Against all better judgment and common sense the filmmakers behind the deservedly popular Scream trilogy have returned a decade later with Scre4m Scream 4. Why?
Why not?
The third sequel (or first in a new trilogy if it makes bank) sees Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) once again being stalked by a killer in the same goddamn ghost faced costume. Her last encounter was over a decade ago, and even though she already has several notches on her belt for knocking these psychos off they just keep coming. The plot sees her on a book tour where she’s pimping a non-fiction account of her ordeal, and she’s joined at least briefly by old friends Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette). The rest of the cast is made up of recognizable faces sure to be slaughtered in gloriously grotesque ways… provided the series sticks with its R-rating. I guess the question to ask here is with all these fresh, young faces how does this teaser manage to make the movie look so damn old?
It feels far from cutting edge doesn’t it? There’s clearly a whole new cast to hack and slash through including Hayden Panettierre, Kristen Bell, Emma Roberts, Alison Brie, and a Culkin, but the return of survivors from the first three films just seems ridiculously redundant at this point. And apparently it takes two people to feel Jamie Kennedy’s giant, Randy shoes as there are now two cine-nerds constantly knocking the viewer out of the movie while they recite the new rules of slasher films. “The unexpected is the new cliche?” “Virgins can die now?”
Director Wes Craven is in his seventies now and his best days are clearly behind him. Witness the recent flop, My Soul To Take, as evidence for that claim. Of course, his best work over the past fifteen years has been the three previous Scream films, so who knows… maybe this new one will mark his return to relevance. It’s doubtful, but I’m a fan (of varying degree) of the Scream trilogy so I’ll definitely be checking out the new one.
So what do you think of the teaser?
