Movie Review: Scream 4

Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.

(out of four stars)

I'm not kidding when I say there will be spoilers. I WILL reveal the killer.

I always say it takes a series to take a break for it to be on top again. It has been 11 years since Scream 3 and when I heard Scream 4 I got extremely excited. And then when they said it would possibly begin a new trilogy, I just dropped dead.

What's great about the Scream series is that it's funny while being incredibly scary. The movie is about the cliché horror movie and basically makes fun of it and the sequels all spoof the original in a way by making a movie within a movie.

I was so happy to hear that the original cast was returning: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. And I loved some of the new cast: Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts.

The storyline was generic for a movie that takes place so long after the previous film. But it makes sense for a movie that's based around the generic scary movie. It worked.

Last chance to stop reading before I reveal the killer...

To be 100% honest, I had no idea who the killer was. I had ideas and theories, but they were the most cliché, but sometimes it is the most obvious ones. I thought it was just one of those times. I thought it was either Dewey's deputy, Judy, or Jill's ex-boyfriend Trevor. Wrong. I did not suspect Jill to be the killer whatsoever. Rory Culkin's character I kind of get. But not Jill. I figured she would be a survivor along with Sydney.

I'm not sure yet how I feel about Jill being the killer. A flaw is that ghostface is always played by someone who is tall and Jill is very short. Had Emma Roberts actually dressed up in the Ghostface outfit when her character was meant to be killing, we probably figured the killer was one of the shorter petite girls.

I would also complain about her character's sudden 180 in personality when she is revealed to be the killer. Like talk about psychopath and she's supposed to be a high schooler? But… all the other movies have characters that do 180s as well, so I must accept this somewhat unrealistic behavior.

My one other problem with the movie was the gore. I understand that most horror movies today depend a lot on gore because audiences are now used to movies like Saw and Hostel, but I feel that the gore in this movie was unnecessary. People go and see Scream movies for 3 things: the comedy, the jumpy and thrilling scenes, and the mystery as to who it was. They expect blood but not full on guts. That one shot of their friend on her bed with her intestines spilled all over the bed was a little much. It was unnecessary. The stabbing Anthony Anderson's character in the forehead was also a little much as well as Jill shooting her ex-boyfriend's penis with a gun. Although that could just add to her psychoticness. Still, I think every member of the audience with a penis cringed inside and covered their own dicks. It was brutal to watch that.

As far as Scream movies go, I would have to agree with the commercials where critics claim its the best since the original. I haven't seen the second or third ones in a while, but I recall that they were not any better than the first. This movie, however, is right back up there. Can't wait for 5CREAM and SCRE6M! Lol.