Scream 4
In the pantheon of famous horror movie villains, perhaps the most outright cheesiest (although that might be the intention) would have to be considered Ghostface from the Scream movies, not only because the actual costume is ridiculous, but also because after 4 movies, the grand total number of average, everyday, ordinary people to don the outfit and commit literal, savage, grisly murders now stands at 7. 7 characters over 4 movies who all move amongst the other characters acting as if they are normal people all while hiding the fact that in essence they are nothing but twisted serial killers. That’s the gimmick and appeal of the series perhaps in that the villain always looks and sounds (over the phone) the same, but the actual identity of who the killer (or killers) really is could be almost anybody up to and including your best friend and / or significant other. Without spoiling the identities of any of these notorious 7, it would appear that at least half of them are carrying out the killings as a part of some sort of revenge mission against Sidney Prescott (series star Neve Campbell who always manages at least to be a welcome presence in these films regardless of the quality), essentially a purehearted innocent who nonetheless is targeted by evil types as retribution for the actions of her late mother who unbeknownst to Sid carried secrets and committed sins that resulted in other families being destroyed because of them. The other half of these infamous villains in the series (3 to be exact and usually the partners of the ones who were seeking direct revenge on Sid) were committing the killings not because of any grudge against Sidney per se, but rather because doing so gives them the excuse of experiencing “the thrill” of killing and being a serial killer, something for which far too many Discovery Channel specials exist delving into the minds and actions of these people who are among the lowest in our society. Only once in the series (Part 1) did an actual killing (Drew Barrymore) constitute a literal act of revenge by the so called “silent partner” against somebody whom he felt had wronged HIM. Either way, each of the first 3 Screams justified their existence by being commentaries on long running franchises in and of themselves with Part 1 (classic horror movies and their clichés), Part 2 (sequels), and Part 3 (trilogies) so when we got to Part 4, released a whole 10 years later after Part 3 in 2011 and after we had already gotten a slew of bad remakes to other classics, this one tried to justify itself as being a commentary on remakes / reboots when truthfully it really is just another new sequel with Wes Craven coming back to direct his last movie ever before his tragic death from brain cancer in 2015 and the franchise’s fabled starring trio of Campbell, David (Dewey) Arquette and Courtney (Gale Weathers) Cox all reprising their roles and even original writer Kevin Williamson coming in to write this new one after sitting out Part 3. But 10 years is still a long time and even the original 3 movies had seen a decline in both energy and creativity going into Part 3 so at first glance it appears that Craven, Campbell, Arquette, Cox and Williamson were just taking this on as a paycheck job without even disputing the fact that Part 1 remains a classic not just because of their efforts but also thanks to the overall high energy cast that it featured. Here we see Dewey now serving as the Sheriff of the folksy Northern California town where it all began and still married to Cox’s Gale after all this time as she has now retired from TV journalism to be an author, but an author of what she has no idea (all while her and Arquette were going through divorce proceedings in real life but remained professional enough to keep their onscreen romance going here). The big news is that Sidney has returned to town as the final stop on her book tour, having written some self help feminist claptrap about not being a victim anymore and for some reason her arrival has sparked some excitement in the high school population there where the STAB series (the phony film franchise that was made from the murders 15 years earlier) is literally worshipped by these kids in the town more than any of the other horror films out there as Dewey in a rare moment of philosophical insight notes how when it comes to today’s kids, yesterday’s tragedy is now today’s joke. It also turns out that in the old hometown Sidney has an aunt whom we’ve never heard about who is the sister of Sid’s Mom (Mary McDonnell) and a teenage cousin (the very hot Emma Roberts) while the various other teenagers she encounters view her as either being some kind of a genuine horror movie icon or rather instead as a living, breathing version of The Grim Reaper for whom just being around her can result in your own gruesome demise. The problem here is that once you sit through the first 20 minutes of the film and become at least in a basic way familiar with the characters (including the three returning stars), one might as well just fast forward to the last 20 minutes so we can get the big reveal of who’s dressing up as Ghostface this time along with what their motive is for murdering innocent people (taking into account that any characters whom we met in the first 20 minutes who are not around for the last 20 minutes were obviously murdered in between and are dead) who mostly were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and this time the basic motivation is pretty good (and surprising) and makes that final 20 minutes a pretty enjoyable ride. But everything in between is just absolute dreck, a nightmarish slogfest with poorly written characters whom we could care less about and worse, the actual Ghostface attacks are without any hint of real suspense since every possible form of these attacks has already been filmed numerous times by Craven over the course of the first three films so we always know just when this (very human) killer is going to make his appearance and even though he talks with the same telephone voice, the voice modulator seen in the first three films that enables that phone voice to always be identical is not even shown nor brought into play when the Ghostface identity is revealed here. It almost seems that Craven knew going in that none of the newer faces were going to make much of an impression so he employs gimmicks like having the much expected “opening kills” turn out to be a triple cheat with no less than three different sets of teenage girls settling in to watch a horror film before Ghostface strikes for “real” until he places us in reality so that the story can begin proper. If not that, then he just depends on the three leads to try to carry the load with one running gag being that while Sheriff Dewey is still a simple minded idiot, his devoted wife Gale is really a better investigator than he ever will be and meanwhile Sidney just seems so passive about everything that one wonders if she too is just waiting for the big finish when the killer reveals themselves so that she can handle it the same way as she did before. A far cry from the ratcheted up tension of Part 1 where Sid not only stood alone but also seemed to have a never fading target on her back as we understood that anybody in Part 1 (and that included Dewey himself) could possibly be a suspect in the killings. But here with the three stars easily being ruled out, that means that there is some horribly slim pickings amongst the rest of this cast even as Emma Roberts as Sid’s niece (and possible main target of the killer) continues to show serious star quality in her brief career so far and Hayden Panettiere comes close to showing even so much as a spark or pulse of charisma all while rocking a sexy short hairdo. But outside of these glimmers of hope, the best suggestion for most viewers would be to enter some form of suspended animation while watching only to be revived when it’s Reveal Time. It might seem amazing to some not only in how 7 different people have worn the Ghostface costume in order to kill, but also how in the end it always revolves back to Sidney but alas, for all of its flaws, Part 3 DID provide a fitting end to her story (with an appropriate final scene) so for this obvious cash in attempt for the returning principals with all of the dialogue here about the problems with remakes and reboots, maybe they should have done exactly that and started anew without any original actors or characters just so we can see how durable a horror movie icon Ghostface can be given a fresh start and premise…
5/10