up of horror trends that were very much on the way out by 2010. With 2009's Paranormal Activity becoming a hit and films such as Saw IV or A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 posting diminishing returns, Scream 4 was touching on horror trends that were no longer at the forefront of horror audiences' appetites by the time it was released. While the film does touch upon the prevalence of cameras in today's society and the concept of internet fame it feels like a missed opportunity for the film not to take a few shots at the "found footage" gimmick and would've helped give it more relevance in terms of its providing commentary beyond those opening 20 minutes. Despite the material not really justifying continuation of the series, I did like the cast and performances including the new characters who were the best new additions we've seen since the first film. I particularly liked Hayden Panettiere's performance as horror fan Kirby and Erik Knudsen and Rory Culkin were both enjoyable playing fans of the Stab series who are worthy successors to Randy Meeks.
Scream 4 is much better than Scream 3 and it does its job, but it's the kind of movie that starts off bold before settling into a groove albeit a comfortable one. If you're a fan of the series third movie notwithstanding then there's certainly plenty here for you to enjoy so long as you keep your expectations in check.