I watched
Scream 4 again yesterday.
I have already reviewed this in my review thread. I love the
Scream movies -- I wish we were getting a
Scream 5 and a
Scream 6, as
Scream 4 was meant to be the beginning of a brand new trilogy, but I don't think it's going to happen now.
But
Scream 4 kind of sucks, anyways. It feels very slapped together and artificial compared to the first three movies. It is lacking a lot of deep, emotional resonance that the old films had. The first three films had powerful back stories that always kept the lead character, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), focused on her pain and traumas which propelled her through each nightmarish massacre. The fourth film lacks this so much -- it is mostly about the coolness of the killer, the changes in technology, the fame generated by the old characters and the
Stab franchise they're a part of. It's not focused. It keeps Sidney too off-center this time to the point that it's almost like there isn't a main character in this movie. This is because they're trying to introduce a new lead with Emma Roberts' character, but she doesn't get much focus on her, either. It tries to balance the past and the present but it lacks a certain
Scream-esque feel that the old movies had. It feels cheap and strange. There's a sense that it knows it can be clever, but it doesn't feel like it has any heart to it. It's
Scream by numbers.
Scream 3 was a bad story to go with, but at least it had a lot more feel to it than 4.
It's a shame there might not be another one as this one, I think, probably needs a supplement to deepen what went on in 4 -- but if another movie only ends up like
Scream 4, there's really no reason to keep going. The franchise is at a "dead plant" stage. It would take a divine miracle to get it back to full health again. In its own bizarre way, the
Scream franchise killed itself by being both unique and exhausted.