LAURA SANDS

Scream 4 (15)
FILM RATING          VIEWER RATING     (7/8 out of 10)
BY: Laura Sands June 2011 FILED UNDER: Cinema reviews
Scream 4 did not make hundreds of millions of dollars in its opening weekend; actually it barely reached its production budget of $40 million.  Saying that, with is blood spilling humour, popcorn throwing scares and entertaining modern day twists, all create, for a modern day teen slasher’, with all the freshness of the original Scream in 1996.  For this a better timed release could have made all the difference in its box office performance, but all round it has approximately hit $96, 200,000 million since its release.

Definitely; a film referencing cut above the rest, which gives it a smart and fresh take.
Robert’s comes in to her own psychotic, dramatic performance as her on screen alter-ego Jill, Sydney Prescot’s (Neve Campbell), cousin delves in to the role with endless body counts at the tap of every foot and humour that could have its own ego, a refreshing, modern write that fits to the past 10 years of remakes, torture-horror and reboots, this sets ground for a film filled with some of the attributes of today’s style of horror, but still with that style of cool and 90s originality that made the first Scream a hit.  Craven has still created visually entertaining moving images with a chunky, well thought out script, originally written by Kevin Williamson, later rewritten by Scream 3 pen-man Ehren Kruger, but still a Williamson script, said Craven.

So for the 1st act of the film, a visually funny montage of the Stab films, that at first makes you think “Oh no!”, but it was just a twist at the beginning so we can then get it to the 1st act, where  we see the arrival of Sydney Prescott back in Woodsboro and ready for the book signing of her new book, but so is ghost-face as he or she returns to wreak up a new, more adventurous and bold style of killings, scares and surprises. It also introduces a young new cast of actors, the amazing Emma Roberts who brings a whole new meaning to the word innocents”, as Sydney’s little cousin Jill and her friends in the shape of (Hayden Panettiere, who plays Kirby, Marielle Jaffe, who plays Olivia and Rory Culkin, who plays Charlie, among others.  The film see’s a host of celebrity names come on too screen, mostly to be another slash on Ghost-face’s notch of kills, including, Lucy Hale, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody and Mary McDonnell.
The 2nd act of the film offers you a bit more story and delves into the character’s a bit more, still blissfully unaware of who’s revived Ghost-face, by keeping-up suspense with Ghost-face adding a more digital take on things, by filming the killings and broadcasting it.  With things getting more shocking and bloodier, we will still be left with a whispering voice in our heads, saying “Who is it”?  That continues till near enough the end.
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The 3rd act opens up some home truths for Sydney and the others, as the climatic reveal of Ghost-face comes to a-near and the final show down brings some cinema sounding “Oh my god’s”, to the table, as Ghost-face goes in for the kill with a massacre ending on the cards, it’s up to Sydney to save herself and put an end to this, but not quite at this point, as she is thought to be pretty much dead by Ghost-face, but when it is revealed that she is still alive, it’s time for her to die, one way or another Sydney must die, with the psychotic last act it finally see’s the famous trio, Gail, Dooey and Sydney, survive another movie.

The 1st act sets out the plot line and lines up body’s, for an entertaining second act and a frenzied filled surprising 3rd act that rounds off the Scream 4 and the quadrilogy nicely, but with the possibility of a 5th film, maybe not the end of Ghost-face after all.  I guess we will have to wait and listen out for that all famous phone ring and a voice that is enough to scare anybody…”I’ll gut you like a fish!”, says probably one of the most recognisable voices from the movies Roger Jackson, who has been the voice of ghost-face for all 4 films and Craven, Williamson and Kruger to decide whether they can make another blood tingling, suspense filled, plot and character driven film.
With this being a film referencing cut above the rest of the teen-slasher, torture-porn and poor horror remakes, being pumped out in the past decade, this a fresh take with that old school quality and if this is what is to come for a 5th film, then I am looking forward to it.