SCREAM 4 Movie Review

If there's one thing I haven't seen a lot of, it's film reboots. There are remakes, sequels and prequels enough to last a lifetime these days, but a back to basics sequel/reboot with the original cast of a series? Now that's interesting. Or, at least, that's what you'd think.

Scream 4, directed by "Master of Suspense" Wes Craven, takes place nearly a decade after the last film. Sidney Prescott (played by Neve Campbell), returns to her home town of Woodsboro on the 10 year anniversary of the first murders. When a string of Ghost Face-style murders begin to happen again, the original surviving members of the series return - Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Sidney quickly discovers that both herself and her estranged niece are the new targets.

I've got to say, when I heard about this I jumped up and down and giggled, because so rarely these days do we get to return back to movies that defined our youth. I was always one for the original Scream movie, and even the sequels were entertaining in their over the top slasher nature. What I both loved and hated about this movie was the meta humor involved. All of the characters are very aware of the formula of scary movies (who dies first, who is safe from harm), and try to predict the next victims based on their knowledge. What I didn't like about this was the fact that they'd already done this to death in Scream 2.

I won't give the twist ending away, but when it happened I was surprised, then disappointed at the lack of ingenuity. They surprise you with the killer's identity, but also throw so many red herrings at you that you never really know where to even start guessing who the killer is.

But despite all of this, it was both nostalgic fun to watch and a step back into old slasher style, which is a nice departure from the genre as it is today: taken over by gore porn and shock factor horror films.

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