Scream 4

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Scream was a fresh take on the slasher movie: a knowing jab at its tropes and clichés and its sequels nods and winks to the sequels of slasher franchises. During the hiatus of 3 (2000) and 4 horror has moved into the tacky Torture Porn territory with reboots and belated sequels right behind it. The media too has heralded live streaming, mobile phones and social networking sites so Scream 4 (or Scre4m) looked ripe to bring something new. Director Wes Craven and original writer Kevin Williamson work hard to bully these ideas into Scream 4 and even though we're told it's a 'new decade, new rules' there is nothing 'new' here at all. But if it's a Scream movie you want, then a Scream movie you've got.

It's ten years on (eleven actually but who is counting?) and Sidney (Campbell) returns to Woodsboro for the last stop of her book tour. She's only a few minutes in town when the spooky phone calls begin. Two high school girls are brutally murdered and the killer is honing in on those close to Sidney - namely niece Jill (Emma Roberts) and her friends (Hayden Panittiere and Rory Culkin). Dewey (Arquette), now the town sheriff and married to Gale (Cox), who has since retired from journalism to become a full-time writer, is on the case...

Scream 4 opens with a decent joke that is synonymous with the series. Two girls chat about SAW 4 and that it has 'no character development' but it turns out that this is a scene from Stab 6, which is sequel based on the 'true story' of the events in Scream, which in turn is a scene from Stab 7. Confused? It's all part of the fun. Craven knows when to put aside the fun and games and get down to some serious gore, however: the director isn't shy about splattering the walls with blood and showing us the odd intestines. Characters too openly discuss that the rules of the slasher film have changed since the original Scream (they haven't really, though) and their theories on how to survive today's horror movies are fun to listen to (although we have been here before. Three times in fact).

With many a self-referential gag going on, Scream 4 is a copy of a copy of a copy. Some may get a kick out of that but raising the idea that the horror movie today has 'no element of surprise', as one character laments, does not excuse the fact that your movie has no element of surprise. It can be pretty lazy stuff and characters don't seem too concerned that best friends have just being gruesomely stabbed to death, nor are they overtly worried that they could be next (they go to parties and such). Sidney doesn't even feel the focus of her own story anymore – just the hub with which everything happens around; like a sleeping party host, she's the reason everyone is here but she's not that involved.

Scream 4 does have its moments and the blood-splattered, twisty climax is a treat.