Scream 4 Review

When Wes Craven launched the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise in 1984, he exposed one of man's biggest fears. The seemingly vulnerable and defensiveless state of subconscious, a parallel universe where we knew that anything we had nightmares about could never come true because it was all our head.

Craven unleased the brutal and visceral Freddy Kreuger, a demonic bladed creature who took advantage of people while they slept and ripped them apart. Over the next decade, horror films would come and go, and the slasher genre would find itself petering out, as many pretenders would try and fail to reignite a genre which once stood at the top of the horror-movie mount, but which had taken a sharp downfall.

In 1996, Craven burst onto the scene again with Scream. A film which openly mocked the clichéd nature of the slasher genre, but used the high school environment and students as a vehicle for parody and deviant behaviour, essentially taking the very idea of sensationalism as a so-called cause of teenage violence, and stirring that pot even further. The film's characters would directly allude to other horror films (Halloween, Friday the 13th etc) in describing the very means of escaping the wrath of a serial killer. Scream would play up the typical stereotypes of the genre; the blonde big-boobed cheerleader type being mutilated, the sexualised and promiscuous characters being killed off purely for their 'in-pure' behaviour. The nerd would essentially describe how each character would die and be a victim himself.

Whilst Scream was a blockbuster hit, and its sequel proved just as big, brutal and stylishly cool, the third entry in the franchise produced little more than a wimper, as the story twists evoked nothing more than an apathetic response from audiences and the reasoning behind the savage murders become even more predictable and ridiculous.

11 years later, Scream 4 comes out with the tagline: New Decade, New rules. Naturally, those who felt they missed out on the big-screen antics of the trilogy the first time round will jump at the idea of being able to witness another Scream outing upon release.

Those of a certain age, however, may feel that every ounce of innovation and substance has been squeezed out of what was once a fresh and unpredictable (despite its own commentary being the clichéd nature of the genre) IP. They may feel jaded at the prospect of what could well be yet another cash cow.

The film's opening scenes essentially established the outline for the movie, and did so with an unusual tone. The film starts with what looks like a re-dressed opening of Scream 1, only with two characters instead of the Drew Barrymore type. As the film continues, it becomes apparent that we are infact watching one of the many indentikit sequels in the Stab franchise, an intended off-shoot of the 'real-life' events which take place in Scream 1 and which are directly referenced and shown in Scream 2. This tongue-in-cheek play up of the banal and shallow nature of sequels is extended further when we realise that the characters in Stab 6, 7 and 8 are all watching clips from their predecessor in a very weird and disorientating move. This continues until the audience is finally introduced to the current-day 'Scream' universe, wherein two teenagers are watching Stab 8 but actually fall victim to Mr Ghostface himself, and the film finally 'begins'.

The usual suspects are indeed back for Scream 4; Courteney Cox returns as Gale Weathers-Riiley, Neve Campbell as Sydney Prescott, and David Arquette as Dewey Riley. Up and coming actresses are called upon to play new characters, Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) stars as Sydney's bitchy publicist, Emma Roberts as Jill Roberts, Sydney's cousin, and Hayden Panettiere as Kirby Reed, a friend of the Jills.

The film starts off documenting Sydney's new book, Out of Darkness, a tale of how she has survived the torment inflicted on her by the last decade or so of her painful experiences, as depicted in the trilogy. However, as we soon find out, things are about to get a whole lot worse...

The main problem with Scream 4 lies with the fact that whilst the film openly reiterates the rules of the horror genre and almost mocks the inane and simplistic framework of the first three films, here it feels like everything is far too straightforward. Victims-to-be will openly admit that they could well be dead within moments of uttering lines they saw in Stab, characters summarise the structure of the Stab movies throughout the film, further belittling the impact of the first film, and as a whole the product feels even more tongue-in-cheek than the original.

The biggest flaw is that the film doesn't take itself too seriously, and while many would argue that this is a positive aspect, the film takes a very 'Scary Movie' approach. It feels cheap, and although it's probably a better film than its predecessor in Scream 4, it just never looks like it hoped it emulate the impact or quality of the original. Which is a shame.

6/10