Thank you, thank you Craven and Williamson for this. How fun. Best slasher film I can recall since Freddy v. Jason. It was pretty much exactly what it needed to be. Better than part 2 or 3 for me, not far off from the original. Lovely commentary on the state of horror over the last decade. Funny, scary, smart. A little crazy here and there but in such a fun way. Kind of suffers a couple cliches that it should have been aware of but easily forgivable. Ghostface is back - the meme is alive. A-

This has a very cool soundtrack. My favorite is Ida Maria's Bad Karma, but I'm also loving the stuff from The Sounds.

It's at least better than the third's soundtrack, with the godawful post-grunge constipated rock (multiple songs by Creed).

LOL, I know. That one was horrible. I remember the Scream music video for the one Creed song, and then when I watched the movie the other day I noticed (as I'm sure I had before but forgot) that they had a Creed poster on the wall of the set version of Sidney's old bedroom. Boy did they ever get in bed with Creed for that installment.

So did Emma Roberts carry Anthony Anderson and Adam Brody and place their bodies in the police car? I think it was her because Rory Culkin would have been at his Stabathan party at the time. I would guess that Anthony Anderson weighs at least 250lbs.

Hehe. I was just thinking that about the soundtracks the other day. I've got about eight songs each from the Scream 1, 2, & 4 soundtracks on my itunes and a whopping one from Scream 3 (and even that one is fairly meh).

As for Scream 4, I saw it again and I think it'll grow on me a bit more once I get the DVD in a few months or whenever. It's still too small and cheap looking, the young people are too pretty, a few of the joke lines feel more clunkly than funny, and...I don't know. It kinda seems like a reunion show for a series that's been off the air for a while. I feel the same way Larry David does about reunions: they feel lame, everybody's ten years older, and it just doesn't look right. I also do like it still. Many conflicting emotions

While Scream 3 as a whole isn't the greatest or anything (I do enjoy the Gale/Dewey interplay and Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie a bunch, though), I liked its immediate ending of Sidney making peace with things and being able to move forward, while Gale/Dewey decide to make a real go of life together. One of the interesting things about movies/TV is how the characters get to be frozen in time a bit, so while even though you imagine them going on to do whatever, they'll--to be superficial a moment--never have to go through the very human process of aging

Maybe it's just that Scream 4 Gayle reminded me of my grandmother too much in her looks/attire/etc that now I can't separate the two in my head.

You're not supposed to put too much thought into it .

A

Woah....

All I can say is... WOAH at that crazy ass finale

I'm starting to think it really doesn't fit with the other films. It could have easily been what the first Scary Movie should have been. Taking the parody just too far, but still maintaining some of the gore and jumps the others had.

Here are some questions/gripes though.



Also I was wondering if Dark Shape could talk about the version he originally saw back then. I've been reading one of the killers is that "only in the theatrical cut"

Despite my gripes, I still think the film was different, just less Scream then ever before. But what it was was hysterical thoughout with enough jumping moments and gore to satisfy horror fans.

The cut I saw a month ago was the final cut. There was never any question about it. It was a press screening.

The publicist's death was a less scary, less inspired version of a scene in Drag Me to Hell.

It made me think of the parking garage scene in CURSED .

It made me think of the awesome scene the original had when he taunted her with the keys and unlocking them, but it failed to meet that.

I really enjoyed it. It felt pretty much like a new Scream film should, and I'm relieved that none of the principles died (although I wouldn't have minded if Gale or Dewey had been killed off).

If I have any qualms, it's that there was no really inventive or memorable death/chase scene in the whole film. Everyone seemed to die quite quickly and generally of a stab to the chest/stomach (with the exception of Anthony Anderson, whose relatively good death was punctured and ruined by the weak Bruce Willis joke).

Also, Emma Roberts can. not. act. Not a problem for the majority of the film, but towards the end when she was required to actually give a lot of exposition and convincingly appear unhinged, I couldn't help but wish they'd cast a slightly more capable actress in the role. Like Hayden Pannettiere, perhaps, who was surprisingly brilliant as Kirby.

That said, I did enjoy her self-mutilation scene.

