Directed by Wes Craven, (4/5).
The Scream franchise gets another outing courtesy of director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson. The requirement of staying true to the self-aware nature of the first three entries, while still providing semi-serious horror scares, while at the same time forging new territory for the series was a task that I understandably had my doubts about. But Craven and co. were mostly one step ahead of me, making sure to tick off every notable horror trend of the last decade from their list of cultural references. Within the first ten minutes we had torture porn, Shaun of the Dead, mockumentary horror and the original Scream trilogy targeted for parody. The film even managed to raise the question of whether its own ultra-self conscious narrative was clever or merely daftness masquerading as wit so as to dodge any possible criticism.
In many ways Scream 4 can be considered a remake of the original. Therefore, chosen for primary parody was the Hollywood remake machine, with Craven obviously not being too chuffed at the attempted twenty-first century reboots of his babies. A moment of brilliant satire came when the antagonist, via a cellphone call, forces a female victim to list off every classic horror remake of the last decade she can think of in order to save the life of the object of her affection. Whether she succeeds is not something I’ll reveal here, but as a moment of both suspense and comedy it succeeds immensely, pointing out the ridiculous lack of creativity of contemporary Hollywood.
Scream films have always benefited from having a strong ensemble cast, and the fourth is no different. All the key characters are back from the first three films, and it is the chemistry between these actors that keeps things interesting. Of the new additions, Emma Roberts stood out for me the most, and Anna Paquin makes an amusing cameo; watch for the blonde wig. While not essential viewing, Scream 4 succeeds as an entertaining comedy/horror, albeit one with more comedy then horror.
Scream 4
