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Wes Craven knows a thing or two about scary movies. After all, he’s been killing off promiscuous teenagers and haunting people’s nightmares for more than three decades. So if anyone could make a successful horror movie about horror movies, it’s Wes Craven. And with the fourth movie in his Scream franchise, Craven does it again.
On the anniversary of the murders that changed her life forever, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns home to Woodsboro in a stop on the tour to promote her best-selling self-help book. But while Sidney is ready to put the past behind her and start a new life, a killer sees her return as the perfect opportunity.
After Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette) is called in to investigate the brutal stabbing of two teenage girls, his wife, former reporter Gale Weathers-Riley (Courteney Cox), is eager to help with his investigation. But when Dewey turns her away, she’s forced to go out on her own, to investigate a killing spree that seems to be following the same formula of the original murders that put Woodsboro on the scary-movie map.
By the time that most movie franchises (especially horror movie franchises) reach their fourth film, they’re just a shadow of their former greatness. The beloved stars have long since moved on to bigger and better things (along with the original crew), leaving a cast of C-list nobodies and desperate has-beens. The characters have become caricatures of their former selves, and the writing is just plain painful. But that’s not the case with Wes Craven’s Scream franchise. Like the ingeniously self-aware 1996 original, Scream 4 is more jumpy scary movie fun for scary movie fans.
While the latest film features a new generation of terrorized teenagers—like Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, and Emma Roberts, who plays Sidney’s young cousin—that doesn’t mean that the remaining members of the original cast are reduced to little more than glorified cameos. The young cast members may help the film appeal to a new generation of Scream fans, but long-time fans will be relieved to find that Sidney, Dewey, and Gale are still at the heart of it all.
Though Arquette is as lovable as ever as the bumbling, by-the-book cop, the women steal the show. Most horror movie women may have pretty predictable roles—usually involving screaming, running, showing cleavage, and (eventually) dying—but the Scream women aren’t the typical scream queens. Cox’s sharp-tongued Gale is tough and determined and more than capable, and Campbell’s Sidney isn’t the kind of woman you’d want to mess with. Instead of screaming and running, she’s quick to fight back, putting herself in harm’s way to try to save those around her.
But the best thing about the Scream series is still its clever self-awareness. Craven and series writer Kevin Williamson continue to play with horror movie formulas (while throwing in a few digital-era twists to keep the story fresh and new), paying homage to the genre but never taking it too seriously. In the process, Scream 4 sticks to its own tried-and-true formula. Sure, it’s dark and tense and loaded with cheap scares—but, even more importantly, after all these years, it hasn’t lost its wicked sense of humor. So while it probably isn’t the most terrifying movie you’ll see this year, it’s still a scary-movie hit.
