SCREAM 4 DOESN’T SUCK
Wes Craven is a director for whom I have the utmost respect, for one solid reason; he scares me. When I snuck into the local Loews at age 13 to watch his New Nightmare, I remember being terrified and wanting to leave. Freddy’s glove existing in the real world was too much for me to process. In high school a group of friends and I cowered in a basement while watching The Last House on the Left and, at the time, it was most violent and depraved film I had seen. When Scream was released in 1996, it blew the doors off the slasher film. So, I find it just a little frustrating when the man is attacked for putting out a film as fun as Scream 4.
First of all, if you hated Scream 4 because it wasn’t as good as the original, fuck you. How could it be? At the time of Scream’s release, no one had seen anything like it before. The opening minutes of that film take the fourth wall, slap it in the face for hanging around for so long, and throw it into traffic. In Scream, Craven introduced characters that were aware of the genre they found themselves in, and they actually used their geeky smarts to try to survive. Horror became self-aware from this point on. You’ll never be able to recreate a genre big-bang like this, so all you should have been hoping for was a fun time watching a movie with horror nerds being stabbed to death. That’s it. And that’s what Craven delivers here.
Say what you will about the Scream sequels, the idea that they go all meta is a pretty interesting one. The “Stab” movies of the Scream diegetic space create a few memorable scenes, especially the opening to Scream 2, where Jada Pinkett is murdered in front of an audience of gawking “Stab” fans. In Scream 4, the meta-ness is cranked up to a level as ridiculous as it should be. Instead of art imitating life, you have art taking a true story and spiraling it out of control to the tune of 7 sequels, taking you as far away as possible from the source material. (It’s interesting to note that Craven had this happen to his Freddy Krueger character across just as many follow up films.) In this 4th installment the “Stab” movies are a hit, people worship the characters from the films, throw parties centered around “Stab” marathons, and they gather to talk about the movies they love. If all of this seems weird to you, fine. But people do this sort of thing in celebration of the horror genre. Trust me. So, it’s no wonder that within the world of “Stab” mania, in the town of Woodsboro where it all began, on the day that Sydney Prescott returns to declare herself a victim no longer, that a psycho in a Ghostface mask begins hacking up young people once again.
One thing that the OG Scream had going for it was a bunch of attractive, and promising young actors in the cast. Guys and girls alike were all babes in the first film, and their performances were great (where have you been Matthew Lillard?). I had my first actress crush on Rose McGowan’s Tatum. Although filled with a cast of beautiful people, the performances in Scream 4, are no where near as strong as in that original, with one exception. Hayden Panettiere is pretty wonderful as Kirby Reed. She plays the more prominent horror buff in the film, is a knockout, and is the only new character worth watching. I hope she keeps doing genre stuff. Marley Shelton (Grindhouse) is the other welcomed addition to the cast. She plays Deputy Judy, and serves as one of the stronger Red Herrings of the film. But I don’t mean to say that the other actors are bad, they do their job well, and their job is getting brutally stabbed to death.
While the victims in Scream 2 and 3 seemed to be killed off camera with minimal blood letting, the gore in 4 is certainly back up to top form. The stab wounds are gnarly, the blood is a dark corn-syrupy mess, and we even get a slit throat early on. One scene in particular, where Sydney walks into Olivia’s blood-spattered bedroom in the aftermath of her murder, is particularly unsettling in a film you feel as though you’re prepared for, violence-wise. I mean, this is some straight up Tate-LaBianca redecorating here. Aside from a couple of goofy moments that could have been left on the cutting room floor (I’m looking at you Anthony Anderson) the kills in this film are a lot of fun.
I won’t spoil the reveal at the end, but I will say that I was fine with it. It wasn’t as much of a stretch as the previous two unmaskings, and it hits close to home for Sydney Prescott. Anyone who tells you this movie sucks is a douche bag who forgot how to have a good time a loooooong time ago. No, it’s not going to terrify you, but it will have you laughing, jumping and trying to guess who-dunnit. If you’re expecting Craven to re-invent the genre here, DON’T. He already did that in 1996, now grab some popcorn and enjoy one more romp through the world of meta-movie awesomeness he created for you.
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21 Apr 2011, 2:59 am
motherfucker, If I read or hear one more person talk about how twitter and facebook were under utilized as threat making platforms in this film I will knife the next person who leaves the comment in my comment box.
21 Apr 2011, 3:02 am
Lets keep it clean