Scream 4 (2011) Review

New Decade. New Rules.

Scream 4 promises "A New Decade. New Rules", which is what prompted me to rewatch and review the entire series. Scream 1 was so original and memorable, based solely on its concept, that the thought of the series (which got stale by part 3) reinventing itself was something I had to see.

Within the first 10 minutes Scream 4 does in fact break all the rules, in unexpected and hilarious fashion. It's an epic intro that's on par with the original intro of Scream 1.

But after that first 10 minutes it slips back into the usual Scream formula, all the way down to the the details surrounding the big reveal.

Scream 4 starts on the anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders, 10 years prior... when it all starts happening again. And the similarities are obvious, Scream 4 is nearly a remake of Scream 1, and Scream 2 by extension, in that the sequence of events as well as the characters almost mirror one another.

But that's not to say it wasn't good. Scream 1 had originality on its side which made it memorable, but Scream 4 was by far the most entertaining. It takes everything you liked from the Scream franchise and injects it with crack. Scream 4 was definitely going for the big grand finale.

There was way more gore than any other film in this franchise, there were too many movie references to count and the killer was by far the most insane and deranged.

Worth Watching?

Yes! If you're a fan of the Scream franchise than this one serves as a big 'ol cherry on top. All of the scream sequels seemed to have just been made to milk the franchise, which I'm guessing was intentional since each sequel makes fun of sequels and Scream 4 in particular made fun of horror franchises that were milked for all they were worth. So, Scream 4 gives you more of what you like plus one last bit of irony that makes this series so great.