Scream 4 Movie Review

You might have thought enough time had passed between Scream 3 (which presumably closed out a trilogy) and Scream 4 (which attempted to cash in on the resurgence of the horror genre) that writer Kevin Williamson could have found a newly fresh take on the genre. The first film in the series was undoubtedly remarkable for managing to skewer the genre, calling attention to itself and its absurd tropes, and at the same time be a skillfully crafted addition to the horror canon thanks to the direction of Wes Craven. Craven returned to helm the third sequel, which would suggest a belief somewhere that it was worth returning to the franchise more than a decade later.

The action returns to the original fictional town of Woodsboro, where the next generation of teenagers has grown up on post-ironic horror films as well as the fictional Stab series which is supposed to be based on the events of the Scream films. Scream 4 opens promisingly, although you don’t realize it for several minutes. A hackneyed dialogue between two teenage girls as they receive threatening phone calls and Facebook messages from a stalker is revealed to be the opening of Stab 6, being watched by two other young women (one of them played by Anna Paquin), which is then revealed as the opening of Stab 7 being watched by two teenagers who are, in fact, characters in Scream 4. Ignoring the metaphysical paradox when you work out the logic, it is an opening that outdoes itself.

Scream 3 Movie Review

Because the first Scream ushered in a new era of cheap Hollywood slasher films, it just feels wildly out of place to find yourself watching Scream 3 attempting to be all self-referential and ironic about the tropes of the genre after a slew of other films started repeating the formula unironically. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger took over the responsibility for penning this entry from original creator Kevin Williamson (but Wes Craven returned to direct). What he did, I suppose in an attempt to freshen things up, was to set the slashing amid the making of the latest “Stab” film (you might remember that’s the series based on the murders that took place in the first film.  So we get treated to lazy jokes about Hollywood and actors and directors and screenwriters that pale in comparison to the satire of, say, The Player or Wag the Dog.

Short Cut Movie Review: Scream 2

A Short Cut Movie Review is normally less than 400 words, but in some cases may go slightly over. This is my attempt to keep writing about as many films as I see without getting bogged down with trying to find more to say. They are meant to be brief snapshots of my reaction to a movie without too much depth.

Where Scream succeeded, Scream 2 feebly attempted to repeat the formula in sequel mode. The problem is that the formula was already starting to wear thin and show the seams. It takes the premise of the first and transfers it to Sidney’s (Neve Campbell) college, where her new boyfriend (Jerry O’Connell) is obviously a prime suspect in the new spate of murders. Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) is back covering the story and Deputy Dewey (David Arquette), hobbled though he is by the wounds received the first time around, is prowling the campus making the same dopey observations. The film is also littered with famous faces, most of whom were rising stars at the time, who get dispatched (Sarah Michelle Gellar; Omar Epps; Jada Pinkett; Rebecca Gay Heart; Joshua Jackson; Timothy Olyphant).

Modern Classic Horror Review: Scream

This is the natural closing to my personal journey because it was released during winter break of my first year in college. So I was at the beginning stages of becoming a full-fledged adult and being finished with things like getting scared by horror movies. That said, this was a cinematic experience that genuinely frightened me. This was a slasher film to put a cap on a generation's worth of slasher films that relied heavily on certain conventions. I still think it's a fantastic horror movie, but its effect has certainly worn off and been done to death in the intervening years.

Click here for a list of other films reviewed and considered for this October 2012 series of horror reviews.

By the end of 1996 it had been so long since a genuinely scary horror movie had been in wide release that it seemed like the genre might be dead forever. Our old friends Freddy, Jason, and Michael had been flogged into oblivion and people were well attuned to the genre conventions resulting in audiences that were a lot smarter than those going to see slasher films 15 and 20 years earlier. These conventions included things like the couple that has sex getting killed; the drug users getting killed; dumb female characters always making the wrong decisions and getting dead as a result; idiot police officers; revenge motives rooted in a complicated back story; obvious suspects as red herrings; and on and on. Kevin Williamson was an aspiring screenwriter when he wrote Scream and eventually sold it, after which legendary horror director Wes Craven was hired to direct.