Scream 4

THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE: READ ON FOR MY REVIEW ON SCREAM 4 (2011) I was pleasantly surprised. This was a great movie, especially for fans of the original. It makes up for the awfulness of Scream 3, and includes many very talented new actors and actresses. I was very surprised to walk into the screening theater and see a fantastic horror film. As soon as the Dimension logo appeared on screen, my heart began to race. The opening scene was brutal and hilarious, and it was great to see all of the original characters back on the screen again. I found the Wes Craven cameo, and was laughing as I spotted it out. This movie was great to watch, even though there were some things that needed to be fixed. Very minor problems though. There were some parts in the dialogue that seemed unrealistic (Ehren Kruger re-writes), but it wasn't a huge deal. Also, the ending was kinda long, but it was also very suspenseful. I would most definitely recommend this to a friend in search of a good horror movie.

I literally just came back from a midnight screening of this and I had an amazing time. Craven's managed to reclaim the franchise with a worthy instalment that's a fantastic sequel as well as a quality slasher film in its own right. Honestly speaking, there aren't too many surprises to be had in Scream 4. No matter how mordantly self-aware the movies are (and believe me, Scream 4 gets a little tediously indulgent in its postmodern cleverness), there's an inevitable predictability to some of the proceedings but anybody who's a genre-savvy horror fan will appreciate how brilliantly everything is executed. The opening sequences, for example, are one of the best parts of the movie and are a perfect reintroduction to the franchise and while the bulk of the story lags a little, it's redeemed by the ballsy ending.

The acting is great with the core trio (Campbell, Arquette and Cox) delivering their usual, strong performances and the rest of the cast, however limited their respective roles, are just as entertaining. All you TV buffs there will get a kick out of seeing actors from Heroes, Veronica Mars, True Blood, Mad Men and Community share the silver screen and camp it up. More importantly, the film is hilarious and just a whole lot of ridiculous fun. Craven isn't afraid to take the story to some beautifully insane places and the ending was, to me, perfect.

All in all, it's a great, irreverent slice of horror that's hilarious and true to the franchise. Highly recommended.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Scream 5 was in the pipeline, it instantly prompted me to revisit the films. This film could have easily been a disaster, but in all reality, it's a pretty fun watch.

I'm not sure there's much here for the casual viewer, it is one to please fans of the originals, and of course there is a new set of rules. I can't say I warmed hugely to any of the new cast, the joy comes from the original lineup.

The start was very imaginative, and good fun, the ending definitely came out of left field, but it grabs your attention. Lots of scares and thrills.

Here's to Scream 5.

7/10.

This is much better then most horror sequels. This film has moments that "Scream" fans will get a huge kick out of. The story does go a little too crazy however at the end. It does perform as an excellent chapter in the "Scream Series". If you have never seen a "Scream" film that is okay. This film works on its own and you do not have too know anything of the previous films.

In this film On the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, high school students Jenny Randall and Marnie Cooper are attacked and brutally murdered by a new Ghostface.

The following day, Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro to promote her new book, Out of Darkness, with her publicist Rebecca Walters. After evidence is found in Sidney's rental car, Sidney becomes a suspect in the murders and must stay in town until the murders are solved. Sidney's teenage cousin Jill, who is dealing with the betrayal of her ex-boyfriend, Trevor Sheldon, gets a threatening phone call from Ghostface. She and her friends Olivia Morris and Kirby Reed, are questioned about their calls by Dewey Riley, who is now the sheriff of the town, while one of his deputies, Judy Hicks, assists him in the case. Meanwhile, Dewey's wife, Gale Weathers- Riley, is struggling with writer's block. She gives up the writing and decides to investigate the murder instead.

This film was so good I ended up buying it. Now if your looking for something knew in this film then you will be so disappointed. If you want to see a film that will scare you then RENT THIS.

I hope one day we will get a "Scream 5"

I only semi-recently started to familiarize myself with the Scream franchise, but I loved it instantly. Creating genuine scares by avoiding all the clichés of horror movies, and turning the genre on its head with its self-mocking humor, and also by turning the killer not into a born psychopath with an elaborate back story or a supernatural, but someone dressed in a mask and robe, who uses his love of horror movies as his weapon against his victims. This helped create the mystery factor for the films, leaving you guessing til the end.

Unfortunately, as great as the franchise as a whole is, the sequels that followed the superb original did not live up to the same revelation in the end. The killer(s) was/were, if not predictable, then just the opposite to the point where you realize they didn't build up to it at all, leaving it to be a bit anti-climactic.

I'm happy to report that this is not the case with Scream 4. Even after an eleven year absence, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson prove that they are still at the top of their game, and intelligent and original horror can still exist, even in these dark times full of repetitive sequels and remakes, something that the film comments on heavily.

The basic premise of the film is that Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro after ten years to publicize her new book on her experience with the killer. As soon as she returns, the killings begin again, and her cousin Jill begins to step into Sidney's shoes.

Where Scream 2 and 3 fail, this one succeeds. While I appreciated how they tried to put the premise of the first film in a different environment, it mostly felt like they were trying to live off the original, rather than build off it. While Scream 4 is constantly aware that it is repeating aspects from the original, making this impossible to be seen as a standalone, it does what any good sequel should do. It manages to take the premise of the original, and up the ante. Speaking of which, another thing that is upped besides the stakes is the body count and gore level. While the deaths for the most part are not nearly as elaborate as the original, they don't feel like the repetitive stab cycles in the 2 and 3. They are more brutal, and certainly show that violence in horror films has certainly gone up.

If there was any one weak aspect in this film, it would be the character development, or lack thereof. The three veteran actors from the trilogy, Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox reprising their roles as Sidney, Dewey, and Gale Weathers respectively, play their roles very well, even amongst all the younger stars who more often then not, are in the spotlight, and it feels like they've definitely changed since the events in Scream 3. However, in this film itself, it felt as if they were just there as devices to the plot, and given no real character arcs. However at the same time, there wasn't much they could really do, since a lot of the focus had to be on the younger cast members, who actually put up some pretty good performances, though cannot be compared the cast of the original, but still fare a mile better than the characters introduced in the previous sequels.

I really liked how the actors from the two generations interacted, adding to the commentary on how not just horror movies have changed over the years, but our culture as well. With all that said, I suppose this is more of a character based movie than a character development one. Interesting how that works.

I felt this was the only one of the sequels to truly stay with the spirit of the original, while still making it work for today's audiences. The best example of it having the impact of the original has got to be the ending, which I will not elaborate on. All I'll say is that this is the only one since the original where the revelation of the killer(s) surprised me, as opposed to the "it was I, the butler!" conclusions of 2 and 3.

To sum it up, no fans of Scream or horror films could be disappointed.