Whenever a Scream film comes up in conversation, it is generally declared as a guilty pleasure. I must be on the opposite spectrum when it comes to this. I recall seeing the original film with glee, and felt the same with the subsequent sequels. I truly enjoy everything about the Scream franchise. I enjoy the atmosphere of Woodsboro, its characters and its reputation. I still rant and rave about the opening sequence from the original that caught practically every audience off guard. If anything, Jamie Kennedy’s greatest role may have been as the film aficionado Randy Meeks. The third installment may have been riddled with issues, but its conclusion felt incredibly satisfying. When Scream 4 was announced, many emitted groans. I can understand to a degree why this reaction occurs, but I was excited, because they weren’t remaking the original. They were continuing the story in a logical direction that could only happen because they waited ten years to make Scream 4. I definitely think there is more of a silver lining to be found in this fourth installment.
Whenever a Scream film comes up in conversation, it is generally declared as a guilty pleasure. I must be on the opposite spectrum when it comes to this. I recall seeing the original film with glee, and felt the same with the subsequent sequels. I truly enjoy everything about the Scream franchise. I enjoy the atmosphere of Woodsboro, its characters and its reputation. I still rant and rave about the opening sequence from the original that caught practically every audience off guard. If anything, Jamie Kennedy’s greatest role may have been as the film aficionado Randy Meeks. The third installment may have been riddled with issues, but its conclusion felt incredibly satisfying. When Scream 4 was announced, many emitted groans. I can understand to a degree why this reaction occurs, but I was excited, because they weren’t remaking the original. They were continuing the story in a logical direction that could only happen because they waited ten years to make Scream 4. I definitely think there is more of a silver lining to be found in this fourth installment.
I think the patience shown in waiting to create Scream 4 could be compared to a similar patience shown in the making of Toy Story 3. I know this association may cause you to roll your eyes, but please bear with me. I’m not attempting to compare the quality of one to the other. I am simply considering the intentions of storytelling in each example. Both films wanted to continue their tales in such a way that made sense. Both Scream 4 and Toy Story 3 could have been set into production as soon as the previous sequel’s first weekend box office numbers arrived. Yet the creative teams behind each series decided to wait. In waiting, they were able to provide relevant and intriguing counterparts to original installments.
Scream 4 reunites the original surviving members of the series and brings them back to Woodsboro. Sidney (Neve Campbell) is in the midst of a successful book tour that drops her off in her hometown. Meanwhile, with bodies beginning to drop, the one and only Ghostface makes his presence felt in the heart and soul of this community. With a new set of rules that dissect the ideas of a new generation of horror, no one is safe.
Scream 4 has a lot to say regarding the current state of horror film. It makes clear early on that it is going to take on the likes of torture porn, convoluted character development, and the unfortunate trend of remakes. While I agree with everything that the film chooses to target, I am left with a few moments of uncertainty. The idea behind revisiting the Scream series was to reintroduce and reinvigorate its storyline. They have introduced a new set of characters and raised the stakes for the violence of each kill. Several of their death sequences are quite successful, actually shocking and surprising the audience. However, the inclusion of so many characters seems to counteract the point Scream 4 wants to make about audiences having no real attachment to anyone you witness dying on camera. If you are a fan of the past installments, you have already developed a connection with the primary players of Sidney, Dewey and Gale. When they are in danger, there is a level of excitement in desiring their survival in these encounters. With this new cast, I enjoyed several of their performances but I wanted more time to get to know them. I didn’t want to feel like the second act existed solely as a means of killing off everything in sight. I still wonder, though, whether casting particular characters while presenting them as subject to easy disposal was the point. Director Wes Craven may have been indicating how ridiculous it is that so little importance has been delegated to basic storytelling devices.
Despite a few characters being presented in a way that made it difficult to connect with them, I enjoyed Scream 4 a lot. I spent the majority of the film eagerly anticipating what would come next. I had a blast revisiting the feel and tone of an environment like Woodsboro. On multiple occasions, particular death scenes escaped the lure of instant shock value to produce genuine scares. The story may have had a few issues, but nothing I wasn’t able to get past and continue forward.
Out of all of the new cast members, the three that stood out to me were Hayden Panettiere, Erik Knudsen and Alison Brie. Panettiere perfectly portrayed the hip high-school chick. She had the best delivery in several of the comic beats, and she was given the best opportunity to flesh out her character. Her wit and knowledge of horror cinema easily made her the most likable character. Knudsen had to share his time primarily with Rory Culkin, but he still dominated most every scene. His character played well against the backdrop of a meta society and a genre-specific evolution that Scream 4 spends several moments discussing. Brie wasn’t given very much time in the film, but was always entertaining in her role as the most prominent outsider to the Woodsboro community as everything began to fall apart around her.
I won’t deny that Scream 4 has its problems. I will also not deny that I am biased in my adornment of the Scream series. Scream 4 was a fun excursion back to a world I wasn’t quite sure would ever return. I am happy they chose to further the story in a practical way, as opposed to remaking the original film. It was nice to watch a horror film that didn’t frustrate me immensely. Instead, I genuinely enjoyed each scare and I look forward to further viewings of Scream 4 (or Scre4m if you feel so inclined).
