Review of Scream 4 (2011) by Vern — 22 Mar 2012

When it was first released in 1996, the original 'Scream' was an intelligent, and fun horror film that gave the slasher genre a big boost of much needed energy. 'Scream 2' was an entertaining sequel that cleverly built upon what the original film started.

'Scream 3', although not as bad as some people say, was admittedly a bit of a let down. So after more than 10 years of horror films in between, we have 'Scream 4', ready to dissect and poke fun at recent horror films (and the state of the horror genre in general) once again, and it turns out, it's pretty good! If you thought this series couldn't get any more self-aware, you were very, very wrong.

'Scream 4' is a hall of mirrors to the horror genre. It is arguable that this film is self-aware to a fault (with constant references not just to other horror movies, but to past 'Scream' films as well).

And this time around the comedy is turned up a few notches, which does take away a bit from some of the bloodshed. But, if taken with a small grain of salt, this can still be a fun movie. So enough about the cons, and onto the pros.

Although not as good as 'Scream', 'Scream 4' is about on par with 'Scream 2', and is admittedly an improvement over 'Scream 3'. For starters, it has a decent amount of fresh faces to liven things up (Hayden Penattiere and Rory Culkin are two standouts).

Like before, the characters in the film all speak with clever, self-aware dialogue. There are also a few reasonably suspenseful set pieces, and the who will get it next/whodunit angle still works well enough to keep you guessing throughout the film.

If these movies are not your thing, I would be surprised if this one changed your mind. But if you do enjoy the 'Scream' films for what they are (entertaining and suspenseful horror-comedies), then give 'Scream 4' a try.