Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts
Directed by: Wes Craven
Rating: ★★★★
WARNING: This review contains slight spoilers.
In ten years, a lot has changed, and Kevin Williamson, the writer of Scream, its sequel and this entry, is well aware of this. It’s weird to think that mobile phones and the internet have sprung up and become essential tools in the last ten years, but hey, that’s the technological revolution for you. And because of this, Scream 4 had to change, it had to be modernised, and brought into the new decade. And it has been. Scream 4 is fresh, funny, and deeply satirical, not only mocking horror films, and the entire process of film making and the film industry, but also contemporary society. Yes, the first three films did this, but Scream 4 has a much deeper, darker, and funnier take on the rise of You Tube and our quick fix celebrity culture, in a way that the first three films were not able to, as these thing had not yet become a part of our global consciousness.
I’m sure you know the plot by now: Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), survivor of the first three films, returns to the sleepy town of Woodsboro, where it all began, to promote her new book, ironically about being a survivor, and murders begin again. She is joined by her old friends Gail (Courtney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette) in an attempt to stop the killer massacring a new group of teenagers at the local high school. The plot is formulaic, but this isn’t a bad thing at all. The audience knows what to expect, and Wes Craven gives us that, and a whole lot more.
The opening sequence, harkening back to the first film, which is so ingrained in popular culture thanks to Drew Barrymore in Scream, is much more tongue in cheek then the previous three films, mainly because it not only insults horror franchises, but also Scream 4 itself. One character discusses how horror film franchises are ‘predictable’ and ‘boring’ because they are all about seeing people being killed in horrible ways and have no real plots. And then the body count begins. Yes, Scream 4 is very gory, and yes it has all the moments that horror fans love about horror films (the jumps, the false scares, the real scares and the killings), but it also has a good amount of humour, that was not seen as much in the previous films. When the killer finally reveals themself, and gives the usual ‘killer’ speech instead of just dispatching the characters, it is the best part of the film, because not only it is a shock twist as to the identity of the killer, it is also the most hilarious and satirical reason for why they are doing it that I have ever seen. I won’t give too much away, but let’s just say that it involves not needing a job, and You Tube, and it is done so well that it had everyone in the cinema erupting into laughter and agreeing that sadly, the film is depicting the state our society has got itself into.
The actors give great performances, with Hayden Panettiere being given a stand out role as Kirby, a girl who is very clued up on the horror genre itself. The new cast and the old cast work well together and the script and plot moves along quickly and interestingly so that you are never bored. It’s really fun to try to guess who the killer is, and just like in the previous Scream films, there are lots of red herrings and plot twists.
Overall, Scream 4 is a really fun, exciting horror film that continues the success of the previous three. I’m not sure whether or not they should do a sequel to this one, but if they can make it just as good, then I wouldn’t mind returning to Woodsboro once again.
As an aside, I would just like to say how shocked I am that this film was rated as a ‘15’ in the UK. It just shows once again that the BBFC was paid off by a film company. What is the point of saying you are ‘independently’ rating films if you are just going to give a film a lower certificate when a film company bribes you? Doesn’t that go against the whole idea of a rating system?
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