Scream 4

Horror Month Special Preview Teaser.  

I watched 2011's SCREAM 4 only because a fifth entry in this franchise was released earlier this year.  It looked interesting enough for me to bridge that viewing with this, something I likely would've blissfully never done otherwise.  I'd had my fill after part 3.  How many times could we return to Woodsboro, with similar meta jokes and ominous phone calls? The only novelty coming from updated technology and the increasing intrusion of social media? I read that Wes Craven vowed only to return (he'd directed all of the earlier entries) if the screenplay was as good as the 1996 original.  Kevin Williamson was back and his work was apparently sufficiently convincing to the veteran director to bring him back.  Even after Ehren Kruger, who'd penned SCREAM 3, was brought on for some late rewrites. 

Original heroine/multiple time survivor Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has returned to her hometown to promote her new book, one which details her rather eventful adolescence as the favorite would-be victim of "Ghostface", a serial killer whose persona was assumed by various classmates and even parents over the past three movies.  As fresh victims get the business end of Ghostface's knife, Sidney receives the nickname of  "The Angel of Death" as her presence in Woodsboro always seems to be followed by the re-emergence of said murderer.  This umpteenth recurrence has some validity this time out - much of the plot deals with Internet culture, of how nobodies can become instant celebrities.  When we finally learn the killer's identity, this individual will excitedly explain how he or she will now be the latest pop culture sensation/icon.  That is, after he or she covers their tracks to make it appear as if they foiled the killer. 

Courtney Cox and David Arquette return as, respectively, Gale Weathers, former brass balls local reporter and Dewey Riley, a deputy recently promoted to Sheriff.....and Gale's hubby.  You might expect their and Campbell's presence as some mere sort of passing-of-the-baton, but they are still as much a part of the story as the new faces, played by the likes of Hayden Panettiere and Rory Culkin.  Portraying  Sidney's younger cousin is Emma Roberts.  These actors are fine, sporting flashes of charisma.  You may wish that those who appear in the gag opening, including Lucy Hale, Anna Paquin, and Kristen Bell, had assumed their roles instead. 

What really matters is that Wes Craven still knew how to direct the hell out of a movie.  And this would be his screen bow before his death a few years later.  The shock sequences and kills are again deftly orchestrated and intense.  Great suspense building, what I truly appreciate in horror.  There's plenty of blood, too, but this never feels like the freak show (ala the SAW movies) this movie ribs during the usual self-aware dialogue that flies out of these characters' mouths.  At times the movie discussions and references were too aware and even a little embarrassing, but usually clever.  That description could be applied to all four of the SCREAM films, matter a fact.   

There was a lot of acclaim for the new installment, which as with SCREAM 4 came 11 years after its predecessor.  Stay tuned......