This "Scream" has its moments but the foundation on which it is built is just too shaky. I am a big fan of the Scream franchise, I love the original and its sequel, and 3 and 4 are flawed but fun and rewatchable. But this new series ("Scream VI" and last year's "Scream") feels much more like glossy big-budget continuation of familiar IP than anything genuine, or anything really connected to the spirit of the Wes Craven films.
Of course, Scream IV is its own movie, and I should be judging it based solely on its own terms. But this movie makes it hard not to compare it to Craven's films because it stands in such stark contrast to the strengths that Scream has been built on-- yes, it's a tongue-in-cheek meta satire, but the original Scream films had fleshed-out characters and palpable tension to support that. Scream IV is mostly cardboard cutout characters we are told to care about more than we do. I can't say I was truly invested in any one of these new characters. But to be fair, let's look at our main players.
Melissa Barrera reprises her final girl character Sam Carpenter here and continues to struggle with her legacy as the daughter of original Ghostface killer Billy Loomis. Sam is now the subject of online conspiracy theories that attempt to pin the last movie's murders on her, and is in therapy to try to deal with her... aggressive tendencies. Her arc is decent. She comes to accept the side of herself that is tough and vicious, and use it for the right reasons. I was not nearly as annoyed with her as I was in the last film. Sam was an awful character in the last film because we were told over and over again how tough she was when Melissa Barrera's emotional range seemed very even-keel and one note. I am sure she is a fine actress, but perhaps this wasn't the part for her. In Scream IV, she convinces us of that supposed grit a little bit more. But the main problem still exists in the writing. There is no joy in this character, no humor, no humanity we can root for. She just doesn't seem like a real person an audience can endear themselves to.
The rest of the characters are very thin. Jenna Ortega has very little to do with her character here and gets some of the most cringe-inducing jokes and dialogue the script has to offer. The actress playing Mindy adds some energy to her role as the film's resident movie-expert. She gets a few fun lines but doesn't have much purpose or arc outside of being the one to explain the rules and relate the group's experience to various horror movie tropes in an ironic way. Her brother Chad has very little character and very little to do here. He insists that these four friends are now the "core four", which feels like a very forced way for the film itself to tell us: "this is who you are supposed to care about!!!!" We are not really sure what the dynamic between most of these people are, or why they're friends aside from trauma-bonding.
The best character here, by far, is Gale. Gale continues to eat her role up every single time. She has, unfortunately, very limited screen time and is stabbed to the point of near-death. Her attack scene is decent but only because she is in it and we care about her, but the fate they assign her is lazy and predictable. It would have been equally disappointing if they'd killed Gale off, but really? She is stabbed that many times then we hear that she's recovering in the offscreen hospital in a throwaway line? Come on. An ounce of creativity could have been employed here. Give Courteney Cox something to work with!!! She deserves it! When Neve Campbell declined to return, Gale should have become the main character. Is anyone really, truly more interested in a movie about yet another new crop of CW-type actors who get killed before you even know their names over a movie about Gale Weathers? I think that's really where these filmmakers have severely miscalculated. They have paid dirt to the characters who have made Scream what it is and instead insisted so transparently that we care about a barrage of new hot young people of little substance. Even Scream 3 and 4, which are not great, still have rewatchability value because of the strength of these original characters like Sidney, Dewey (RIP), and Gale.
I still say a Scream movie that does not have Ghostface in it at all but is just an emotional dramedy about Sidney living her life in the aftermath of all this trauma would be the riskiest and coolest move this franchise could make. And it would work too, because Sidney is a great character. You know who isn't? Ghostface. These new filmmakers think Ghostface being cool and violent is the key to success with this franchise and I don't buy it at all. He is scary when there is real tension and we care about who's getting killed, but not when there is nothing in the story to invest in. Let me say this definitively: no one, and I mean no one, who gets killed in this movie is someone we come to care about as a character beforehand.
