Wes Craven has easily conquered three decades of horror and changed the landscape each time. 70s revenge with The Last House on the Left, supernatural Slashers with A Nightmare on Elm Street in the 80s and of course the self referential and analytical look upon horror films, Scream at the end of the 90s. This set up a whole decades worth of films for a good chunk of the late 90s and early 2000s with Kevin Williamson either writing most of the horror films in that time or most of the films being heavily influenced by his writings. Our last time seeing a Scream film would be in 2000 with a bit of a stretch and convoluted film that tried to tie itself into the first film. To be fair, as Scream is a franchise that heavily riffs on the slasher genre, part 3 did take a lot of crazed story lines from the idea that with each slasher film the background of the killer is expanded upon in strange ways like most slasher films but I would have hoped they would've been smarter with it. A decade later Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson return to the franchise that had once been so revolutionary in the genre with Scream 4. The landscape of the genre had changed so much in that ten year time period it was an insane amount of material to work with. We had gone through the torture porn period, the J-horror phase and most prevalent among these was the horror remake. Three remakes of Craven's own genius had occurred in that time period to a bit of lackluster products. Craven saw what was once considered the cutting edge of horror that he had made himself, basically given steroids in the gore category and in some cases had been over done with CGI in lieu of practical FX. I could only imagine Kevin Williamson watching this decade with the same look of horror as most of us horror hounds had on where everything we loved would be taken, ripped apart for a quick studio buck and while not all product they gave us was bad most of these projects bastardized and capitalized on the names of some of the genres most beloved films. Newer generations ate it up because in this technologically savvy and modern age nothing old is worth viewing and everything must be quickly and concisely delivered. Craven and Williamson took these ideas that would go into a remake and not only played upon them but pitted them against the rules and characters of the original franchise that as Neve Campbell says in my favorite line from the movie, "The one thing about remakes? Don't f@#k with the original." 
On the eve of the ten year anniversary of the Woodsboro murders, two girls are brutally murdered in their homes while watching the Stab films based on the real life murders after receiving a call reminiscent of the style of murder used by the original Ghostface killer. Sidney Prescott has returned to Woodsboro to plug her new book "Out of Darkness" which chronicles her time as a survivor and how she has learned to no longer be the victim and take control of her life. Unfortunately the phone used to call the girls before they were murdered is traced to Sidney's rental car which in the trunk holds a bevy of blood stained pictures. Dewey Riley who is now the Sheriff of Woodsboro is forced to keep Sidney in town while he tries to figure out a way to clear her name along with his now wife Gail Weathers, much to his chagrin. Sidney stays with her aunt and cousin Jill while the investigation is underway with bodies piling up left and right most of whom are connected to Jill very much mirroring the events that happened to Sidney. The new killer has taken the rules of the original films and made this movie bloodier and is recording the kills for the world to see. The old generation of survivors must use their knowledge combined with the savvy technological and meta know how of the new generation to discover the killers motives and find out who he is before it's too late!
I was pretty skeptical of this film when I first saw it, even with both Craven and Williamson on board just because it was a part 4. I've watched a lot of horror franchises and while I admit I love a lot of part fours, six and even sevens I just had no idea what this would bring to the table for me. What really got me was a friend who doesn't even really like horror saw it and loved it so much that he dragged me along on his second viewing and I was not prepared for how much I would love this film. The opening is one of the cheesiest and bland obvious slasher openings of all time and then all of a sudden the opening is a movie that people within the movie are watching called Stab 6! The people watching it? Tsuki aka Ana Paquin from True Blood and Veronica Mars herself Kristen Bell! Anna Paquin's character is sitting there talking trash about the film exclaiming how stupid she thinks the idea of a meta Facebook killer is and how self referential horror is dead and dumb, while Kristen Bell sits there defending it with a straight face talking about how she just enjoys the franchise. Anna Paquin keeps talking trash and Kristen Bell just stabs her saying, "I hate when people talk during the movie." Cut to the title card Stab 7 and another group of girls is sitting there watching Kristen Bell and Anna Paquin in a movie! First of all I think these in and outs of whether you're watching Scream 4 or one of the fake Stab movies is genius. We get a comedic idea of what ways Kevin Williamson would have to have continued the Scream movies had it been a true slasher franchise, first a Facebook killer, then a killer emulating the movie killer, it's just funny as hell. Plus Kristen Bell is the symbol of every horror movie fan who wants to tell their asshole friends tearing down the fun horror movie their watching to shut the hell up but in this case she stabs her! I was immediately hooked and knew I'd be in for a fun ride. 
