I know that it seems like I am a big fan of everything that comes out and all franchises that come out. I feel the need to point out that some of the franchises that come out I am a harsh critic of and some of the others that I am a Die Hard fan of have been dormant for a decade or more. Franchises like Highlander, Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Scream are those Franchises and they are all either have received a Reboot or have a Sequel popping up years after the supposed final entry.
Scream 4 has just been released, now I feel the need to state that this flick was unnessicary as I liked where Scream 3 left off. That being said I am happy that this is a sequel and not a Remake.
Taking place a decade after the events of Scream 3 the flick takes us back to Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott has written a book on her experiences in the previous flicks and is starting a book tour in the town. Dewey Riley is now the town Sheriff and is married to Gail Weathers who has fallen into a rut and she is missing her glory days. Well a new series of murders begins again in the form of the Mythical Ghostface Killer that has not appeared in a decade. This series of murders surrounds Sidney’s cousin that none of us knew about before this flick.
You need to bear in mind that a lot of things have changed in the past 10 years in not just the Horror genre but in technology. In this flick Ghostface not only utilizes cell phones in his arsenal but Facebook and webcams as well. It also makes references to the state of the genre, it bashes the torture porn subgenre craze in the opening lines and what the killer is planning on doing his own reboot to the scream/stab series. Neve Campbell has the best line in this area “The Big Rule of Remakes, Don’t Mess with the Original”.
The flick is much more violent and gory than its previous flicks but like I said earlier a lot has changed in the past few years. Some of the stabs are very intense such as a blade going through the hand and even a gutting that Craven wanted to put in years ago.
There was a lot of things missing from this flick that I liked in the previous flicks that I felt were staples of the series. First off Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Red Right Hand which was used as an unofficial theme was not used. Not to mention that the big shock kill didn’t happen in the opening, Now there was some kills in the opening but I am not going to count those kills because they take place in the Stab sequels and not in the flick.
It should be noted that this is the first of the series that does not have Liev Schreiber and Jamie Kennedy making appearances in the flick in some capacity. I honestly would have liked to have seen some of the other residents of Woodsboro that we have seen in the previous flicks making appearances in this flick, I was wondering where Sidney’s Father was in this flick as well as Randy’s sister from part 3.
Now as for the characters, I am always happy to see Dewy, Sid, and Gale. I felt that Dewy was pushed to the back as he constantly arrives with the police after the kills which were done in the previous flicks to make him look like a suspect but all of the viewer’s already know that he is not the killer. As far as the new characters some of them are likable like the movie geeks were funny. Now as for Hayden Panettiere I felt like she was a lame attempt at redoing Rose McGowan’s character from the first flick but I felt that she was pretty annoying. Emma Roberts is pretty good in her role but she is no Neve Campbell. Now I have to admit that I am not caught up on my “Teenage Stars” that is a sign of being out of my demographic.
Generally I liked the film as it kept me entertained for the time that I watched the movie and there were some twists and kills that I didn’t see coming and for that the flick receives extra Kudos
15 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
3 Beasts
25 Cell Phones
6 Web Cams
17 Stabs
1 Disemboweling
2 Shootings
1 Shot to the Nuts
32 Movie References
Stab Fu
Scream Fu
Scary Movie Fu
3 Stars
Check It out