The other thing is this. This movie is incredibly violent. You can tell a lot of time and energy was spent on the graphic nature of some of the kills. A genuine question for Scream fans: is that really something you want? I don't mind violence in film, but when it's happening so brutally to a barely-interesting character it comes off as more excessive than scary or shocking. It made me think, why is the violence here bothering me? The other Scream movies were violent, very much so. The opening scene of the first Scream is shockingly violent, especially for its time. I think the difference is the craft involved. It's like making an offensive joke. If you make a joke, even if it's about a really taboo topic, and it's actually funny and clever, it will be effective and get a laugh. But if you make a joke about a taboo topic that isn't funny and clever but maybe lazy, it just comes across as all the more offensive for taking that risk on being "edgy" and failing. Scream IV is like an offensive joke that might induce a slight giggle but isn't quite funny enough to justify its shock value.
I have to touch on the writing for a moment. I am disappointed to say that this Scream has a really unfortunate case of "Marvel humor" that has been prevalent in mainstream franchise-type movies these days. You've seen it. It's maybe something that's not quite a joke, but an awkward-but-cute thing happening between characters. There is a sense of audience expectation to it, like some of the humor was designed to be laughed at by an audience. It's cringe-inducing, not funny, easily and often parodied, and extremely calculated. It's something audiences can see right through and will not be a lasting trend. This is an unfortunate turn of events for the franchise, but I think it really is a symptom of the disease that is thin character writing. Comedy in these films is always best when it is character-based. Gale's power-hungry tabloid journalistic scheming is what leads to the camp-tastic tirade against Kenny in the first film. Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie in "Scream 3" is so funny because she is both terrified of imminent danger but also totally committed to her method acting. These are not instances where the film itself is actively trying to make you laugh, it's just letting these characters breathe, and the camp follows naturally. Scream IV is not letting its characters breathe, it's forcing them into situations before we care.
Okay, I don't want to rant anymore. Here are some good things about the film. Gale. The opening scene was fairly creative, a new, unexpected way to approach things at least. And the filmmakers at least attempt building tension in a few key places rather than just focusing on brutality-- the subway scene plays with lighting to good effect.
Most of all, if Scream fans like this movie, I don't begrudge that. Maybe this is just not for me and I am too connected to the original films to catch this one's wavelength. It's also possible this one is bad.
Of course, Scream IV is its own movie, and I should be judging it based solely on its own terms. But this movie makes it hard not to compare it to Craven's films because it stands in such stark contrast to the strengths that Scream has been built on-- yes, it's a tongue-in-cheek meta satire, but the original Scream films had fleshed-out characters and palpable tension to support that. Scream IV is mostly cardboard cutout characters we are told to care about more than we do. I can't say I was truly invested in any one of these new characters. But to be fair, let's look at our main players.
Melissa Barrera reprises her final girl character Sam Carpenter here and continues to struggle with her legacy as the daughter of original Ghostface killer Billy Loomis. Sam is now the subject of online conspiracy theories that attempt to pin the last movie's murders on her, and is in therapy to try to deal with her... aggressive tendencies. Her arc is decent. She comes to accept the side of herself that is tough and vicious, and use it for the right reasons. I was not nearly as annoyed with her as I was in the last film. Sam was an awful character in the last film because we were told over and over again how tough she was when Melissa Barrera's emotional range seemed very even-keel and one note. I am sure she is a fine actress, but perhaps this wasn't the part for her. In Scream IV, she convinces us of that supposed grit a little bit more. But the main problem still exists in the writing. There is no joy in this character, no humor, no humanity we can root for. She just doesn't seem like a real person an audience can endear themselves to.
The rest of the characters are very thin. Jenna Ortega has very little to do with her character here and gets some of the most cringe-inducing jokes and dialogue the script has to offer. The actress playing Mindy adds some energy to her role as the film's resident movie-expert. She gets a few fun lines but doesn't have much purpose or arc outside of being the one to explain the rules and relate the group's experience to various horror movie tropes in an ironic way. Her brother Chad has very little character and very little to do here. He insists that these four friends are now the "core four", which feels like a very forced way for the film itself to tell us: "this is who you are supposed to care about!!!!" We are not really sure what the dynamic between most of these people are, or why they're friends aside from trauma-bonding.
