It has been 11 years since the “Scream” trilogy concluded, and though no one asked for it, the franchise is back with an alleged “reboot,” the freshly titled “Scream 4.”
Unfortunately, the laughs and the scares have continually diminished since the first film, and in the age of Facebook and cyberstalkers, hackneyed telephone calls don’t seem as frightening anymore.
The original team is back in place, including director Wes Craven (“A Nightmare on Elm Street”), writer Kevin Williamson (“Cursed”) and cast members Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette.
This time around, Sidney (Campbell) returns to her hometown of Woodsboro to promote a self-help book, and another Ghostface killer uses this opportunity to attack the latest group of self-deprecating high school students, including Sidney’s niece Jill (Emma Roberts).
The film lacks any of the scares of the original series and goes on for way too long. The actors move nimbly and convey good sense of terror, but the scares lack any punch and that is the fault of the director.
As with the rest of the series, the most elaborate, humorous, smart and scariest scene in the movie is the prologue, which takes the meta-ness of the franchise to a well-played extreme.
Reports of behind-the-scenes fighting between the film’s producer and writer didn’t allow Williamson’s vision to be fully realized, and that may explain the bloated, lazy feel of the film.
In order to revamp a franchise successfully, the filmmakers need to respect the original while adding something of value to the latest incarnation.
The series may continue in the future, but only if the filmmakers can convince new audiences that their below-average rehash is somehow new.
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Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focusing on marketing, publicity and distribution.
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