Anyway, about on a par with Scream, and I'm glad Sidney made it through. B+

Scream 4 is a minor miracle. It not only furthers the story of Scream, it updates it. When Scream came out in 96, there was no social media, there was no Blair Witch Project. It was simply a couple of killers who took their love of movies too far. They terrorized people using a coded cell phone. That's about as inventive as they got.

It worked brilliantly as Scream became one of top 25 films of all time. With horror legend Wes Craven directing a fresh and brilliant script by newcomer Kevin Williamson, Scream poked fun at and paid homage to all the horror films that came before it.

Here we are 15 years later and the trick is to somehow stay true to the tone of the original while updating it for today's Twitter generation. That can be a tricky thing. Look at the utter failure of Zombie's Halloween. It was a reboot and it tried to walk a fine line between keeping the tone of the original and Zombie adding his own flair. It didn't work at all. But this time, Craven and Williamson have made a ridiculously brilliant film in Scream 4. All the witty dialogue, all the irreverent nods to the horror films of the last 50 years, all the hot young women, and all the goofiness of some of the other characters that we love, it's all here. The film even gets ballsy enough to tell you that it is basically following in the footsteps of the original. So when it tells you this, you try to piece it all together and see if you can figure out who's doing the killing.

As much as I like to be surprised at the end of a horror film, or any good who-dunnit, it isn't very often when I can't figure out the Scooby Doo endings. But I was honestly baffled in this one, right up till the very end when all is revealed. Kudos to the script and to Craven for really keeping you guessing.

The story has Sidney returning to Woodsboro for the ten year anniversary of the killings. She has written a book about her harrowing experience and it has gone on to be a best seller. As soon as she arrives, the killings start again and that familiar voice is taunting her and her niece and her friends. Emma Robertson is her niece Jill and Hayden Pantierre plays her best friend Kirby. David Arquette and Courtney Cox reprise their roles and then you can add in all kinds of excellent cameos or small roles from the likes of Anthony Anderson, who plays Deputy Anthony Perkins...wink wink..nudge nudge...and Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin.

Soon the locals start getting bumped off, but in much more gruesome fashion than other Scream films. There are plenty of stabbings and the outcome is bloody and gruesome. In an homage to Wes Craven's original fright film Last House on the Left, one of the victims actually has their intestines laying beside them. It was a very shocking, albeit quick moment, but it was there.

The film really plays up the fact that the killer wants to up the ante in this one. The killer is using the internet to broadcast the kills and this makes the killer incredibly sick. And when you find out (during the talking killer part, when the killer, instead of just killing their victim, explains the whole plot to them) what the motivation is for this killing spree, you just might stand up and cheer. I'm not sure if Williamson or Krueger wrote the last part about not having to work for fame anymore, you just have to have messed up stuff happen to you, but regardless of who did, it's one of the most brilliant and apropos lines I've ever heard.

Scream 4 is miles better than the last one and imo it even surpasses the very good Scream 2. I am ready for a fifth. The movie really takes you back to what I loved about Scream 1 and 2. Sidney's been through a lot, but I think she go another round or two.

9/10

Is that you Baumer, or a new one? The review makes me think it is you.

The one and only Gun.

Welcome back, where's Jason, and your post count?

I actually have no idea what happened to my avatar or my post count. Although my post count was never high here, it was more than 80.

I don't know about that. I don't want her character to die or anything (and I certainly don't want her to end up the killer), but it's time to let her R.I.P. She's been through enough and escaping death AGAIN would be pushing it. I want a SCR5AM (though it won't happen now ), but I'd be ok with her being off somewhere and not being involved this time. It would be interesting to see what Williamson had planned for a fifth and sixth.

Scream 3 gave Sidney the perfect, sentimental ending, with her leaving the gate unlatched, etc., etc.

WHICH OMG MEANS THERE'S ANOTHER KILLER THERE!!!

God, how I hated people who couldn't grasp what that final shot meant.

WTF are you talking about?

Are you suggesting the Scream 3 ending didn't mean, "Wes Craven believes this could be the last one, so he gave it a nice ending where, for the first time in a long time, Sidney feels truly safe"?