The best character here, by far, is Gale. Gale continues to eat her role up every single time. She has, unfortunately, very limited screen time and is stabbed to the point of near-death. Her attack scene is decent but only because she is in it and we care about her, but the fate they assign her is lazy and predictable. It would have been equally disappointing if they'd killed Gale off, but really? She is stabbed that many times then we hear that she's recovering in the offscreen hospital in a throwaway line? Come on. An ounce of creativity could have been employed here. Give Courteney Cox something to work with!!! She deserves it! When Neve Campbell declined to return, Gale should have become the main character. Is anyone really, truly more interested in a movie about yet another new crop of CW-type actors who get killed before you even know their names over a movie about Gale Weathers? I think that's really where these filmmakers have severely miscalculated. They have paid dirt to the characters who have made Scream what it is and instead insisted so transparently that we care about a barrage of new hot young people of little substance. Even Scream 3 and 4, which are not great, still have rewatchability value because of the strength of these original characters like Sidney, Dewey (RIP), and Gale.
I still say a Scream movie that does not have Ghostface in it at all but is just an emotional dramedy about Sidney living her life in the aftermath of all this trauma would be the riskiest and coolest move this franchise could make. And it would work too, because Sidney is a great character. You know who isn't? Ghostface. These new filmmakers think Ghostface being cool and violent is the key to success with this franchise and I don't buy it at all. He is scary when there is real tension and we care about who's getting killed, but not when there is nothing in the story to invest in. Let me say this definitively: no one, and I mean no one, who gets killed in this movie is someone we come to care about as a character beforehand.
The other thing is this. This movie is incredibly violent. You can tell a lot of time and energy was spent on the graphic nature of some of the kills. A genuine question for Scream fans: is that really something you want? I don't mind violence in film, but when it's happening so brutally to a barely-interesting character it comes off as more excessive than scary or shocking. It made me think, why is the violence here bothering me? The other Scream movies were violent, very much so. The opening scene of the first Scream is shockingly violent, especially for its time. I think the difference is the craft involved. It's like making an offensive joke. If you make a joke, even if it's about a really taboo topic, and it's actually funny and clever, it will be effective and get a laugh. But if you make a joke about a taboo topic that isn't funny and clever but maybe lazy, it just comes across as all the more offensive for taking that risk on being "edgy" and failing. Scream IV is like an offensive joke that might induce a slight giggle but isn't quite funny enough to justify its shock value.
I have to touch on the writing for a moment. I am disappointed to say that this Scream has a really unfortunate case of "Marvel humor" that has been prevalent in mainstream franchise-type movies these days. You've seen it. It's maybe something that's not quite a joke, but an awkward-but-cute thing happening between characters. There is a sense of audience expectation to it, like some of the humor was designed to be laughed at by an audience. It's cringe-inducing, not funny, easily and often parodied, and extremely calculated. It's something audiences can see right through and will not be a lasting trend. This is an unfortunate turn of events for the franchise, but I think it really is a symptom of the disease that is thin character writing. Comedy in these films is always best when it is character-based. Gale's power-hungry tabloid journalistic scheming is what leads to the camp-tastic tirade against Kenny in the first film. Parker Posey as Jennifer Jolie in "Scream 3" is so funny because she is both terrified of imminent danger but also totally committed to her method acting. These are not instances where the film itself is actively trying to make you laugh, it's just letting these characters breathe, and the camp follows naturally. Scream IV is not letting its characters breathe, it's forcing them into situations before we care.
Okay, I don't want to rant anymore. Here are some good things about the film. Gale. The opening scene was fairly creative, a new, unexpected way to approach things at least. And the filmmakers at least attempt building tension in a few key places rather than just focusing on brutality-- the subway scene plays with lighting to good effect.
Most of all, if Scream fans like this movie, I don't begrudge that. Maybe this is just not for me and I am too connected to the original films to catch this one's wavelength. It's also possible this one is bad.
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