Onwards now to my next review which is about the eagerly awaited and much overdue sequel to that well known slasher horror movie franchise Scre4m (see what they did there, because it’s the fouth sequel, get it).
I’ve slightly depressed myself with the start of this review. I Imdbed Scream and saw that it was released in 1996, when I was eleven years old! Oh boy that was a long time ago. The follow up sequels were released in 1997 and 2000, over ten years ago. Jeez, time has flown by. And now we have number four and it’s NOT in 3D! Although here’s betting number five will be ( I don’t actually know if there is going to be a fifth film but the way Hollywood id churning out remakes and sequels and it’s current love of 3D...).
Going into the screen to watch this film I was excited to see this new sequel but also expecting the worst as with (most) sequels the more there are in a franchise the worse they get. Sitting in my seat as the lights dimmed I was waiting to see a tired old formula of predictability, bad acting, dumb shock factor scares and stupid characters...and I got all that but in the best possible way. The beginning of the film is genius, I won’t spoil it but the self parodying is genius and very funny, it really sets the tone for the rest of the film brilliantly. There’s a who’s who of actors in the film (Hayden Panettiere, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Rory Culkin amongst others) as well as the return of the main three actors, Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox, who all play their characters just the way we remember them. Ms Cox steals the show, playing Gail Weathers as a desperate but feisty bitch you can’t help but admire, clamouring to get back to her journalistic roots. The supporting cast really go for it as well, playing it cheesy or really hamming it up, it’s all about the food method acting in this film (sorry). Marley Shelton, for example, who plays Dewey’s deputy, her acting is quite bad, like something out of a trashy soap opera but it’s down in such a way that it must have been purposefully bad, she really plays on the tone of the film.
All the familiar mechanics of the previous films are here, the characters referencing a lot of popular culture such as blogging and twitter as well as constantly talking about horror movies, it’s just so good! There’s plenty of the walking into a house unarmed and alone, standing in front of open windows and open doorways, running upstairs instead of outdoors etc. It’s all here. When the guilty party is revealed at first I thought "Oh dear" but it actually works out quite well in the spirit of the film, which is that it is all a bit ridiculous but still good.
I was delightfully impressed with this film. It is by far the funniest film of the franchise, incredibly cheesy but it knows it and plays on it. This film wants you to laugh at it, sometimes to relax you before a scare and sometimes by the way the victim dies, which by the way is more grisly than the previous films. It may also help to not go in with high expectations and just allow the film to entertain you, rather than looking to deep into it. It’s funny, will make you shout “Don’t go in there!” and is great to take a very jumpy friend to! A great film to watch with friends. Well done Wes Craven, you still got it!
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