Cinema Review: Scream 4 (2011)

"New decade, new rules" says the tagline, but the truth turns out to be more like "New decade, same old story". Scream 4 (or, officially, Scre4m), despite the marketing angle, is no reinvention of the wheel. This isn't an example akin to Wes Craven's Freddy Krueger rebirth New Nightmare, where the film went in a rather different direction from its predecessors. Scream 4 remains, instead, content to tread familiar territory, albeit accounting for the passing of ten years since the poorly-reviewed third instalment. Of course, much has happened in the genre in that time - a resurgence in popularity instigated by the first Scream - and there are repeated references in the dialogue (penned by Kevin Williamson, returning to the franchise after skipping Scream 3) to such crazes as torture porn and remake-itis. A problem arises in that at times the film crosses over from ironic to smug in its putdowns of its imitators, because it is not able to match its own prior quality itself.

This new round sees the addition of several bright young things to the cast list, led by Emma Roberts' Jill, as the inheritor of Neve Campbell's prime screamer role, accompanied by the likes of Heroes' Hayden Panettiere (with a gravelly voice sounding like she's been chain smoking since her TV run ended) and Kieran Culkin. The Holy Trinity of Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette are all back and accounted for too, lest the previous generation feel overlooked. Indeed, there are a lot of characters involved, mostly played by recognisable faces presumably tempted by the allure of Craven's well earned genre reputation. The sole purpose of pretty much all of the new characters proves to be either stabbing fodder for this film's Ghostface or for providing misdirection regarding the inevitable shocking reveal of the Big Bad (a reveal that has become more and more ludicrous with each passing sequel, although it's just about within the realms of acceptable here).

One of Scream's trademarks is its opening sequence in which some hot, fairly-famous actress gets bumped off in increasingly elaborate ways. Amongst Scream 4's most innovative touches is the way it uses this built-in reputation to wrongfoot its audience in the opening few minutes, to humorous effect. After that, the frequent killings become rather more mundane and repetitive, few standing out as memorable or creative. (A parking garage scene, for example, pales in comparison to the one in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell.) There's notably little suspense, which is a shame; at its best the Scream series had always been good at combining laughs with genuine scares. This time out, the cast acquit themselves well, and the director and writer are clearly having some fun revisiting past glories, but the end result is a film that does give you what you pay for but little more. It is entertaining, at least.



Summary
Fun, if a little overly self-satisfied at times, Scream 4 is a forgettable yet passable sequel. What was once a trend-setter now seems a little old hat.