Scream 4

Plot: Sydney prescot has returned home. The day she returned is the anniversary of the killings in the original scream. The killing begin again, and Sydney fights for her life.

Review: Where to start on this one. Well anyone who has heard about horror films in the past 15 years knows the name scream. In 1996 scream made a name for the slasher genre again after countless viewers stopped caring about horror films. The original scream is considered a classic to many including myself. It was a big step adding humor and "in" jokes into horror. It pioneered rules for slasher films. Well that's the original film not scream 4.

10 long years have passed in the horror world, many new films have made a name for themselves. Films have pulled further and further from the hitchcock esc horror and have gone more into "gore equals scares" area so where does scream 4 land? Firmly on it's face.

To the good and bad list. Well let's start with good because to be honest it's shorter.

The good: The scream films knows there audience. They know they are playing toward teenagers and non-horror fans. Scream 4 shows some restraint toward usually slasher tropes like nudity and gore. The restraint works for the suspense (barely). The cast does a admirable job at selling there preformances, and uses some clever jokes that only classic horror fans would get.

The bad: Now those clever jokes take backseat to dozens of failed jokes, the use pop culture as their punching bag constantly. It's dialogue is filled with so much obsceneites and pop culture references you just don't care. These characters turn so unlikeable due to bad dialogue there inevitable deaths lose all impact. Their unlikability only adds to their blandness. It does the whole horror aimed at supposed horror fans a little to much with it's consistent name dropping of better more influential horror films. Ones that don't use jump scares for the bulk of the scares. Its far to obvious how hard it tries to be scary, and poor Wes craven must think people care so much for the story due to all the red harings that get thrown in near the end.

Overall : 4/10 A horror film that is so full of hipster dialogue and self references that you start not caring.