My review of Scream 4

I have been praying for a year that this film would be good. Or should I say, whenever my love of the scream trilogy and my knowledge of #4 coincided. Well, I loved it.


Acting/characters: Well, it had the cast that we all know and love. Plus some additional members like Rory Culkin. The acting was almost as good as it was in the original two for me. Well, at least it was once it all got going. The start of the film went a little too slow and wasn't as well done as the rest of the film but once it got going I highly enjoyed it. The big three lacked a little of the original charm that they all had in the first one, but I still enjoyed their characters. The rest of them were okay. You could kind of tell who was going to get it and when but that's an unavoidable part of the slasher genre. Nothing you can do about that. Unfortunately, they still kind of went for Ken and Barbie with a lot of the characters. But, I wasn't incredibly distracted by that once it all got going. 8/10

Plot: It had what the third one didn't and what the first two nailed: satire. I really loved the satirical elements of the film overall. Like I said earlier, the whole thing had a slow, not very well done start, (past the first 10 minutes or so) but it's kind of the ending that counts because that's what you remember. It had some good jumps in there but it didn't completely rely on them like so many other slashers of the Third Age. But it did very well in satirizing the giant remake and reboot craze that is going on. Well done there. But it was kind of predictable at moments. But like I said, it's nearly impossible to make the whole thing a surprise with a genre like this. But it did well for me overall. 8/10

Screenplay: Like most slashers, this was the weakest part. I did not like some of the lines that Wes Craven put in there. But it wasn't all completely horrible. It just started out that way. I suppose that once the action got going I didn't really care what they were saying because I was engrossed in who Ghostface would butcher next and how. It was overall good and fit with the story nicely. Not perfect though. It needed some tuning. 7.5/10

Likableness: If I had the money, I would go out and see this one again. And again. I loved it. I had a grand time watching this one and while it wasn't quite what the first one was, I would put it roughly on the same level that the second one achieved for me. I had a blast. Good thing I went through that modern slasher phase of my slasher marathon or I wouldn't have gotten a lot of the jokes and references that they made. Of course, there are still a lot of references to the good old original ones. I will buy this film as soon as I can. I really loved it. 9/10

Final Score: 32.5/40 81% (N)


TRIVIA TIME: 1. Scout Taylor-Compton and Shane Dawson auditioned for roles in the movie.

2. At a table read on June 25, 2010, the actors were told to stop reading at page 75 to prevent those already cast in the film from knowing the climax.

3. With four installments, this landmarks the Scream franchise as being one of the only horror franchises to have its main characters return for all its sequels.