Scre4m

My first thought watching Scream 4 was, "Do this many people really still have land lines?" I finally picked up the new Scream film this weekend. I have been a long time fan of the Scream movies, to the point of near obsession during the life cycle of the first two. Needless to say, I was tentatively excited when I first heard they were making another film in the series.

The premise surrounds Sidney Prescott returning to Woodsboro as the last stop on her book tour. The night before her arrival the Ghostface murders start again. Sidney takes up residence with her cousin Jill while the murders are being investigated by none other than Dewey and Gail Riley. From there it is rather formulaic; people get picked off one by one, and eventually the killer is revealed to be the person you'd least expect.

So, is it any good? The answer, in my opinion, is, "It's not bad." I have a load of little bones to pick with this entry in the series. There is a complete lack of the song, "Red Right Hand," which served as a theme song, of sorts, for the first three films. There is an overabundance of the word, "meta." Add that to the obsession with social media and the aforementioned plethora of land lines, and you having me rolling my entirely too much to properly enjoy the film.

That's not to say that it's all bad. The film follows the Scream formula and certainly feels like a valid entry in the series. It stays interesting throughout and it was well cast. I think I would have preffered if it were a remake rather than a sequel. The old stars don't fit in with the new young cast so well, and nowhere near enough of the new cast survives. In my opinion the Scream series missed out on being the annualized franchise like the horror films it emulates. Series like Saw and Final destination have stepped up to fill that role. What is left is an interesting comment on the genre as a whole that seems to have a horror film rolled in as an afterthought.