“You forgot the one rule of a remake… Never fuck with the original!” – Sidney Prescott
Here’s a tip for storytellers: if your story can be ruined by knowing the ending in advance, it’s not a good story. I won’t spoil Scream 4, but once you know who lives, who dies, and who Ghostface is, there’s not much reason to return…
“The Scariest Scream is always the last” – Those were the famous last words all over the posters for Scream 3 back in 2000. And here we are 10 years later, with more laughs than screams all over again whilst jumping on to this cash cow and carrying the franchise to a fifth and sixth instalment no doubt.
Neve Campbell returns as protagonist Sidney Prescott, joined by her old friends Special Officer ‘Doofy’, sorry Dewey (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) along with some hot fresh meat thrown in for some thrills and kills. Resident cheerleader superhero Hayden Pain-in-the-ass joins, Emma Roberts and a Culkin brother, not sure which at this time seeing as how they all pretty much the same in an attempt to reboot the franchise into the new iPhone, Social networking obsessed generation.
While the first two films tried to rise above the wide spread clichés of the horror genre, Scream 4 fully embraces them in all of their glory. The films intelligent opening is one of the things that were completely unexpected for me, not that I knew what I was expecting in the first place.
Appearances by Sookie Stackhouse herself Anna Paquin and Kristin Bell completely lived up to the franchises use of A-list celebrities during the opening act. I found the fact in which characters will go out of their way to provide commentary on the latest advances in technology and communication, with repeated stabs at social networking and webcasts thrown into the mix making Scream 4 yet another box office smash for its franchise.
Hearing the word ‘Meta’ thrown around a lot and seeing desperate Gale (Cox) trying to understand it, and get involved in the action is actually hilarious and I actually thought it was genius to play on the fact that technology and the internet have significantly changed and moved on since ‘Scream 3’. 
Cox is back to her absolute best delivering more of Gales famous cuts to poor unprepared rookies which I found was the only major character arc for her throughout the film, her fight to stay relevant plays true to the actress trying to stay relevant in the entertainment industry since her ten year stint on ‘Friends’ which all too apparent. Not to say that I don’t think that she is amazing, but she is completely overshadowed by the amazing Neve Campbell who in my opinion
delivered her most epic performance as troubled Sidney Prescott. How she hasn’t ended up in a mental institution by now after all she has been through is beyond me, and even her first call from Ghost face after 10 years she doesn’t once mutter “Oh shit, not again” like I probably would have, showing off she’s still classy, bad-ass and quick witted as ever.
To conclude, the ending of Scream 4 is clever and highly entertaining, and I enjoyed the revelation of the killer’s identity however not so much their justification. And while there will almost certainly be more Scream films, Scream 4′s conclusion also works well enough that it could serve as a nice series-ender, should they decide to finish it here.
Though… we all know that’s just not going to happen.
