Even five months hence, it’s not hard to see why Scream 4 didn’t set the world on fire. Despite the original’s sleeper cred and a cast that affirmed its status as both retro and canon, modern multiplex horror is a largely irony-free affair, with the mainstays of the genre (trilogy and beyond) barely cracking a grin through the gallons and gallons of blood. Not so with Scream 4, in which the characters all but narrate and review their own actions, and openly reference the films that they’re paying homage to in their dialogue. It doesn’t always make for nerve-jangling entertainment, and some of its logic strains to support its foregone conclusions, but Scream 4 represents a virtually Brechtian anomaly in American cinema: a horror film that comments not only on the act of watching violence, but on the pernicious trend of franchising it, damning itself in the process. It may not be the film that audiences were clamoring for, but dang if it isn’t the film that looks into the vast wasteland of media and reflects it back with avant-gardian gusto.
After an introduction that firmly establishes that you are considerably older than you were when the first Scream came out, layering us through a possible endless loop of movies-within-movies, we are planted firmly back in the sleepy burg of Woodsboro, which seems destined to remain sleepy no matter what intermittently happens there whenever Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell). This time, she’s kicking off a book tour when her cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) receives a phone call from the familiar Ghostface voice, inaugurating a new series of murders. Meanwhile, the marriage of Sheriff Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) is taking some heat, partially from the intrusion of cute deputy Judy (Marley Shelton), and also from the fact that the two of them are getting older, and are having a hard time adjusting to their new lives outside of the action.
What’s notable about Scream 4 isn’t the way that its characters constantly reference other films, or the way that they film what’s going on around them, or even that they constantly reference the banality of the proceedings they are helpless to resist: it’s the way that they allow (consciously and unconsciously) their knowledge of pop culture to determine their actions, and their reaction to the events around them. Having the archetypal slut refer to herself as such wasn’t invented recently, but (without giving away too much) there is a grim finality with which the the women in Scream 4 come to accept the boundaries that movie horror has placed on them, and the curious overlap that these rules seem to share with society in general. When the killer is finally revealed, it may strain believability even for this series, but it opens up into a strikingly funny and accurate monologue on the ultimate objective of fame, and the ways that it is both gained and lost.
A remarkably prescient topic, since none of the major stars of the original franchise seem to have been able to find work doing much else since then. The elephant in the room, of course, is the real-life failed marriage of Cox and Arquette, which is playfully referred to at least once, and the similarly flailing career of former sexpot Neve Campbell. All are faced with a new roster of characters that they acknowledge are their supposed replacements, but acquit themselves nicely in roles that they haven’t been able to play in over a decade. Even in a film as hyper-cynical as this, the ultimate take-away from Scream 4 is that the public persona is ultimately determined, like it or not, by the fictional one, and that there may be some sweetness to be find there. Whether it’s Neve or Sidney that we’re feeling nostalgic towards, it’s genuine affection all the same, and Scream 4 is happy to give them a few more moments of glory.
Bonus Features
The Blu-ray features and audio commentary with Wes Craven, Emma Roberts, and Hayden Panettiere, in which they all seem pretty chummy and happy with the movie they made. There’s also an alternate opening (although not that alternate), as well as some extended and deleted scenes, as well as a gag reel, and ‘The Making of Scream 4’.
"Scream 4" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is rated R. Comedy, Horror. Directed by Wes Craven. Written by Kevin Williamson. Starring Adam Brody, Aimee Teegarden, Alison Brie, Anna Paquin, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Kristen Bell, Marley Shelton, Mary McDonnell.