All our favorite characters are back! Sidney is stronger than ever and at this point isn't even crying over anything, she's just ready to take whatever comes at her and face it. Good old Dewey hasn't changed a bit other than he's the Sheriff now, but he's still a shy little guy who when he needs to can kick your ass. Gail was I think the most interesting character developed over ten years. Her entire career was made on the struggles of Sidney, Gail was used to glamor and fame and danger. Now she's a housewife trying to write her first book not built upon any horror she nor anyone else has endured and it's killing her. When the murders begin she throws everything aside to start investigating and go back to her old reporter days. It's really crazy because it's hard to tell if she genuinely wants to help people or she's excited by the idea that something is happening in her life again. Most of the new kids are pretty fun. There are two who are pure body count and underdeveloped to the point where you kind of hate them but then there are the three nerds who make everything better. Charlie and Robbie are the two geeks who run the school's cinema club. Basically take Randy from the original Scream and split him into two awkward and pasty kids who constantly record their high school live with a video camera attached to one of their heads. They also hold an annual marathon of the Stab movies called Stabethon which gives us one of the most fun and thrilling sequences in the movie. Gail interacts with these two a lot and learns the ideas of the remake and the revolution of social media, how easy it is to become famous with almost nothing. The two give a great representation of the YouTube generation and how entertainment works now. Hayden Panieterre's Kirby is whom I would call our third nerd but she is also a nerd in denial. She hangs out with popular kids dressing nicely and driving around to her badass music but she also has pretty damn good encyclopedic knowledge of horror and a sweet collection of films that includes Argento's Suspiria. I straight up fell in love. We then come to Emma Roberts whom I'm not a huge fan of but her portrayal of Sidney's cousin Jill is easily one of the greatest things she's ever done and the extent of physicality and emotions she goes through in this film is insane. She plays a great mirror to Sidney and they share a lot of really good moments together which comes all the way around to one of the greatest endings I've seen in a long time and easily the best dramatic sequence in a Scream film. 
The last twenty minutes of the film are masterfully done. I will admit scenes in the middle of the film are a bit by numbers slasher faire which I don't mind, but the finale I could not keep my eyes off the screen and was attentive to every beat and motion Craven threw at me. He truly is the master of suspense and the ordeals these characters go through in the final moments of the film are cringe worthy in direction and acting. The first time I saw the end my mouth was agape at some of the more crazy brutal moments and even had me cheering for the conclusion. They hide who the killer is really well and Williamson gives us a look at how warped the notion of fame is. Especially with how easy it is to achieve through social media, how easy it is to manipulate into someone's favor for something sinister. That was one of the scariest moments for me was to see how desensitized some people can be to achieve those goals of stardom, to ride on the coat tails of tragedy and present that tragedy to the world with every gruesome detail set before you on a screen. As much as I love how they played upon the rules of the remake, the killer's lust for fame played a huge part.
This is my second favorite Scream movie after the original as it had something to say just like the first. It gives us a sequel while also a remake which was brilliantly combined. There were so many meta moments including meta casting. The fake Stab movie which is directed by Robert Rodriguez stars Marley Shelton in the Drew Barrymore role and in the film Marley Shelton plays the deputy who helps track down the killer! This movie is so much fun and suspenseful I almost wish instead of making part two and three almost back to back that we could've gotten a new scream film every decade. Sadly with the passing of Craven I think we'll never see another Scream film on the screen but he has left us with another masterpiece to hold dear to our hearts and haunt us in our dreams.
23 Days till Halloween! Halloween!
23 Days till Halloween! Silver Shamrock!
