Scream 4
★★☆☆☆ Ghost Face is not Freddy Krueger
I am a total Scream fan ever since the first one absolutely blew me away with its unexpected brilliance and Drew Barrymore's breathtaking opening scene, introducing us with a new horror slasher icon, the Ghost Face, who started off this killing spree that has lasted more than a decade.
I likewise loved the more creative takes in its sequels moving away from the high school setting, to college (Scream 2) and ultimately to Hollywood (Scream 3), and offering some insightful laughs at the film industry itself. I thought the end of Scream 3 is a perfect and meaningful end to the trilogy and closure for our protagonist, Sidney (Neve Campbell). Plus, David Arquette and Courteney Cox got to wed in the movie and in real life too.
Having said that, I must confess I didn't expect much from director Wes Craven's latest foray into franchise. Well, it turns out that Scream 4 is, again, playing with the formula of horror/slasher genre, with its occasional scares and twists, as well as some comedy and satire to be part of a very much enjoyed Scream-franchise.
But Scream 4 is nothing new. It returns to high school, and with high school characters (Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere), and it claims to have "new rules", but the actions and scares seems very much recycled from the first 3. The 3 main leads are definitely showing their age and tiredness. Lacking of any new materials, except for the iPhone and cyber-killing, the scary parts become predictable and "seen that done that" before. The problem is that the Ghost Face killer does not even seem to show up that often to keep us awake!!!
The "who did it" plot clearly does not have any impact now anymore, and the twist becomes a pointless and unconvincing vehicle for fame (which works really well for the first one when it first came out!). although Scream 4 embraces the final girl theory and ably mocks the horror genre, there is no more innocence left in this very mediocre sequel.
