Scream 4 (2011)

*Spoilers for the Scream franchise*

Here we are, the final installment, (for now!) on the 10th anniversary of it’s initial release date. Ten years have passed and we’re back in Woodsboro once again, with Sidney (Neve Campbell) finally putting her past behind her, but Ghostface makes a comeback and begins to terrorize her once more.

Kevin Williamson is back in the writer’s chair, with Wes Craven still directing, making this his last director’s credit before he passed away in 2015. This movie introduces a new generation of teens being terrorized by the masked killer, and a great new cast, including Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere, as well as the original Woodsboro trio, Sidney, Gale (Courteney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette). This installment takes place around the 15th anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, with Sidney returning to the town after being away and making a life for herself for ten years.

I think that this film’s opening sequence is just as good as the original with Drew Barrymore, with the audience thinking it’s over, but it isn’t really, and we learn that there have been 7 Stab movies made, and these are what open Scream 4, with multiple murders shown in the first five or so minutes, but most of them being fictional, and from the Stab movies, but not that last one, that one is real, with Ghostface showing up and killing Jenny Randall (Aimee Teegarden) and Marnie Cooper (Britt Robertson). Jenny pranks Marnie, pretending to be Ghostface after just watching Stab 7, and they are both shortly killed by the real thing.

For the first time, Sidney is pinned as a suspect of the murders, with evidence found in her car. She is on a tour, to promote her new book, and the murders only started when she showed up in town again. Sidney’s cousin, Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) receives a phone call from Ghostface, as well as her friends Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and Oliva (Marielle Jaffe), with them being questioned by now Sheriff, Dewey about the calls. He and his new deputies Judy Hicks (Marley Shelton), Anthony Perkins (Anthony Anderson) and Ross Hoss (Adam Brody) are assigned the case.

We see characters actually witness a Ghostface murder straight on in this movie, with Jill and Kirby seeing them kill Olivia in her bedroom, and when Sidney tries to help, the killer injures her and makes a getaway.

This movie introduces us to two new Randy’s, in a way. Two movie geeks who know the new rules that came with the new decade, Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin) and Robbie Mercer (Erik Knudsen), and they explain to Gale that the killer will be following the rules of movie remakes, making the assumption that the killer will make their next move at the Stab-a-thon later in the night. Stab has become somewhat of a cult classic in the fictional universe.

Later in the movie, we see the new generation’s characters at Kirby’s house, and this is where a drunk Robbie meets his end, being killed by Ghostface on the porch of the house, and when Sidney arrives to pick up Jill, they are both chased, with Sidney managing to call Dewey.

We have a nice throwback to the original movie, with Kirby being forced to answer horror movie trivia in order to save Charlie, which she manages to do succesfully, leaving Charlie alive and fleeing. When Kirby goes outside to help Charlie, he stabs her and outs himself as this movie’s killer, the first time a horro movie fanatic has been the killer. There’s something so appealing about that to me. There was a small movement from Kirby though, that Wes decided to keep in, for whatever reason, making audiences think that she in fact survived. I hope this is touched on in the new film next year, Kirby was one of my favourite’s.

Charlie then goes on to interrogate Sidney but he is stabbed by his accomplice, Jill. The jealous cousin who intends to use the logic from the original film and frame her boyfriend as the murderer, planning to kill Sidney herself, and be the only survivor of the whole ordeal, which is why she stabbed Charlie, to make it look like he and Trevor (Nico Tortorella), her boyfriend were in kahoots like Billy and Stu.

We soon find out, along with Jill, that Sidney somehow survived what she went through, because of course she did, she’s Sidney, she’s amazing. Wanting to be the sole survivor, Jill tries again to kill Sidney, and is still unsuccessful, and dies herself, having her brain fried with a defibrilator and being shot by Dewey. The movie does end with reporters outside of the hospital saying that Jill was the sole survivor, so maybe something could be done in the next movie in relation to this, as the news has changed.

And there we are, finished for another decade, and so excited for January 14th 2022! I cannot explain the excitement I felt when it was revealed that we were getting a fifth installment of this franchise. I remember the first time that I watched Scream 4, I was so upset that there was no news for a next film, and in 2015 I was even more upset upon hearing about the death of Wes, as it was set in my heart that there wouldn’t be anymore installments, as who could possibly do Wes justice if another one was to be made. I really hope the new directors do him proud. If they dedicate it to him, I know for a fact that I will be sobbing in the cinema as there is a tiny tear as I’m writing this, I won’t lie.

This entire franchise means so much to me, for reasons I don’t even really know. I just became so attached when I first watched it, and I was always wanting to watch it after. I was only 12 when Scream 4 came out, who when I eventually watched the first one at an appropriate age, it was almost like a new genreation being introduced to the franchise, and I feel like that is what Scream 5 will do. There are so many new horror fans that may not have seen the franchise, and with the new one being released, I just know for a fact that there are so many people out there watching them for the first time and hopefully loving them as much as I do.

The acting of the new cast in this movie is phonemenal, with Emma Roberts being the amazing actor she is, and her ability to play such a bitch with ease is amazing, and that’s not slander, I think that she’s amazing. Hayden Panettiere does an amazing job as Kirby, and she easily became a fan favourite which means that she did something right. Rory Culkin and Erik Knudsen did an amazing job at being our ‘new Randy’, and we all know that they were huge shoes to fill.

I see myself writing so much more about this franchise before January, so keep an eye out, and one last thing…

What’s your favourite scary movie?