Scream 4 (2011) - Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettierre. Written by Kevin Williamson. Directed by Wes Craven. Rated R. Available on Netflix Watch Instantly and DVD.
I like the rest of the Scream films. They're enjoyable, combining horror elements and comedy to make fun films to watch. I went into this movie expecting to hate this one, because as a rule, I normally hate horror remakes or sequels (excluding the other Scream films). Horror remakes are normally quite bad because it's just more of the same. No real development of the story or characters. Just a higher body count.
But I liked this movie. It brought the original cast back (Campbell as Sidney Prescott, trying to move on with her life, Arquette as the still good-natured cop Dewey, and Cox as the reporter Gale who is still trying to get the story) while adding in some fresh faces (Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettierre, Adam Brody, the always great Alison Brie, and Rory Culkin - who was one of my favorite parts of Scott Pilgrim). Also great were the cameos by Lucy Hale, Anna Paquin, and Kirsten Bell for the movie-within-a-movie Stab.
The difficulty with keeping a horror franchise good with each sequel is finding a way to make each movie fresh, while still keeping it true to the original. Scream 4 does this. I honestly was surprised by the twist and turns this movie took. It also stayed true by keeping the jokes and the horror movie-savvy teenagers that were so distinctive of the original. It raises some interesting and amusing points about horror movie sequels and also how fame obsessed our current generation seem to be.
I like Scream 4. If you like the rest of the Scream movies, you should like this one. If you don't, well then this definitely is not the movie for you. If you've never seen any of them, maybe you should give them a shot. The rest of them are on Netflix too.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5.
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