Well, I haven't updated this blog in a few months. So, I decided, what better way to come back than with a review of the movie sequel that partially inspired this blog! Scream 4, or SCRE4M, has finally hit theatres, and after a year of impatiently waiting, I have already seen it twice!
I will start out my review by repeating what I mentioned in the title. There are MAJOR SPOILERS within this review. I considered trying to review this film without using spoilers, however, there is just so much going on in this movie that it would simply be too difficult to dance around the specific events that took place. With that being said...here we go!
Let's start with the beginning of the film, the opening scene. Ever since the original Scream in 1996, the Scream films have been known to have exciting opening scenes. So Scream 4 is expected to be no different...and it's not! The opening scene was my favorite since the original with Drew Barrymore! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been following scream-trilogy.net for updates since the beginning of production of Scream 4. It is a very trustworthy source for all of the latest updates. So all within a couple weeks, we saw that Lucy Hale, Shenae Grimes, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Britt Robertson and Aimee Teegarden had all been hired for small cameos. There had been much speculation as to what roles they would be playing, the most popular of these speculations being that 2 of them would be appearing in the film-within-a-film series "Stab" which originated in Scream 2. However, we did not quite foresee the possibility of a film-within-a-film-within-a-film, which is exactly what happened! It was brilliant. The film opens with Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes being stalked by a "Facebook killer" and soon they are both savagely murdered by Ghostface. After this, a title card flashes up saying "Stab 6." We then cut to Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin sitting on a couch together, watching Stab 6. They then begin to critique the opening that they just watched. Anna's character finds it to be "fucking bullshit" or something along those lines, whereas Kristen's character likes the idea of "a guy with a knife who just...snaps." Anna's character proceeds to ramble on about how all of the Stab movies are predictable, just as Kristen pulls out a knife and stabs her in the abdomen twice. After Anna asks "Why?", Kristen responds with "Because you fucking talk too much. Now shut the fuck up and watch the movie." Cue title card saying "Stab 7." Cut to Brit Robertson (Marnie) and Aimee Teegarden (Jenny) sitting on a couch in real Woodsboro watching Stab 7 and deconstructing the controversial opening scenes. Jenny and Marnie begin to discuss the Stab series, fitting in some of the meta-fiction, self-aware dialogue which the Scream franchise is so famous for. So one thing leads to another and Jenny and Marnie are murdered in what I found to be a rather suspenseful opening. After this, we cut to the title card reading "Scream 4."
I found this to be a very creative opening and it was actually pretty frightening at moments. Also very unexpected at times, which can be said for the entire film!
Now we are introduced to a new Sidney Prescott, who has written a self help book called "Out of Darkness." She is visiting her hometown of Woodsboro as the last stop on her book tour. She is accompanied by her publicist Rebeca, who resembles a young Gale Weathers with her bitchy and aggressive attitude. We then see the reunion of now-Sheriff Dewey Riley and his wife of 10 years Gale Weathers-Riley, who seem to be having some marital issues throughout the film. After a short introduction into the current lives of our 3 main cast characters, we are introduced to the new generation. This new generation of characters includes Emma Roberts as Sidney's high school age cousin Jill, and Jill's best friends Kirby, played by Hayden Panettiere and Olivia played by Marielle Jaffe. Among the new male cast members are Rory Culkin as Charlie and Erik Knudsen as Robbie who are the two leaders of the Cinema Club at Woodsboro High. We also have Nico Tortorella who plays Trevor, Jill's mysterious ex-boyfriend.
After the introductions of our new characters, the killings begin.
The first to go is Jill's friend Olivia. This was actually a very emotional murder scene. Olivia's bedroom window is directly across from Jill's bedroom window. Kirby and Jill are in Jill's room, and they witness the entire murder from across the way. I actually found Olivia to be a likable character, and watching her get thrown around her bedroom and stabbed repeatedly and gutted was a pretty tough thing to watch. Sidney soon rushes over to Olivia's bedroom, but she's too late. Jill follows her and they are both attacked by Ghostface, but not before Sidney tackles him (yes spoiler, HIM) down the stairs and gives him a high kick to the face. But, alas, he ends up disappearing into the night.
I found all of the new characters to be likable. Especially Hayden Panettiere's character Kirby. She's a feisty film geek with a bitchy side that makes her a very tough girl to mess with. Even though she ends up getting stabbed twice in the stomach by the end. This is another murder that I was upset about because Kirby was probably my favorite out of the new generation characters.
I also really liked the connection that we see between Sidney and her cousin Jill. There is a scene in the kitchen at Jill's house after Olivia has been murdered. Jill proceeds to ask Sidney how she deals with it and they are able to find common ground. We really see Sidney's protective side come out in this installment. She's definitely a fighter. Ghostface comes around, and she saves, not only herself, but other characters as well throughout the film. Sid kicks serious ass in number 4.
My one biggest flaw with this film is that they have tried way too hard to push the comedy. After Anthony Anderson is stabbed in the head, he stumbles around a little bit and, before he falls dead, he says one of the dumbest one-liners I have ever heard. It actually pissed me off because it was so awkward that it made the death scene completely unrealistic. There were a couple of these instances when a "funny ha-ha" one-liner would be uttered in the middle of a serious death scene and it just didn't fit with the mood at all.
Other than that, the film was absolutely enjoyable and the best in the series since the original. The climax had the most dramatic twist in the series, and that includes the original Scream. While the original is a better film overall, number 4 has the most dramatic twist for who the killer is....JILL!!!!!! Charlie the film geek is an accomplice, but the main twist is Jill, Sid's cousin! I did not see this coming from a hundred miles away. At first I was unsure whether I liked this revelation, but upon seeing the film a second time, I realized that I LOVED this. Throughout the film I had slight ideas of who I thought the killer(s) would be, but I never foresaw Jill as a killer. Not even a little bit. So looking back, had it been someone else, it just wouldn't have had the extreme dramatic effect that it did have. I also liked that Charlie was the second killer because he was a pretty creepy guy.
I loved the way they pulled the rug out from under us with every twist and turn. Throughout the beginning stages with casting, we saw all these young stars cast as, what we thought, were going to be important roles. We expected Sidney and Dewey and Gale to pass the torch onto this new cast so that they could take over for any, possible, sequels. And then EVERY new generation character was murdered. (Although Panettiere's character is still on the fence because we never saw her officially dead). In the original Scream, Drew Barrymore was hired and they promoted the film as if she would be a main character, and then she was killed in the first 10 minutes. Scream 4 pulled the "Drew Barrymore" move with the ENTIRE new cast! I found this to be very exciting and original. The big twists and turns (and there is more than one) were all so unexpected. The biggest, of course, being that Jill was the killer. And I actually found her motive to be very credible. She insists that living in Sidney's shadow has caused her to resent parts of her life, and so now she's trying to become Sidney and gain her own fans and fame. Anyway, it all ends with Jill and all of her high school friends (with the possible exception of Hayden) dying and none of the original 3 characters meet their demise.
Overall I give the film 3.5 out of 5 stars. Although it was flawed, I absolutely loved the fresh take on the meta-fiction horror plot. The dialogue is well written too, which makes it more enjoyable to watch. If you are a Scream fan, or even if you're not a Scream fan, GO SEE SCREAM 4!!!
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