Scream 4

I know I saw the first Scream, and I'm pretty sure I saw the second, but I'm doubtful about the third. But I don't think it mattered much in the level of enjoyment one gets out of Scream 4, which is a clever but soulless bit of meta-film.

Directed again by Wes Craven, with a screenplay by Kevin Williamson, and the central cast of Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox reunited, Scream 4 is once again an exercise that combines decent thrills with deconstruction of the genre. The Scream series has always been self-satisfied about it's winking references to other horror films and the patterns these films use--in this film we learn that gay characters are never killed, and how cops on stakeout always get killed (this discussion is by cops on stakeout). The film opens with a double-reverse, as twice we're faked out by false openings involving the standard Scream opening--a young woman receiving a menacing phone call.

There's only so much a person can take of this, though, and Scream 4 definitely has too much. In this outing, Campbell, the survivor of the first three films, has returned to her home town on the anniversary of the first murders, selling a book. Cox, who wrote the book on the subject, has hung up her reporter's notepad and is married to the sheriff, Arquette. But when Ghostface, the Munchian-masked killer, returns, Cox enlists the help of the high school cinema club, who are experts on the horror genre, to help.

The cast is full of young attractive actresses, all of whom get stabbed in some way shape or form. Lucy Hale, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Aimee Teegarden, and Allison Brie are just the most recognizable faces. The screenplay makes reference to the "torture porn" of the Saw films, but the Scream films are a kind of soft-core version. No nudity, and the gore is less (although we do seem some entrails here), but a kind of porn nonetheless, which seems to suggest that there's a satisfaction in seeing pretty girls hacked up. It's really kind of disturbing.

I admit I was surprised by Ghostface's identity this time around, and I wasn't bored, but this thing has gone on long enough.