Scream 4

2011 - 1/5

Plot:
The 4th installment of the Scream series takes place 10 years after the third one, and the promise here is “New decade, new rules”. That sounded intriguing, but other than references to today’s society (ie, social networking, other movies), not much had been added to the overall storyline; which I was okay with considering I liked the first one, and the second and third were okay.

Right off the bat, the first 10 minutes were funny and the dialogue was pretty clever.

Some parts of the movie were predictable, and you knew what was going to happen. I have to admit that I didn’t figure out who the killers were, but I knew there would be 2. After about an hour, the movie got worse and worse, and once it was revealed who the killers were, the reasoning also came out. This was the biggest let down of the entire movie. I guess one can try to make an argument that it’s making a statement about today’s society and what we value, but I think that’s complete and utter bullshit. It was just the worst reason ever!

Acting:
I felt as if they added too many new characters, but then again, you knew it was because the majority of them would die. I was somewhat surprised that the actors/actresses in this movie kind of looked like high school kids (compared to other movies).

Other than the 3 characters from the original movie, I only knew of Hayden P, McCauly Culkin’s little brother, and the 2 guy cops (speaking of which, I couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t seem as if they were wearing bullet proof vests underneath their shirts; although I get that they got stabbed and not shot, I still think that was a bit off).

The acting was mediocre at best. Pretty much what I was expecting from a scary movie.

Script:
Like I said earlier, the first 10 minutes of the movie did have a good script; the rest was okay.

The only line I really liked throughout the entire movie was the following, and I do think Wes Craven should have taken this advice.
Sidney: You forgot the first rule of remakes – don’t fuck with the original.

Overall:
I would not recommend this to anyone. I felt as if after the 1-hour mark, the storyline started to erode, and by the end, nothing was salvageable.