SCRE4M Review

Scream 4, simply put, is Meta out the arse, but once you get past this perfect storm of self-referential madness, there isn’t all that much to write home about.

It’s strange to see scream 4 in 2011, or should I say SCRE4M (its always cool when they do that right?…). It’s been over fourteen years since the original and that is a lot of time to leave between a sequel, especially one that is so referential to the genre within which it is couched, and one that has gone through somewhat of a metamorphosis in the intervening decade. Gone are the days of the Slasher flick that characterised horror genre back in the days of Scream 1. Replacing it are other forms of horror, the torture porn genre (probably the worst name you could give anything ever) with films like SAW and Hostel , though even that has probably seen its end. As well as that you have the videotaped, home-made style of horror; starting with Blair Witch in 1999, but more recently seen in the Paranormal Activity films. Alongside these two ‘bastions’ of horror film making you have the rise of the remake, Nightmare on Elm’s street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and Dawn of the Dead to name but a few. Scream 4 then, attempts, like its predecessors, to de-construct the slasher flick, while also attempting to de-construct these newer horror genre quirks, most notably the idea of a remake.

Scream 4 sees us return to the sleepy town of Woodsboro around 10 years after the events of Scream 3 where we see Sidney Prescott, played again by Neve Cambell, return to the town to promote her new book. We also see the return of Dewy Riley, played by David Arquette the hapless cop turned town’s Sheriff, and his in-film wife, Gale Weathers Riley, played again by Courtney Cox. Quickly after her return, Ghost face makes another appearance, this time targeting Sidney’s cousin Jill, played by Emma Roberts, and her friends Kirby, played by Hayden Panettiere, and Olivia Morris, played by Marielle Jaffe. Soon it is clear that the killer seems to be attempting to ‘remake’ the first Stab film, the in-film film of the events of Woodsboro (and hence essentially the first Scream movie) and murderous action ensues.

Obviously the most striking thing about Scream has always been this attempt to deconstruct the genre within which it is situated, and there is no lack of self-referential action within Scream 4. This fourth film takes this to extremity and reaches heights that none of the other films had ever reached. It sees Meta piled on top of more Meta, to create one huge big pile of…Meta. This is especially demonstrated in the opening sequence which plays around deviously with the movie adaptation of the events of Woodsboro within the film itself; Stab and its numerous sequels, criticising the predictability of the introduction to such films while quickly following those conventions itself.

This self-referencing continuous unabated throughout the film, even with the term Meta being thrown about haphazardly by the cast. Obviously, like previous films, the characters are fully aware of the rules of the horror film, a point that is driven home mercilessly throughout the 110 minute running time. As with the previous iterations of the scream film, there are obviously new rules to abide by, and essentially in this iteration, all bets are off and anyone can be killed.

There are also strong references to idea of filming the murders, as well as new technology with Facebook, live streams, and other new technological innovations, being thoroughly included. The murders also seem to have been filmed in more of a gruesome way than the previous films, pandering to the torture porn crowd, a point that the film itself doesn’t hasten to commentate on.

Despite all this self-referencing, all this expository dialogue about how everything is 'oh so predictable' in such horror films, Scream 4 seems to do little to stray far from this path itself and once you get beyond the big ol’ pile of Meta, you are left with the very thing that the films seems to try so hard to poke fun at. After the interesting opening, the middle section seems to drag on, and the deaths are nothing that you haven’t seen before in previous Scream films or other similar films.

It many spots it seems that they went for the easy option when they could have exploited the new tricks at their disposal. For example, despite the presence of live streams, there were only fleeting attempts to incorporate this into some interesting deaths. This is especially true in the case of Eddie Mercer, played by Erik Knudsen, who although is continuously live streaming his life, the film fails to use this in any meaningful way and there were a number of moments when I thought they could have used this live stream in a much more interesting way than it was actually did in the end. Overall, most of the deaths are just ghost face running up and stabbing dudes, which is fine, but not all that exciting nor particularly scary; for a film genre that relies upon jump scares, there aren’t really that many of them.

In terms of the acting calibre, there is nothing aggressively bad with any of the characters, although in spots the dialogue did feel a bit stilted. In the end though, mostly the characters are there to run around, scream a bit, and then die, which most of them do well. In terms of the three returning stars, Courtney Cox, David Arquette and Courteney Cox, there is much of the same. None of their performances are sensational in any sense of the word, but they do enough to keep the film moving.

Overall, despite the changes within horror films over the last decade, there is very little that distinguishes Scream 4 from any of the previous films of the series. Generally, they all follow the same tired formula with this new iteration being no exception; despite the fact that Scream 4 is heavily aware of the pitfalls of the genre, a point which it puts across strenuously, it falls headfirst into these pitfalls anyway and there is not much that will surprise you here. Obviously you’ll be trying to guess the killer and I won’t ruin anything here, but the ending is about as dumb as you would expect a Scream ending to be.

In the end, this newest Scream film seems to be trying to pull the same tricks that it did in 1996; tricks that by this stage seem long worn out. That said, there isn't really anything like this out there at the moment and if you’re looking for a horror romp which doesn't require you to think to much, if at all, and within which a lot of people get stabbed in the face, then ‘SCRE4M’, will probably keep your attention, at least for a little while.