Ten years after the original Woodsboro murders, one of the survivors returns home to promote their new book about surviving trauma, only for a new Ghostface killer to emerge, targeting a new group of teens.
“Scream 4” is considered by many to be the weakest entry in the fan-favorite slasher franchise, and in many ways, I have to agree. I enjoyed the first three films, with Part 2 being my personal favorite, and even Part 3, widely regarded as the weakest entry in the original trilogy, was still entertaining enough. “Scream 4” was plagued with many issues, including studio interference, a high $40 million budget, and a slasher movie slump. By 2011, the slasher genre as a whole was in decline, with horror fans turning their attention to supernatural and found-footage films like “Insidious” and “Paranormal Activity.” But that is the horror genre for you. It peaks and falls, repeating this cycle over and over with the constant reinvention of subgenres. “Scream 4” isn’t a bad movie, but it definitely lacks the charm that made the first three so memorable.
The story takes place fifteen years after the events of the first film. Sidney (Neve Campbell), one of the few survivors of the original Woodsboro murders, returns to Woodsboro to promote her self-help book. But as soon as she returns to town, people start turning up dead—killed in the same way as those who died fifteen years ago. When Sidney’s teenage cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) receives a threatening phone call from Ghostface, along with two of her friends, they laugh it off as a prank call. But when one of her friends winds up dead, everything changes, and once more, Sidney is thrust into circumstances out of her control. Staying with her aunt and cousin Jill, she is determined to keep them alive at any cost, but Ghostface has other plans.
Many of the original stars from the first three films return in their respective roles: Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, Courteney Cox as Gale Weathers, and David Arquette as Sheriff Dewey Riley. As with every new installment in the franchise, we’re introduced to a slew of new characters—any one of whom could turn out to be the next Ghostface. The fun, of course, is trying to figure out who. Released years before the height of livestreaming and influencer culture, the movie cleverly predicted a society obsessed with viral fame and internet infamy. When the new Ghostface is revealed, it is one of the most heinous and surprising twists in the series’ history, something even I wasn’t expecting.
While it had many positive aspects, it came out at a time when people were losing interest in the slasher genre overall, and that is one of the reasons it failed to ignite at the box office. Another aspect I felt weighed the film down was the addition of a large group of new high schoolers — characters that felt underdeveloped and unlikable- and, by the film’s end, utterly forgettable. At least the first three movies delivered memorable characters, regardless of whether they lived or died.
It would be another eleven years before the next chapter in the series arrived. Titled “Scream,” it was released in 2022 and successfully revitalized the franchise, grossing over $137 million worldwide against a production budget of just $24 million. The most recent release, “Scream 7,” for me, ranks amongst one of the weakest entries in the series, along with “Scream 4,” but even the lesser films still have moments of fun to be had. Here’s hoping “Scream 8” can get the series back on track.
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