In the decade since the last killing spree, the Stab franchise has kept going.
Forced to go original, the series seems to have run its course at Part 7.
Somebody thinks it’s time for a reboot - new killers, new rules, new final girl…
It is weird to watch a reboot a decade later, knowing that it did not lead to a new series of sequels. Particularly in light of Wes Craven’s passing, it gives Scream 4 an added layer of pathos.
The most obvious change is the look of the film - I knocked the look of the original for being too bright, but Scream 4 seemed a little too dark. Peter Deming shot the previous two installments, so it is probably a change in either film stock or processing.
It is not a major problem, but it made it a little hard to see.
One thing about the Williamson penned Screams is how they use their pre-credit teasers to define the new format they will be satirizing.
The film-within-a-film x 2 opening is clever, bringing the franchise into contemporary times by playing out the life of a franchise through tired formula and attempts at new ideas (Stab 5 included time travel, we are told).
After sequels and trilogies, Scream 4 focuses on the then-popular trend toward rebooting classic/iconic films.
There is an underlying fear of killing off the original, which plays out through the villain’s focus on replacing Sidney as the sole survivor of a pair of killers obsessed with her.
Social media is a new mode that the film grapples with, but one that fits in with the attention-seeking and narrative-shaping modus operandi of the previous Ghostfaces.
The movie is not that scary, but it does feel closer in tone and characterization to the original Williamson-penned installments.
The new players are good:
Rory Culkin adds some creepy dissonance to his role as the Randy equivalent, and Hayden Panettiere is great as Kirby, Jill’s tomboyish friend.
The real standout is Emma Roberts. Cast against type as Jill, Sidney’s jealous cousin, Roberts is totally convincing as an innocent teen and a conniving narcissist.
The film is watchable enough, but thankfully the extended third act elevates the whole enterprise.
After ‘killing’ Sidney, we watch Jill re-stage the entire scene to complete her story as the final girl, down to the creepy touch of mirroring Sidney’s body language on the floor.
The movie ends with Jill dead but immortalized as the camera cuts outside to pan across multiple journalists talking about her as a hero.
Roberts’ Jill might be the most terrifying villain in the franchise because of her complete willingness to kill anyone - including her own family - to get fame.
One aspect of the film that feels a smidge under-cooked is the killers’ recording of their killing spree. It feels like a missed opportunity to show the villains’ manufacturing their own film, rather than a (decent) monologue.
While it is not as big of a comeback as advertised (then again, it might have to do with my assessment of Scream 3), Scream 4 is a fine end to Williamson and Craven’s partnership. Boosted by some fresh ideas and new characters, it still feels like there was more to be mined from the Scream concept. Sadly, the film’s underwhelming box office and Craven’s death in 2015 put the series on ice.
Williamson would go on to use his unmade Scream 3 concept as the basis for the TV series The Following, while the Scream brand would adorn an anthology TV series, which ran from 2015-2019.
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