Scream 4

Wes Craven – 2011 – USA

After a decade’s break, the Scream franchise returns with a… not quite a scream, but not a whimper either.  It’s a fun revisit to the world of the original film as Neve Campbell continues to be victimized by whoever seems to feel like donning the ghost-face costume this week.  None of the sequels, including this one, in my opinion, really needed to be made.  The first one, from 1996, was clever and effective and accomplished pretty much everything it needed to.  In the sequels, director Wes Craven and especially screenwriter Kevin Williamson are far too preoccupied with deconstructing the horror genre.  Unfortunately, even though they acknowledge this with constant winking to the audience, it doesn’t really make the films better, scarier or funnier.  In spite of all of the ironic cleverness, it always boils down to an Agatha Christie-style guessing game as to which character is really the killer.  For fans this is an enjoyable tradition, but I found it pretty uninvolving.