Scream 4… or is it Scre4m?

So… Wes Craven is back already… That’s kind of a surprise. Those not in the know, back in 1996, Craven along with screen writer and man guilty of “Dawson’s Creek” Kevin Williamson made a little horror flick called “Scream”. What made “Scream” stand out was that it had a killer that would call his victims with questions about horror movies before trying to kill them, at the same time poking a little fun at the clichés and troupes that typified horror movies at the time, while kinda, sorta doing the exact same things. It was a cute little gimmick and otherwise, “Scream” was pretty solid as a movie if you ask me. It turned into a big hit and so almost immediately it got a sequel, which basically did the same thing, only this time pointing the self awareness on sequel clichés… again, basically while doing the same thing, and yeah, I still enjoyed it. The point I’m trying to make, is that “Scream” really only has one thing going for it, a cutesy kind of gimmick done with reasonable competent film making.
And so, the franchise has now made it to the fourth movie, and it’s gimmick’s charm has long since worn off. That aside, “Scream 4”(Scre4m?) does get a fairly easy ride as it has to be compared to “Scream 3”, which ranks just under slicing my finger with a table saw on the list of things I’d never like to experience again. It was stupid, boring, and oh so pointless with a crappy twist at the end and completely forgettable scare scenes. It was just crap, plain and simple.
But how is “Scream 4” (Scre4m?)? It’s… It exists. That’s really all I can say. This movie really doesn’t do much. The premise is that the main character of the series Sydney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, has returned to her hometown of Woodsboro to promote her self-help book based on her experiences with the killers. However, surprise surprise, the murders start to happen again. This time, the gimmick’s theme is that of the Horror movie remakes that are all the rage, and so it’s assumed that the killers are remaking the first “movie” and it’s centered more around Campbell’s cousin and her circle of friends. The remake idea is nice in theory, but all it does is serve to pretty much dissolve most of the movie's tension because we basically know what's coming next and it's really more of a matter of who's going to die next.
The one thing I can always say for the “Scream” series, the acting is always pretty good to decent, and that is the case here. The cast all do the job, and most of the flaws or nit picks that I have with the performances come mostly from the blah at best dialogue. Most notable is oddly enough Anthony Anderson of “Transformers” and “Agent Cody Banks 2” fame, as well as Marley Shelton of “Grindhouse” and “Sin City”, as two of the cops in town. They’re quirky and fun and I honestly was more concerned about them while watching the movie.
The real problem with this movie is it has no staying power. I honestly walked out of the theater and basically forgot most of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not super short or anything, but none of the kills leave much of an impact, the twist at the end is silly and it really just seems to be in a hurry to try and finish. It feels rushed and I feel that if they had more time, maybe, they could have hammered out something a little more presentable. As it is, the movie barely makes it known that it existed. I mostly blame the script, Kevin Williamson has really just been rehashing the original movie since it came out, and aside from that silly show he created, nothing else has ever reached the same amount of popularity. Here it just feels like creative auto pilot and that if he has all the character talk a lot of movie trivia and non sense people will mistake it for characterization. Not to mention the reveal at the end just feels like it comes out of nowhere. I mean, yeah I found it shocking, but I honestly figured out half of it about 35 minutes into the movie and then the other half feels really really forced, even though they try and try to make it seem like it wasn't. Actually, the only thing that was memorable is a scene where the killer asking a question about a horror movie remake and a character lists of ALL of the horror remakes that have come out recently, and it takes up a full minute of screen time. Making the horror fan in me cry a little at the reminder.
Really, I’m just going to sum up like this, better than “Scream 3”, but not by much. It’s lame, forgettable and working with a gimmick that’s already long since gone past it’s expiration date.

1.5 stabbings out of 5.