SCREAM 4/ SCR4AM 4

US, 2011, 111 minutes. Colour.
Neve Campbell, Emma Roberts, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Mary Mc Donnell, Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, Heather Graham.
Directed by Wes Craven.

Writing a review for a Scream film is like preaching to the converted and, according to box office results, their name is Legion. Non-horror fans will see the title and move on.

So. Wes Craven is a professorial-looking type who has been making horror films for forty years or more. He obviously loves the genre and playing with its conventions. Not only did he make the Scream trilogy, it was he who introduced Freddy Krueger to the world (allegedly named for a boy who bullied Craven at school) to give everyone nightmares on elm street.

It is over a decade since Scream 3. So, why now for Scre4m (which is what the title does on screen, transforming from Scream to Scre4m)? Well, for one thing, why not? But, what has interested Craven over the years is playing with the conventions, drawing the audience attention to them and both utilising them and poking fun at them. But, this is the particular sphere of Kevin Williamson, the writer for the original films and the writer for this one, a clever movie buff indeed.

Most of the characters here are horror movie buffs, the high school students who are wizzes at horror trivia, the heads of the high school’s movie club who hold an annual Stabathon marathon (the 7 movies based on the main character, Sidney Prescott, and what happened to her in the original Scream). Because it is the age of social networking, a Scream film of 2011 has to have internet broadcasting etc. So, there are loads of references to movies and stars (with a dying cop cursing Bruce Willis and the way he can survive police thrillers!) and lots of discussions about what the rules of horror films are and how they can be changed or broken.

Scream 4 is a very amusing exercise in horror cinema deconstruction for movie buffs.

The opening parodies the first film with murders of students who turn out to be watching a Stab film and discussions of the relative merits of Stab and horror before one girl dispatches the other (because she talks too much). We are laughing as the film begins.

For the fans, the main characters are here again (certainly looking a decade older too). Neve Campbell is Sidney Prescott, promoting the book which has served as therapy to get her over her Scream traumas. Former journalist, Gail Weathers (a still acerbic Courtney Cox) who wrote the original books on which the Stab series was based is not too pleased but is happy enough when there are more murders and she teams with the film club managers to solve the murders. Sidney’s publicist is delighted at the increase in murders and potential sales until, of course, she goes the way of the victims. David Arquette is still Sheriff Dewey, married to Gail and trying to cope with the increasing number of deaths.

This time, the central victim seems to be Jill, Sidney’s cousin (Emma Roberts) whom Sidney is at pains to protect – and there are plenty of suspects, especially Dewey’s deputy or Jill’s rejected boyfriend. (Unfortunately, this reviewer missed the main murderer completely! – which means that Willliamson and Craven were very smart with their clues and where they were drawing audience attention.)

Not meant to be taken too seriously (except when we are analysing genres and their rules), there are some frights, some screams, some red herrings, some suspense – and prolonged endings which we may not have been expecting either.

Scre4m will reinforce the converted’s faith.

1. Wes Craven and the horror genre? The appeal, fear, suspense, mystery, nightmares?

2. The 1990s and the original series, the popularity, fresh look at horror films?

3. The conventions, the setup, the attack on a central character, the mask and the knife? The further killings? The range of suspects, victims? The role of the police? The media?

4. The movie connections, the audience knowledge of the horror conventions? The knowing aspect of the film? The 21st century, the changes in film conventions in the 21st century?

5. The prologue, the two watching the film, the films of Sidney – the stab series? The film within the film? The second two girls watching? One killing the other? The Stab series – exploitation? Dewey and his advice? The film clubs at school, the marathons?

6. Sidney Prescott, in all the films, the central character? Her writing the book, exorcising her memories? Coming to the town, Halloween, the signings, the manager of the shop, the publicist, the pushy publicist, exploiting the murders, no sensitivity – and the later threats and the murder of the publicist in the carpark?

7. Sidney and her family, staying with them, the book and its effect, Jill and her mother, Jill’s friends, meeting Dewey and Gale again, staying at the house? Her age, fears, wanting to protect Jill?

8. Jill and her friends, nice, chatting, high school attitudes, classes? At home, Jill’s room, the girlfriends there? The build-up of fear and the deaths? Relying on Dewey? Gale and her interventions? The movie club, the phone calls and textings, the questions about favourite horror films? Sidney protecting her? Her character and the characters of her friends? The terror, the friends being terrorised?

9. The film club, the two running it, their knowledge, geeky? The screenings, the deaths? The audience? The trivia and the quizzes? The texting and the interrogations? The video camera – and the simultaneous network broadcasting?

10. The range of deaths, the terror, the masked figure? Dewey and the police, his assistant, her treatment of Dewey, bringing the cakes? Her being a suspect? At work, the clashes with Gale?

11. Gale, the past, her brittle character, her marriage to Dewey, the bonds between them, at home, the information about the killings, the police edging her out? Her own investigations, the deals with the film club managers, setting up the cameras, recording the deaths? The attack on her, hospital?

12. Jill’s mother, her fears, her murder?

13. The build-up, the fact that there were two killers, the masks, the gowns? Terrorising and pursuing the victims? Interiors, exteriors, in the house?

14. The build-up to the climax, the suspense? Sidney and the attack, her seeming death? The geeks and the death, the revelation?

15. Jill, the audience surprised at her being the central villain? Vicious, her motivations, the violence of her attacks, cutting herself, the setups? In hospital, the innocent attitude? The police?

16. Her hearing that Sidney was alive, in the hospital, coming to her room, the fight, her death?

17. A film for movie buffs and horror buffs? 21st century style?