Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)
is back in Woodsboro after 10 years as the part of the first stop of her book tour for Out Of The Darkness. She shows
up and the Ghostface killings begin anew and the killer is even filming the new kills. Sidney, Sheriff Dewey Riley
(David Arquette), and retired new reported Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) are reunited once again to stop Ghostface
who promises to kill everyone close in Sidney's family and make her suffer.
SCREAM 4 is better than the horrible SCREAM 3.
It does have some interesting turns and yet it is mostly predictable except I didn't see part of the ending coming (but
I guessed some of the rest after the twist came). After this movie ended, I don't know how exactly they could do a
SCREAM 5 and 6. Part of me wishes they stopped after SCREAM 2 while another part wonders what the point of SCREAM
4 as it becomes more and more of a slave to the rules of the horror movies it makes fun of and refers to. Maybe it
really needed a game changer and took even more risks.
Sometimes the the original three characters take too much of a
backstage to the new characters we barely even get to know as the story tries to spread itself too thin to introduce us to
all of them while weaving in the story (and all of the gory and bloody kills). It makes nods to the SCREAM films and
make fun of the STAB films (and various horror sequels notably SAW 4).
All this talk about SCREAM 4 makes me wonder if we need as many sequels to horror films.
I would like to see a horror trilogy that is the horror equivalent of LORD OF THE RINGS or STAR WARS instead
sequels made because the first one really made lots of money (and they need to come up with an idea for a sequel).
I would like to Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson to come up with new ideas that strike gold like the first SCREAM did even
though sometimes success is like lightning in the bottle. SCREAM 4 is like a trip of nostalgia that is also trying
to introduce a new audience to SCREAM. It does have a little troubled history as the Weinsteins wanted to rush it into
production with a finished script and had to get the writer of SCREAM 3 to rewrite it (and even shoot for an extra
four days this year to punch the movie up). Maybe if they do SCREAM 5, we can let the original
characters rest and put a new cast through it.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The big extra are the twenty-five minutes of deleted and extended scenes including an alternate
ending and alternate opening (which cuts to the chase) in addition to some extra character scenes cut for timing.
The scenes have the option of being played with audio commentary by director Wes Craven.
THE MAKING OF SCREAM 4 is a big promotional fluff piece which has interviews with cats and crew.
The ten minute gag reel goes on a little too long with one of the crew members scaring multiple cast members during shooting
in addition to flubbed lines. Also included is a SCREAM 4 video game promotion which you can skip.
The other extra is the feature audio commentary with director Wes Craven, actors Hayden Panettiere
and Emma Roberts with a guest appearance by neve Campbell (by phone). It gives the details on the production fo
the film including an opening that the Weinsteins didn't like and made Kevin Williamson write a new opening. The actors
comment on what they like in the film while Wes Craven gives details about the process of making SCREAM 4.
FINAL ANALYSIS: SCREAM 4 makes up for the mess that was SCREAM 3, but it may be time to
put the SCREAM franchise to rest. I wish the DVD had more behind-the-scenes extras.
this DVD review is (c)10-6-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.
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