2011’s Scream 4, directed
by Wes Craven.
Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Emma
Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Aimee Teegarden, Marley Shelton, Rory Culkin, Alison
Brie, Adam Brody, Anthony Anderson, and Mary McDonnell.
What is it about?
Set back in the town of Woodsboro, California, it’s been a
decade and a half since the events depicted in Scream. Promoting her new
autobiographical book about her survival, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)
arrives in town to find a new generation of high school kids influenced by both
her experiences and the movies made based off of her story, the Stab franchise.
Young cousin Jill (Emma Roberts), and best friend Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) do
their best to avoid being victims to another version of the ghostface. They’ll
have the help of promoted to Deputy, Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and his
assistant Judy (Marley Shelton), along with his wife, writer Gail Weathers-Dewey
(Courtney Cox). Will they be able to stop the pop culture inspired psychopath,
or end up being ineligible for future sequels?
Why is it worth seeing?
Director Wes Craven returns in the fourth entry of the
slasher pastiche franchise. The
trusty trio of Neve Campbell’s heroine Sidney Prescott, David Arquette’s humble
Dewey Riley, and Courtney Cox’s investigative Gail Weathers, are joined by a
new generation of teenagers, in the sequel that no one asked for.
Writer Kevin Williamson photocopies his previous works, that
of the self referential and too hip for thou vibes, and introduces a new generation
to celebrate the irony of mocking irony. Featuring tropes such as live web
casting murders, cheering the nihilism of how there are no rules anymore, and
craving social media exposure over life itself- one is thankful we’ve made it
this far in the franchise at all.
After 4 movies, it’s tough to say where we’ve gone after all
of this carnage - Campbell’s heroine has little to do but get angry at yet
another killer messing with her mojo, and Cox’s journalist gladly tosses her
half hearted attempt to become a writer and instead (again) plays detective
with her husband- although Arquette is weightier in stature after 3 previous
movies of being a schmuck. But with the veterans of the cast feeling past their
primes, the kids forget to show up to take their places. As always, the kids
bring their attitude, their entitlement, and their pop culture encyclopedias-
but it gets harder and harder not to empathize with the killer, as the
increasing body count means the credits come rolling faster.
Scream 4 exists in
a strange place. Unlike Scream 2, it’s competently made, and it could be even more entertaining
than Scream 3 (it definitely doesn’t have the heart), as it pounds away to it’s
cynical conclusion. But it’s most salient fact seems to be that it was
conceived as the opener to a trilogy that never happened. With the studio
unhappy with making a measly $100
million on its $40 million budget, there would be more no further sequels, and
none of them really topped the original (itself a good film but hardly a
seminal classic).
Wes Craven was a horror pioneer, so it makes it all the more
galling that this was his last movie before his death. Perhaps he meant it as 1
last (cough), stab towards the Hollywood establishment, that of its never
ending sequels and lazy money grabs. But the Scream franchise’s biggest legacy might be the lack of impression
it made on the genre. It was mocked itself by the hugely successful (and
dreadful) Scary Movie franchise, but
seemed to influence little of the horror genre, being eclipsed instead by so-called
torture porn and found footage sub genres. Some people will do anything to
leave their mark.
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