Scream 4 Movie Review

Scream 4 (2017)

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Written by: Kevin Williamson
Directed by: Wes Craven
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Alison Brie, Britt Robertson, Aimee Teegarden, Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, Rory Culkin, Anthony Anderson
Rated: R
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Plot
Ten years have passed, and Sidney Prescott has put herself back together thanks in part to her writing. Then she's visited by the Ghostface Killer.

Verdict
The original Scream was novel, but unfortunately it spawned a franchise content to do the same thing every movie. I'm tired of unlikely escapes and ridiculous twists. How do you not hear Ghostface on the phone in your closet? There's nothing interesting in this movie other than the beginning that "starts" a few times. This peaked five minutes in and went down hill.
Skip it.

Review
I thought I had seen this one, but I hadn't. It was lost in the sea of Scream movies.

I really liked the opening. Stab 6 is Stab 7 is Scream 4. It also picks apart the Saw franchise. Unfortunately the movie drops pointing out what's wrong in other franchises and instead just makes its own mistakes.

Alison Brie, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette wonder "What's in the trunk?"

The improbability of everything in this movie is annoying. If it's a spirit, sure it can appear and disappear at will, but human beings make noise. How can you kill and call simultaneously?
Here's the thing. A horror movie does something unique to rave reviews. Then it's franchised and repeated until it fails to make a profit. I was hoping for more horror movie parody or criticism of other horror franchises, but it just doesn't happen. Scream 2 did that as I recall. This movie only teases it.

This movie is making a case that slashers are no longer relevant. Horror movies can't rely on cartoonish gore and improbable escapes. There needs to be a story.

The underlying motivation for the antagonist is just so ridiculous. There's a wild scene as the antagonist attempts to cover their tracks by injuring themselves. It should be a great scene, but it doesn't have the impact it should. Wes Craven has done better. While the direction is part of the issue, even excellent direction would only help to cover a subpar script.

This movie originally ended earlier, instead we get this protracted ending and it really drags.