(Ghostface trots out the ol‘ “What‘s your favorite scary movie“ yet another time… Excuse me for not shitting my pants with fear…)
CAST: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettierre, Nico Tortorella, Adam Brody, Anthony Anderson, Brittany Robertson, Lucy Hale, Alison Brie.
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and more Ghostface antics straight ahead…
I remember the first time I heard about SCREAM back in 1996. I was living in Japan, and a friend who’d gone back to the States on vacation had caught it in theatres and returned to the Land of the Rising Sun singing its praises. He made it sound like the best thing since indoor plumbing and boxer briefs. Unfortunately, because he was drunk at a barracks party, he felt the need to recount the whole story - blow by bloody blow. And because we were all as drunk as he was, we just sat there and listened, slack-jawed, as he gave away every. Single. Fucking. Plot Twist.
Of course, to be fair, I can’t really blame him. No one made me slam back ten shots of vodka with a tumbler of gin as a chaser on a dare. When you do something like that, folks, the sort of judgment that would make you cover your ears to keep from hearing something you don’t want to hear, pretty much goes down the toilet. Needless to say, by the time he was done yapping, there was nothing about SCREAM that I didn’t know: who lives, who dies, who has the best chase scenes, who has the bloodiest kill, and - most devastatingly - who the killer (killers?) are.
By the time SCREAM came to the base theatre in Japan, I just sat in my seat seeing every plot beat coming from a mile away. Thanks to my flapping-mouthed buddy who did too good of a job of breaking down the movie’s plot. Determined not to go through this shite again, I deliberately avoided reviews and commentaries on SCREAM 2 and SCREAM 3 when they came out, and had a pleasant time getting my head spun around by the revelation of whodunit. Okay, maybe just for SCREAM 2. As far as SCREAM 3, I really didn’t give a rat’s ass who was behind that mask.
And now SCREAM 4 arrives in theatres, nine years after SCREAM 3, with a promise to reinvent the “Slasher Rules” for the Twitter Generation. And you know that’s the main demographic of this flick, because the obligatory opening murder sequence shows two teenaged chicks (Lucy Hale and Shenae Grimes) texting someone who is probably someone they should leave the hell alone. Needless to say, they don’t quit while they‘re ahead - and their jugular veins will never forgive them for it. That’s all I’m going to say about this scene, because it’s one of the better ones in the flick.
So, after our obligatory opening bloodbath, we focus on the main group of dead meat, er, characters who will find themselves at the mercy of yet another Ghostface killer. There are the returning survivors from the first three flicks: (1) Sidney Prescott (Never Campbell), a heroine so used to playing cat-and-mouse with killers that she could have an infomercial for a training DVD or something; (2) Dewey Riley (David Arquette), doofus deputy from the first SCREAM who is now - steel yourselves - the Sheriff; and (3) Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), former cutthroat tabloid reporter who is now a blocked writer itching to get back into the game.
Then there’s the new platter of cold cuts: (1) Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), Sidney’s virginal cousin who is basically Sidney 2.0; (2) Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettierre), Sidney 2.0’s best pal who is one of those smart-ass movie buffs (ahem); (3) Trevor (Nico Tortorella), Sidney 2.0’s cheating hunk of a boyfriend who, shall we say, gets it where it really counts later on (you’ll see); (4) Olivia (Marielle Jaffe), hot slut who is basically Ghostface fodder; (5) Robbie (Erik Knudsen), irritating film geek who you can’t wait to see gutted; (6) Charlie (Rory Culkin), second irritating film geek who you can’t wait to gutted even more; and (7) Deputy Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), hot sidekick to our Sheriff Riley who is also a closet baker.
Anyhow, these walking dead bodies all converge on Woodsboro, CA, the site of the original SCREAM massacre. Sidney is now a bestselling self-help author who is in town to promote her new book. Apparently, surviving three massacres is a great training ground for emotional transformation. Forgive me, though, for not buying into it one goddamn bit. Because if there’s anything I learned from the last three SCREAMS, it’s this: Sidney Prescott is like Jessica Fletcher from MURDER SHE WROTE - wherever she goes, someone’s gonna croak. In Sidney’s case, lots of someones.
Sure enough, our reliable slasher Ghostface shows up and starts cutting through the cold cuts mentioned above like an overgrown backyard before Fourth of July weekend. Throw in some red herrings, a couple of okay chase scenes, some false alarms, a really sexy haircut for my girl Hayden Panettierre, a surprise killer from left field and basically we’ve got SCREAM rebooted for the Facebook crowd.
I think I liked it better back in 1996.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Like I wrote above, SCREAM 4 is just as much a remake of SCREAM as it is a sequel to the trilogy. Each of the major characters from the first film have younger equivalents in this movie: Sidney, Jill; Tatum, Kirby; Billy, Trevor; Dewey, Judy; Randy, Robbie; Stu, Charlie; Gale, Rebecca.
While this is an unorthodox approach, it’s not necessarily a clever one. Mainly because when you hew closely to the original film as this one does, you end up not exploring new territory the way SCREAM 2 and SCREAM 3 did. The result is an overwhelming sense of familiarity that fails to kick up the suspense to highly-adrenalized levels.
Another liability of SCREAM 4’s is the absence of any truly great setpieces. SCREAM was full of them: Casey’s (Drew Barrymore) opening murder scene, Sidney’s first attack, Tatum’s attack, and the final revelation of who the killers were. SCREAM 2 also had its own memorable sequences: Maureen and Phil’s (Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps) double murder at theatre, Cece (Sarah Michelle Gellar) being terrorized in her sorority house alone, Randy’s murder in a busy campus quadrangle in broad daylight, Gale’s harrowing chase through the film department/radio station after hours. Even the fairly weak SCREAM 3 had one eye-opening moment in its opening murder sequence with Cotton Weary (Live Schreiber).
SCREAM 4, on the other hand, doesn’t have anything that matches the set pieces from the trilogy before it. Much has been made about the movie-within-a-movie opening sequence, but I didn’t find it that interesting. It almost seemed like Ghostface was going through the motions. The same goes for the equally trumpeted attack on Rebecca in the parking garage. They reshot the scene just to get this? I’d hate to see how it was before. It probably put the test audience to sleep. The only scene that shows promise is the attack on Olivia while Kirby and Jill watch helplessly from across the street. But the sequence is over before it can really register.
The reason SCREAM 4 rates above average are two-fold: (1) the energy and talent of its cast, especially Neve Campbell who has never made Sidney Prescott more compelling than she is here, and Hayden Panettiere who is easily the most intriguing of the new faces; and (2) the truly surprising twist about the killer’s identity. I started to suspect it about ten minutes before the revelation - and it was still a delicious surprise. It was a daring choice, and it helps save this film somewhat.
In the end, SCREAM 4 is a little too familiar to be a truly good movie. But its engaging cast and that final twist are just enough to keep it from being an average experience. For a film that probably wasn’t necessary, that’s about the best you can hope for.
