Fowler's Frights 2015: Scream 4

Scream 4 (2011)
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox
Directed by: Wes Craven


You gotta imagine my joy when I, a Scream fan, was preparing for an all new Scream film to hit theaters in 2011. My best friend and I were sitting in a packed theater on opening day to watch Scream 4, and we were at least hoping for something that would have redeemed the franchise after the lackluster finale provided by Scream 3. What we got was something that completely exceeded our expectations. It perfectly played up to the state of modern horror, with gorier deaths and a funny commentary on the amount of remakes that have plagued the genre during the new millennium. By the end of the film, we were debating whether we liked this more than the first or second film. For me, I liked it almost as much as the first one, but my thoughts on it have cooled a little bit as time has gone on. Yet, I still think it's a good horror movie that deserves a look, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

The usual returning characters are a lot of fun, which has come to be expected. The big thing about this film is that for the first time in a while, it seemed like these characters might actually be on the chopping block. With the idea of rebooting the series, it was possible that Sidney, played by Neve Campbell, could've been killed off somewhere in the middle or near the finale. Heck, a lot of the trailers made it look like Gale, played by Courtney Cox, would be murdered. Going into the movie, you were actually afraid that the characters we've known for 15 years could be bumped off the cast list to make way for our new characters.

There's actually a lot of really good new characters in Scream 4. My favorite was Kirby, played by Hayden Panettiere. Kirby is the residential movie geek, yet she's got all the looks of a leading lady in horror. Decades ago, that character would've never existed in horror films, but nowadays it's commonplace to find a token hot geek character. We've also got Charlie and Robbie, played by Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen, who serve as the Randy characters for the movie. Jill, played by Emma Roberts, is Sidney's cousin and serves as the potential future leading lady for the rebooted cast. The only one I really didn't like was her ex-boyfriend Trevor, played by Nico Tortorella. Something about his performance really didn't work for me. He was just obnoxious, and not even in the fun way. You just wanted him to go away and not be seen in the film again.

At the end of the day, Scream 4 has an objective when it comes to horror remakes. The rules are simple here: unexpected is the new cliche, the killer should be using modern technology to be ahead of the curve (like videotaping the murders and putting them online), virgins can die now, the only major way to survive is by being gay (although that one's more of a joke thrown in by Robbie and Charlie), and the death scenes need to obviously be more extreme. Then, Sidney throws in her own rule near the end of the film when it comes to remakes: don't f*** with the original. That line got a standing ovation in my theater, showing just how much Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson know today's horror audience. The metaphor fits strongly, and is the main reason enjoyed the film. It went out of its way to try and remake the first film, while giving enough of a twist and commentary to say why that shouldn't happen, thus turning it into a reboot and a sequel.


Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Knowing to touch base on the current state of horror films, from torture porn to remakes, Scream 4 actually tells a fun story while remaining true to the original standard set in the first film. Depending on where you stand on modern horror, this film will be something you can identify with and I recommend all horror enthusiasts check it out at least once.

Scream 4 and movie images are copyrighted by Dimension Films